1a - Contemporary patterns and trends of inequality and difference in relation to social class, in particular in the workplace.

Question 1

Evidence of social class inequality/ how are the wealthy advantaged? How are the working class disadvantaged? - Crime

Answer 1

• The Islington Crime Survey shows those living in inner cities are much more likely to be victims of crime than the national average. 42% of burglaries happen to homes of those belonging to the poor.
• Hall et. al. – the working classes are used as scapegoats by the media (black men – mugging) via a process of labelling/moral panics. This distracts away from the real problems in Capitalism.
• Cicourel – Police were more likely to stop and search youths from low income estates leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy.
• Snider – the state is reluctant to pass laws which disadvantage corporations so the middle classes are rarely subject to the same levels of control and policing as the working classes.
• Hood suggests that judges are more likely to be lenient where the accused is ‘similar to them’. Judges are overwhelmingly white, middle aged, middle class and male.

Question 2

Evidence of social class inequality/ how are the wealthy advantaged? How are the working class disadvantaged? - Education

Answer 2

• Children born to parents in the bottom class have a 1% chance of going to university, whereas 80% of those in the top class go.
• Gillies – middle class mothers have more time and cultural capital which they use to advantage their children in terms of education. This leads to higher educational achievement for the middle class. There is a direct correlation between social class and educational qualifications gained, and school leaving age. The lower down the class scale the more likely you are to leave school at 16 and have fewer qualifications.

Question 3

Evidence of social class inequality/ how are the wealthy advantaged? How are the working class disadvantaged? - health

Answer 3

• The Acheson Report found that, among professionals, 17% (men) and 25% (women) reported a long-standing illness. Among unskilled workers, the figures were 48% (men) and 45% (women).
• Life expectancy at birth has increased over the past 30 years among all social classes, but the greater gains have been made by the middle classes. The life expectancy gap between professionals and unskilled manual males is 7.4 year. (The Guardian 2009)
• Unskilled manual workers are twice as likely to die before men in the professional classes.

Question 4

Evidence of social class inequality/ how are the wealthy advantaged? How are the working class disadvantaged? - employment

Answer 4

• Unemployment rates are about four times higher among unskilled workers than among professional groups
• Elite Theory from Neo-Marxists suggests that the ruling class elite use elite schools to get into elite univeristies and then use social networking to gain employment in elite jobs
• Goldthorpe and Lockwood argued that the working class were increasingly instrumental in their attitude to work. In comparison to the professional middle classes they were less likely to gain satisfaction and status from their jobs, instead seeing them as a means to an end. The days of fraternity and unity within traditional working class jobs (e.g. mining) are gone.

Question 5

Evidence of social class inequality/ how are the wealthy advantaged? How are the working class disadvantaged? - - Identity / relationships

Answer 5

• Hey – working class girls are more likely to be controlled by their peers with regard to sexual behaviour and judged by their looks, whereas middle class girls have more sexual liberation due to their higher levels of social status and power.
• Young and Wilmott – middle class women are more likely to have escaped domestic drudgery as more likely to be in symmetrical families.
• Jackson – Working class youth are more likely to fall into rebellious peer groups of lads and ladettes which lead to underachievement in education.