Social stratification: a hierarchy in which groups have different statuses and different levels of privilege
wealth/social class,
A group of people having the same social and economic status
status,
A position that someone has in society
income
power,
The ability to influence people’s behavior
ethnicity
and gender.
Systems of social stratification
Slavery
one group is treated as the legal property of another group
Forced to work, had no freedom
Caste
Closed system traditionally found in India
Ascribed, people inherited their status at birth and had little power to change it
Had to marry within their caste
Inter-caste rituals, purity and contact prohibited because of this idea of ‘pollution’
Estates
Later form in feudal, medieveal, European societies
Ascribed, could not move (however there was intermarriage and some mobility). Were prescribed into:
clergy
nobility/aristocracy
commoners
Ascribed status
A status that is given to individuals by their society group over which they have little or no control over. Includes:
Age
Sex
Ethnicity
Religion
And social class
Are common in tradition societies (predominantly agricultural and not yet industrial), where life chances can mainly be determined at birth
Age
Changes over time
Age brings higher status in most societies especially where youth are meant to look up to elders. For example, adults have a higher status than children
There can be a loss of status when someone retires, discrimination against this can be labelled as ageism (discrimination over age)
Achieved status
A status that individuals acquire through their own effort
Examples
Being upwardly mobile in social class
Converting to a different religion
Occupational stauses
Life chances and why these differ between and within stratified groups.
Life chances are the opportunities that people have to improve their lives
Include opportunities for
Employment
Education
Good health & well-being
Housing
Social mobility
Life expectancy
Which define a person’s quality of life
Affected by the nature of stratification and by norms, values and laws
Laws might limit human and civil rights of groups
Prevents them from improving life chances
Examples:
Apartheid in South Africa (1948-1994), Black South Africans were intensely limited by segregation laws
Segregation in the USA (1960s), Black Americans had to campaign against segregation itself alongside violence like lynching. They also had yet to acquire the right to vote in southern states. This restricted their life chances
Perception of life chances may impact life chances itself
The working class may have a pessimistic attitude towards life/the idea of social mobility/may believe they have little control over what happens to them -> this is fatalism
Marxist theory suggests fatalism is achieved through ‘false consciousness’ that workers have been socialised into accepting that capitalist society is fair
This is a self-fulfilling prophecy
Gratification
Deferred gratification
Being able to implement long-term goals, planning for the future
Immediate gratification
Choosing instant satisfaction rather than waiting for a greater reward in the future
It has been suggested that working-class people are more likely to practice immediate gratification
Life-expectancy
Average number of years people can expect to live
Gender
Women live longer than men (in most modern societies, it’s by about 5 years on average)
Men are more likely to be in high-risk situations
Men often abuse substances (more likely to suffer from disease)
Men’s work exposes them to risks
Some biological reasons
Social class
Working-class people live shorter than the middle-class
Working-class occupations are more dangerous
Working-class people may live in unhealthy environments
Working-class people may be unable to afford healthcare
Ethnicity
Minority ethnic groups tend to be lower on the socio-economic scale thus affected by the same factors as working-class people
There can also be the prevalence of certain health conditions
Racial discrimination to certain services may also be an issue
What are the main features of social inequality and how
are these created?
Wealth and income:
The evidence and reasons for the distribution of wealth and income in different societies and the impact of welfare states and other government measures to reduce inequality.
Wealth
Money, savings and property that can be bought and sold to generate income
The very wealthy do not need to work since their wealth can produce more wealth (shares produce dividends, works of art grow in value). Wealth is also inherited.
