Being knowledgeable

about social class

 Today’s Plan
• In the seminar last week, we started to think about how our food choices
are shaped by social class, but what do we mean by social class?
• Social class is a form of social stratification
• All societies are stratified, but they vary in form and underlying rationale
• Today, we will: explore some definitions of social class; look at how
social class impacts on our life chances; begin to explore the polarisation
between the top and bottom strata: the elite and the precariat
Forms of stratification
 Social Class is a ‘modern’ form of
stratification
• Social class is often regarded as the economic basis of
social position and standing
• This idea underpins the ideas of Karl Marx, in his
famous work the Communist Manifesto
Marx on classes in capitalism
• Capitalism creates 2 main
classes, defined by their
relationship to production:
• the Bourgeoisie: owners of the
means of production
• the Proletariat: (compelled to be)
sellers of labour power
Marx on classes in capitalism
‘our epoch, the epoch of the
bourgeoisie, possesses … this
distinctive feature: it has
simplified the class antagonisms.
Society is more and more splitting
up into two great hostile camps,
into two great classes directly
facing each other: bourgeoisie
and proletariat.’
Communist Manifesto p36
 Disney meets the communist manifest
The ‘manifestoon’
• Pause the video and watch this clip. The sound is not perfect, but it is
worth persevering
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KUl4yfABE4
• Economically defined social class Weber on class
only part of the stratification story –
also important are ‘status’ and
‘party’
• Class is determined not merely by
your relation to the factors of
production, but also by…
• Your position within the labour
market (some skills and qualifications
are more valuable than others)
• Your relationship to consumption –
both levels of income and the ‘style of
life’ you choose
Pierre Bourdieu on Class
Class is partly linked to the economy
economic capital
• Lifestyle and consumption are important
cultural capital
• As are Friends and Networks
social capital
• Do not forget Status/ Reputation
symbolic capital
• And last but not least; Physical Attributes
- Embodied capital

https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ph
ilosophy/works/fr/bourdieu-forms-capital.htm
 Social class
• Class position is generally
measured by occupation in the UK.
• The Office of National Statistics
Socio-Economic Classification (NS-
SEC) is developed from sociological
classifications;
• There’s a 5 class version of the class
system in the UK, with some sub-
categories;
• Upper classes can be added to this
categorisation but not by occupation
 Registrar General’s Class Scheme

This is a helpful way to measure social class.

But there are problems with this classification?
What is missing?
Unemployed?
What about differences in earnings across occupations –
academics and electricians?
How does social class as a ‘public structure’
shape our personal lives?
Life expectancy by social class
HE participation rate
Mike Savage et al on class 2013/2019
• Incorporated Bourdieu’s insights
• 160,000 respondents to Great British Class survey
• 7 million hits
• Questions about leisure, cultural taste, friends, income,
wealth……..
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22000973
 The Headline Results: Seven Classes
Elite 6% Established mc 25% Technical mc 6% New affluent workers 15%

Emerging service workers 19%

Traditional wc 14%
Precariat 15%

Clear POLARISATION between top and bottom with

identification of advantaged ELITE and a disadvantaged
PRECARIAT
 
Elite Establish New Technical Tradition Emergen Precariat
ed affluent middle al t service
middle workers classs working workers
class class
Household
income
£89 082 £47 184 £29 252 £37 428 £13 305 £21 048 £8 253
Household
savings
£142,458 £26 090 £4 918 £65 844 £9 500 £1 138 £793

House value
£325 000 £176834 £128 639 £163 362 £127 174 £17 968 £26 948

Social contact
score
50.1 45.3 37.8 53.5 41.5 38.3 29.9

Social contact
number
16.2 17.0 16.9 3.6 9.8 14.8 6.7

Highbrow
16.9 13.7 6.9 9.2 10.8 9.6 6.0
cultural
capital
Emerging
14.4 16.5 14.8 11.4 6.5 17.5 8.4
cultural
capital
The ‘pulling away’ of the top
 The sociological importance of ‘top end effects’
Percent who Know a… by Income
90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
5 0 0 5 0 0 5 0 0 5 0 0 5 0 0 5 0 0 5 0 0 5 0 0 5 0 0 5 0 0 5 0 0 5 0 0 5 0 0 5 0 0 5 0 0 5 0 0 5 0 0 5 0 0 5 00 5 00 00 0 00 0 0 0 0
2 7 1 2 1 7 2 2 2 7 3 2 3 7 4 2 4 7 5 2 5 7 6 2 6 7 7 2 7 7 8 2 8 7 9 2 9 7 25 75 2 5
1 1 2

Chief executive Sales Shop Assistant Factory worker Aristocrat/noble

Where the top earners live,
controlling for population
 The Elite
Elitist Britain? Report by Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission
(2019)
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploa
ds/attachment_data/file/347915/Elitist_Britain_-_Final.pdf
• There appears to be a stronger relationship between parental background
and children’s future income in Britain than in many other countries
‘The old class war may be
over: the new politics of
class is just beginning. The
widening fracture
between the wealthy elite
and the rest is a huge
threat to our social fabric’
 The precariat/ underclass
• Poverty
• Stigma
• ‘Demonisation’ of the working class?
 Owen Jones on Chavs

• Challenges myth we are all middle class

now
• Suggests working class have been
demonised- negative imagery abounds: in
the media, in cultural attitudes
• Ignores the ‘plight’ of w/c
• We pick this up in the seminar. You will
• Chav ‘now encompasses any negative need to read a chapter by Owen Jones, but
traits associated with the working you might find the whole book interesting
class’ (2011:8)
 Seminar: Social class and polarisation:
Chavs and Toffs?

Read Owen Jones

Read : http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/85160/1/The%20rich_Final.pdf
Read: https://discoversociety.org/2018/10/02/britains-elites-new-lions-old-foxes/
Conclusions