UK:
Wealth distributed very unequally
Wealthiest 10 percent of adults own about 40 percent of the wealth
The least wealthy 10 percent own about 1 percent of the wealth
The lowest 40 percent own less than 10 percent
Figures probably underestimate wealth of affluent people
Distribution of wealth: the way in which wealth is distributed
Some forms of wealth are:
Consumer durables
Bank/building society accounts/personal investments
Housing
Pensions
Shares
Income
The sum of earnings from work and other sources
May include:
Pay from employment
Social security/other state benefits
Pensions
Interest on building society & bank accounts
Dividends on shares
Disposable income: income after tax, national insurance and pension contributions
UK:
The people in the top 10 percent get 31 percent of all income in the UK while the bottom 10 percent get solely 1 percent
Inequalities in different countries
Welfare state: the way in which governments try to provide for the less well off and reduce social inequality
In most modern industrial societies there was a trend throughout the 20th century in which there was a reduction of inequality due to the expansion of the welfare state
In the more equal MIS (Japan, Norway, Sweden and Finland) the richest 20 percent are four times richer than the bottom 20 percent
In Singapore this is 10 times, in the US it is 8 times
Wilkinson and Pickett in The Spirit Level (2010)
It doesn’t matter how wealthy a country is, rather how equal/unequal it is
An unequal society scores poorly in:
Physical and mental health and obesity
Educational performance
Levels of violence and other crime and the number of people imprisoned
Lack of opportunities for social mobility
The impact of welfare states
Governments do not see inequalities as an issue, as MIS see themselves as ‘meritocracies’
Meritocracy – a society in which individuals achieve the level that their talents and abilities deserve
All MIS are welfare states to an extent, taxation allows those who are well-off to provide wealth to those who need it.
Welfare may be provided by government or voluntary organisations
What are the reasons for welfare?
Moral
It’s simply wrong to let people suffer in poor conditions while others prosper (supported by world religions which see charity as a virtue)
Political
Welfare is necessary, otherwise the working class will unite in anger against the unjust system that purposefully creates these inequalities
Functionalists see welfare as necessary for maintaining a society’s value system and preventing it from becoming dysfunctional
Contrasting countries
Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Finland)
Tax the wealthy highly (relative to other countries) as to reduce national inequalities
Expanded by putting social democratic parties in power, thus achieving somewhat of a redistribution of wealth/power
USA
Based on the value system of ‘individualism’
Supports people looking after themselves with the support of their family and religion
The welfare state does not have the end goal of reducing inequalities
UK
Started with simply old age pensions and national insurance, greatly enhanced to a free universal secondary education, free national health service, extended benefits and pensions and better and more affordable housing
Some benefits means-tested, some universal
Right-wing politicians argued that welfare state created culture of dependency (a set of values leading people to lose the ability to look after themselves so they become dependant)
Moving closer to the US’ welfare state than UK’s (more benefits are means-tested)
New Right’s perspective on the welfare state
Creates a dependancy culture
Welfare payments are too generous now
Has become supremely expensive
Risk of producing an underclass with a reliance on welfare
System is open to abuse, people can fradulently claim benefits they are not entitled to
The state may become a nanny state when it interferes more than it should
Marxist + left-wing perspective on the welfare state
Softens the harshest impacts of the capitalist economic system and so reduces demands for radical change
Welfare is a form of bribery (makes revolution less likely)
No welfare would be better
Other ways governments try to reduce inequality
Progressive taxation
Subsiding/providing free of charge goods/services
Providing state education
Setting a minimum wage
Equal opportunities legislation – when all people are given the same chances (like when applying for a job) regardless of differences (age/gender/social class)
UK: Equality Act 2010 prevents discrimination based on differencess
Note that sometimes voluntary organisations can be more effective than the government
Barnardo’s spends 200 million pounds per year helping vulnerable children and youth
The problems of defining wealth and poverty.
Who is most likely to live in poverty in a MIS?
Single parent households
Unemployed (esp the long-term unemployed)
Low-paid workers/who do not have the qualifications
Relative poverty: being poor in relation to others in the same society
Absolute poverty: being without some or all of the basic necessities of life such as
Food
Safe drinking water
Sanitation
Shelter
Health
Education
Information
1 billion people live in absolute poverty
Common measure is an income less than 60% of median income
Becomes interweaved with inequality
Poverty can also be calculated from the total costs of necessities
Peter Townsend (Poverty in the UK)
Concluded that necessities changed over time
Poverty line: the level of income below which people are judged to be in poverty
In the UK, under 20% of people are in poverty (using the 60% definition). The impoverished population has doubled during the 1980s but has fallen due to measures like the minimum wage
The causes of poverty
Main reasons for poverty include
Not having paid work
Being in low-paid work
Receiving benefits that still leave people below the poverty line
Being born into poverty
The cycle of poverty – when people poverty tends to be inherited so the new generation cannot escap the poverty of their parents (has to be for at least three generations)
A child born into poverty is unlikely to be able to get the skills and qualifications to be socially mobile compared with children not born in poverty
Poor children do not have the resources to succeed
Tend to lack social/cultural capital as well as money
Children of wealthy parents are likely to become wealthy adults
Poverty trap: When poor people are unable to escape from being poor
People have to spend a lot just to maintain their standard of living:
Poor cannot travel, have to shop local which is expensive
Cannot afford to buy in bulk
Cannot insulate their homes, pay for fuel
Buy poor quality/second-hand goods that must be replaced
Cannot afford facilities that would enable them to take up opportunities (like paying for a babysitter to work more hours)
Cannot borrow from a bank so must take loans from loansharks/those who charge high interest rates
One explanation of the cycle of poverty is the ‘culture of poverty’
Culture of poverty: when poor people have a set of valued that keep them in poverty. Associated characteristics are:
Having low levels of literacy and education
Being unable to plan for the future
Desiring immediate gratification rather than deferring it
Fatalism
Feeling marginalised/dependant on others
Not using resources and facilities such as banks/hospitals
Critiques of the culture of poverty
Poor people have the same sets of values as the rest of society
Wrongly blames the poor for their situation (some characteristics are not the fault of those in poverty)
Participates in social exclusion, which is when people who are unable to take part in society in the same way as most people are excluded from social goods such as
Housing
Employment
Healthcare
Transport
Welfare may contribute to social exclusion as claimants are increasingly stereotyped and marginalised
Social exclusion can be apart of the poverty trap because the social support that can help people move out of poverty is missing
Sociological theory
Ideas regarding poverty
Functionalism
Inequality is positive, functional for the whole societySociety has to reward some more than othersPoverty means unpleasant/poorly paid jobs will be done (as the poor have no choice)Society is reminded of the importance of hard work, honesty and a stable family lifeWarns them of the consequences of straying from these valuesIncreases social solidarity among those who are not poor
Marxism
Inequality/poverty are the inevitable consequences of capitalismCapitalists will steal surplus value, pay workers as little as possibleWill try to bring in automation to save labour costsThus wages fallCapitsalist also must have a reserve army of labour (people who are employed when an economy is booming or when they are needed but then are out of work when they are not required)
The New Right
Use the culture of poverty argument to blame the poor for being poor Poverty is caused by culture rather than the structure of society (direct disagreement with Marxists
Feminism
There are higher proporitons of women in poverty (feminisation of poverty) caused by lone mothers women being paid less than average than men because women have more limited employment opportunities
the consequences of being rich or poor in a global context.
In a global context: poverty is defined by living on less than 1.25 dollars a day (1.2 people live below this line, an improvement from 1990)
Developing countries experience stark inequalities
India’s richest man, Mukesh Ammbani (wealth of $27 billion) owns a 27-storey home in the same city people live in slums
Poor people face many risks, like:
Those in slums have no security, facilities or services. City authorities might bulldoze their homes at any point
Those in rural ares do not have access to health/education/other services
Political instability (civil wars/conflict) often affect the poor the most, the wealthy can afford to escape
Areas in which the poor live in are at risk of flooding, landslips and pollution
Climate change impacts the poor the worst because they cannot escape from rising sea levels
In contrast, the wealthy do not, for example:
Share cosmopolitan lifestyles based on the consumption of luxury goods and services
Use private transport
Live in gated communities
Go to exclusive clubs/restaurants/resorts
Leslie Sklair suggests there is a new transnational capitalist class (a global bourgeoise in Marxist terms) that consists of the following main groups:
owners/controllers of transnational corporations
politicans/bureaucrats (working for the UN and other global orgs)
Professionals
Consumerist elites
Ethnicity:
Sociologists barely use the term race as it’s a faulty way to differentiate people, mainly because it’s an ascribed status
Racial prejudice: beliefs that another racial group is inferior in some way
Institutional racism: when the way that an organisation works has racist results even when individuals do not intend this
Examples of racial prejudice in the past:
The Apartheid: the stratification in South Africa until 1994 based on keeping racial groups apart
The stratification was ensured through legislation, where people had different places of work, and access to health and education services
Services for Black South Africans were inferior, they also had few political rights
Sociological Theory
Views on Ethnicity
Functionalism
Functionalism is a social theory based on consensus, thus it sees dysfunctional issues in society such as racial or ethnic struggles as temporary, occuring during immigration.Newly arrived immigrants need to be assimilated and will do so overtimeThese are the aspects of assimilation:Socioeconomic statusImmigrants are typically going to be participating in low-paid/unskilled work but over time get paid betterUnskilled worker – workers who need no or minimal training to perform their workResidential concentrationNewly-arrived immigrant groups typically live together, over time this changes as they become more spread outLanguage attainmentNewly arrived immigrant speaks mother tongue best, second generation is bilingual and third generation prefers host country’s languageIntermarriageOvertime it becomes harder to spread initial culture to next generation as intermarriage between ethnicities occursDiscrimination may make it impossible for immigrants to improve their socio-economic status, so immigrants may assert their own culture further and/or immigrants’ position worsens and they experience downward mobilityFunctionalists see assimilation as necessary for consensus
Marxism
Race is apart of capitalist ideologyUsed to justify mistreatment of particular groups of workersThe elite/bourgeois convince the working class that their problems like unemployment are caused by immigrants, scapegoating these groups, this is part of false consciousnessScapegoating: when individuals or groups are blamed and sometimes punished for something which is not their faultStrengthens the position of the ruling class and makes the revolution less likely, racism is in the interest of the ruling class.Minority ethnic groups can also form a reserve army of labourThey are vulnerable to exploitation
The New Right
The underclass: Separate from the working class by a structural break, from right-wing writers it is characterised by:Multiple instances of deprivation (low income, unemployment, poor housing, poor education, racial discrimination for minorities)Social marginality (lack the average means of voicing grievances/exercising power/are less likely to vote/less aware of their rights as compared to the indigenous working class)A culture of fatalism and despair (feel alienated and are suspicious of authority (the police, etc)Dependency on the welfare stateThe underclass may also be made up of single-parent households and old people depending on state pensions to survive and some see ethnic minorites themselves as part of the underclassSome right-wingers see the underclass as a black phenomenonCharles Murray (USA) argues that African-Americans are on average ‘less intelligent’ than other Americans and that their culture leads to births outside marriage, single parenthood and the inadequate socialisation of boysAssociated with criminality/violence/drug-takingThe British have mass concern over immigration which is interlinked with nationalism, the dominant culture is being threatened as it is interweaved with being British. The dominant culture is selective and owes less to history than to made up ideals in culture.
Examples of racial prejudice and discrimination in education,
Teachers are likely to be from the majority group and may stereotype those from the ethnic minority as lazy/deviant
The curriculum may be biased towards the majority especially their history and culture
employment
Applicants for jobs may face discrimination
May not be choosed for an interview due to their name even if they are a good candidate
May not get the opportunity of training courses or promotions
and housing.
Ethnic minorities are not given priority when it comes to local government’s stock housing for rent
Privately owned housing may create informal segregation as members of ethnic minorities may not be made welcome
Gender:
Effect of gender on the life chances of males and females, with particular reference to gender discrimination in employment.
Sex is the most basic ascribed status
All societies are to some extent patriarchal – men have a higher status and more power than women
How do women’s life chances differ?
Women have a triple burden of work
They work for an income in MIS/do domestic labour/take on emotional work (the care of children)
Women earn far less than men, even for the same work
Women’s health differs, pregnancy and childbirth can be serious risks to women’s health when health services are poor (especially worse when married young like in developing countries)
Women experience violence – domestic violence, female genital mutilation
Abortion of female fetuses because of a preference of males
Girls are less likely to receive a complete education in developing countries
Girls are more likely to marry young
Women are more likely to be in poverty
Women live longer (5 years longer)
The changing role of women in modern industrial societies
Women play a greater part of the workforce in the current day
The traditional role of housewife and mother is now combined with paid work
Men have taken over some part of domestic labour and childcare as well
Women still face discrimination in employment
Women are more likely to work part time
Have to spend time away for childbirth and this can impact available opportunities for promotion
Experience role conflict between the demands of their family and work
and explanations of gender discrimination.
Liberal feminists
More concerned with getting equal rights with men
And the need to overcome prejudice and discrimination through legislation and changes in our lives
Radical feminists
See a basic conflict between men and women and see all societies as patriarchial
Male power is deeply embedded in society and that radical changes are needed to change this
Some radical feminists state that women should live seperately from men
Marxist/socialist feminists
Combine Marxist and feminist views
See the exploitation of woemn as an aspect of the class structure of capitalism
Employers use women as a reserve army of labour
Male workers try to exclude women from skilled work
Husbands benefit from their wives’ unpaid work
Radical feminists see patriarchy as the problem but Marxist feminists see this as both the patriarchy and capitalism
Black feminism
Some Black women have formed their own groups distinct from the main feminist movement in reaction to the assumption by some feminists that all women are in the same exploited situation
They see racism and ethnicity as part of the explanation of the situation of ethnic minority women
Men tend to assume that women achieved equality in the 20th century, and that gender was of no concern anymore. Some feel as if feminism has gone too far and others believe the main goals have been achieved.
Feminists know that feminism is being seen as widely negative, there is growing backlash in the media and many scare stories
In employment
There were defined roles in pre-industrial societies. During industrialisation, the factory replaced the family for production. During this, the role of the woman became the supervision and care of children.
The Mines Act of 1842 stopped women working in coal mines
The dominant ideology of the Victorian era was that women should stay at home
Men in work began to see women as rivals and women were excluded from trade unions
Women, as a result, were pushed into the housewife role
World War One onwards women began to return to employment
There was an extension of their legal and political rights
The right to vote (1928)
Ann Oakley says the effects of industrialisation were the following:
Men were separated from the daily domestic routine
Women and children became economically dependent on men
Housework and childcare became isolated from other work
Towards the end of the 20th century, working women increased. This was due to:
The influence of feminist ideas and dissatisfaction with the housewife role
Women valued the role of worker during World War Two
The changes in the socialisation of girls meant more girls wanted to work
Skills and jobs typically associated with women became more numerous and more valued
Laws preventing sex discrimination
Employers valued their female staff further
The reprisal of female role models
Vertical segregation: occupying different levels within a hierarchy
Most teachers are women but men tend to be head teachers and senior managers (schools in UK)
Horizontal segregation: differences in the number of people from different groups in different occupations
Women tend to have different occupations from men (secretarial, nursing, primary school teaching jobs are held by women)
Gendered division of labour: the way that societies expect women to be responsible for some tasks (such as cleaning and preparing food) and men for others.
Women are more likely than men to work part time and more married than unmarried women work part time
Childless women are the most likely to work and women with children under the age of five are the least linely to do so.
The proportion of women returning to work after having children has greatly increased
The time taken off after childbirth has greatly fallen
Women are more likely to return to work between the birth of their children
More women see having paid work as a normal part of married life although many still see mother hood as their main responsibility
Two laws in the UK to note
The Equal Pay Act (1970)
Women were entitled to the same pay as men if they were doing similar/the same work or if a job evaluation scheme showed their work was of equal value
The Act was strengthened in 1984 to conform with the rest of Europe
The Sex Discrimination Act (1975)
Barred discrimination on the grounds of sex in employment, educationa and the provision of goods and services
Women were to be given equal access to jobs and equal chances of promotion (but some types of jobs were excluded)
Maternity leave & pay reduced the loss of income women experienced when they had children
Ensured that after having children women could return to their work expecting the same pay and same job
Despite these advances, women still face a glass ceiling
Glass ceiling: the unseen barrier that seems to prevent women from achieving the highest positions at work
Women who apply for promotions are not seen as serious candidates
Women see appointing women as a risk
The appointments are made by men who are often sexist
The men ruling the company may not want women to work alongside them as women are ‘different’
A woman may be seen as a threat
Men may believe due to family responsibilities that a woman may not be able to give a job her all
Ryan and Haslam saw that women who broke through the glass ceiling saw their experiences as different than men’s
They were more likely to be in jobs with high risk where they would fail
Like being appointed to run companies or sectors that were already deteriorating
This could be seen a ‘glass cliff’
Consequences of gender inequalities at work
There are marked gender differences in earnings, women have considerably lower occupational pensions
Women are more vulnerable to povertFy. This is true of women that are breadwinners/heads of their households
Since the 1990s there has been a notable inequality between sexes
Explanations of gender inequalities at work
Discontinuous careers due to childbirth
Usually the secondary breadwinner
Less geographically mobile than men
Large reserve of employable women keeps wages down
Cultural ideas that men should not be subordinate to women
Sociological perspective
Views on gender inequalities at work
Functionalist
Due to a lack of commitmentWomen are less likely to be in continuous employmentFunctionalists cannot explain why women who do work continuously end up as subordinates
Dual Market Theory
Stresses the limitations on women’s opportunities and the gendered division of labor
Marxist + Marxist feminists
Ideas of deskilling and reserve army of laborDeskilling: those that used to require skills and initiative but no longer do so (typists used to be special, now they’re not)Reserve army of labor: explains how women were able to enter the workforce during two world wars to take up jobs previously held by men who were away in the armed forcesMarxists cannot explain horizontal segregation or how women remained in the workforce even in economic recessions
Radical feminists
Women’s position at work is another example of the patriarchySociety fails to offset women’s disadvantages By funding childcare facilities betterLike functionalists, see disadvantages originating in the home:Marriage and motherhood reduce women’s chances of success in paid work
Men
Sylvia Walby argues women are seen as a deviant minority as men may be seen as gender neutral (we assume we are talking about men unless we specify)
Barbara Ehrenreich argues some men rejected conventional masculine gender roles even before women began to reject feminine roles in the 1970s
Men rejected the role of breadwinner, the rat race and the early road to a heart attack and looked for a more fulfilling life
Traditional, conventional male roles are hard to follow for the following reasons:
The decline of the manufacturing industry
Fewer examples of traditional working-class male work
Violence against women and children has become widely condemned
Men’s role in the family is being questioned
Masculinity has been brought into question
The dominance of the white, heterosexual man has been subdued
Rutherford states the following reactions to the above:
Retributive man
Reasserts traditional masculinity
Trying to go to the past
New man
Men acknowledging their emotions
Sharing domestic work with their partner
Taking a greater role in fatherhood
Social class:
Ways of defining and measuring social class.
Sociological perspective
Explanations on class
Functionalist
Kingsley Davis and Wilber E. Moore argue that social class is inevitable in any complex modern societyA society has a common value system Individuals can be ranked, a stratification system emergesWestern capitalist societies value individual achievement, efficiency and productionClass has a functionLeaders and ruling class is necessary and they must be rewarded according to the value placed on what they doConflict may be caused but is kept in check by a widely accepted common value systemJustifies the unequal distribution of wealth, income and powerOrder and stability are good and any attempt to alter the situation is bad. Redistributing the wealth is misguided and dangerous.
Marxist
Karl Marx (1818-1883) saw class as the defining feature of MISHe wrote about two classes defined by their relationship to the means of production (whatever produces wealth)The bourgeoise owned the means of production, the state ruled on their behalfthe proletariat or working class owned nothing but their ability to work. They had to become wage slaves and were not fully aware of their social situation as they were taught the system they were raised in was fair (false consciousness)Marx believed that the working class would eventually revolt against the unjust system so governments tried to reduce inequalities in fearMarx also acknowledged a middle class but argued this would disappear over time as members were socially mobile or move downwardThere was also the lumpenproletariat like criminals and beggersErik Olin Wright (USA) sees a division between the capitalist class and working class. He argues that there are three dimensions of controlControl of investmentControl of the physical means of productionControl of labour powerThe bourgeoisie control all these things and the working class control nothing, but some are in contradictory class locations. They have control of one area but not others, this is close to the Weberian view.
Weberian
Similarities to MarxismClass is situated in the economic structure of societiesBoth are conflict approachesWeber believed there were more social classes than Marx did. Weber thought that the people in the middle class were to grow as well.He distinguished between market situation (the economic position of a group of workers in relation to others) and the work situation (the extent and ways in which an occupation is controlled or authority is exercised)Class, status and power do not always go togetherStatus groups compete against each otherAn individual’s position on the ladder involves not only income but also their status
Feminism
The idea that we should continue gender blind class studies has been contested by many sociologists, including StanworthMichelle Stanworth argues that there are many societies and households in which a woman’s income is vitalThere are societies where women are the only breadwinner, there are dual-class familiesA radical view is that instead of devising ways to measure class that take account of more women, we should change our ideas of classSylvia Walby argues that married women are in a dual class position Husbands exploit the domestic work of their wives and in another at work
Measuring Class
There is no agreement on the best way of measuring class
However, factors that should be taken into account are the following:
Wealth
Income
Housing
Occupation
Level of education
Status
Lifestyle
The most common of these factors are occupation. Occupational structure: the hierarchy of occupations in a society
Occupations are manual (blue-collar, physical work) or non-manual (white-collar, mental work)
The UK’s Registrar General Scale
Dated
There are fewer semi-skilled and unskilled manual jobs
Based on male breadwinner idea
Standard Occupational Classification/International standard classification of occupation is used nowadays
All occupational scales have these problems:
Usually miss out on important groups at both ends
Miss out on important aspects of inequality
Miss out on people having different sources of income
Miss out on the idea of families living together and more than one wage-earner
Should women’s classification be based on own employment or that of their partner?
The Upper Class
The upper class: the highest class in society that is wealthy enough to not need to work
Peter Sanders argues that the upper class is too small to count as a class but most sociologists disagree
Giddens suggests three groups in the upper class:
The landowning aristocracy (e.g. royal family)
The jet-set or pop aristocracy (e.g. old money families)
The entrepreneurial rich (e.g. new money)
Giddens also says the 1% owners of wealth in the UK form the upper-class
Westgaard and Resler (1970s, Class in a Capitalist Society) argued the upper class was made up of between 5% and 10% of the population
They included directors, top managers, senior civil servants and higher professionals on the grounds that these people are often large shareholders of companies
Old boys’ network: High-ranking politicians especially in the conservative party who tend to be from the same high class self-recruiting backgrounds
The Middle Class
How is the middle class divided?
The petty bourgeoisie/old middle class: small business owners, landlords and small farmers. Marx expected this group to disappear
The upper middle class: The professionals, managers. Weber describes these people as ‘intelligentsia and specialists’ and high income derives from education
The lower middle class: service sector jobs, foremen and nurses, sometimes referred to as white-collar workers
Has undergone downward block mobility, a decline in status and pay relative to other groups.
Has become larger and feminised (pink-collar), perhaps maybe proletarianised
Giddens states that there is only one middle class, clearly distinguishable from the upper class.
Other sociologists look at political differences between the middle classes. The petty bourgeoisie tends to be more conservative than professionals
The proletarianisation debate
The groups that have been proletarianised (used to be middle class but are now part of the working class). Jobs that have been proletarianised are:
Clerical and administrative workers in offices
Shop and sales workers
Sometimes teachers
These jobs used to carry more status.
Since then the gap between working class and lower middle class has narrowed
Braverman and other writers claim that the latter have been proletarianised, if this is true, the working class is the largest class and the real middle class is relatively small. There may still be a possibility of revolutionary change
New working class: the supposed new class formed by lower middle-class workers merging with the traditional working class
What does proletarianisation involve?
Formerly middle class jobs have lower status
Middle class wages falling (relatively)
Conditions of employment changing (benefits)
Jobs having less autonomy (managers have more control)
Automation (fewer jobs with less skill)
Workers in these jobs view themselves as working class and may join trade unions
What is the evidence of proletarianisation?
Clerical work has been deskilled
Wages for such work have fallen relatively
But still advertised as being skilled
Enjoy greater job security, pleasant working environment and have pensions
Men have better chance of moving up the career ladder
Women are held back by domestics
This may mean that women’s work has been proletarianised whereas men’s work hasn’t been
The Working Class
Divided into three categories:
Skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled
Automation means less manual work
There has been a shift towards the service sector and white-collar economy
Growing affluence has changed working-class culture and ways of life but this is not the same change in its class situation
The embourgeoisement debate
Embourgeoisement: the theory that the higher levels of the working class are becoming middle class
An anti-Marxist view
If class divisions are disappearing, there will be no class conflict or revolution
Based around living standards rising in Europe during the 1950s-1960s
The underclass
At the bottom of society, included older workers who lost their jobs, farm workers moving into industrial work, casual and irregular employment, the disabled who cannot work and the lumpenproletariat
There is no agreement from sociologists about who the underclass is, the term only began being used in the 1980s
In the USA it is identified with ethnic minorities
In the UK it is used to identify several groups, like
Long-term unemployed
Dependant on state pensions
Dependant on benefits
Disaffected teenagers without qualifications/prospects
Marxists prefer not to use the term at all, it’s been criticised because it is:
Vague
Blames the underclass for their situation
Lumps together too many wide groups of people
Excludes those suffering the most from the working class
Implies the underclass is stable (it’s a temporary experience)
Charles Murray (USA, New Right) states the signs of an emerging underclass are as follows
A growth in illegitimancy
A rising crime rate
The unwillingness to take jobs (related to state benefits)
Many sociologists are actually sympathetic to the underclass
The nature, extent and significance of social mobility.
Social mobility: the movement of individuals or groups from one class to another, what are the types?
Upward social mobility
Downward mobility
Block mobility (the movement of a whole class/occupational group)
Individual mobility
Intergenerational mobility: movement between classes in society from one generation the the next so that when a child grows up she is in a different class from her parents
Intragenerational mobility: movement between classes within one generation so that an individual is born into one class and moves into another
Open society: a society in which it is possible to move easily from one class to another
Factors that lead to social mobility include:
Getting education and qualifications
Getting promotions and opportunities to advance career
Marrying someone of a different class
Changes in wealth through inheritance/lotteries
Sociological perspective
View on social mobility
Marxist
A sort of safety valve, if we lived in a closed system completely the working class would revolt and chances of class conflict would increase
New right
It is natural that most middle-class positions will be taken by those from the middle class originsAssumes that intelligence is inherited (very controversial)Opposition claims that the present system prevents a lot of talent from being realised leading to a waste of human resources
Oxford Mobility Study
Long-range social mobility rates had increased in the UK since after World War Two, suggesting that class categories and society had become more open.
However, it was suggested that this increase could have been due to changes in the occupational structure of the UK; de-industrialisation had led to fewer traditional working class jobs.
Does not acknowledge upper class
Less research on female social mobility, does not look into the glass ceiling
Is class still important?
The idea that we are all middle class now
Consumption has become more important that production in shaping our identities
The idea of meritocracy
The idea that class has overtaken by other inequalities like gender/ethnicity/age
