Class: Patterns and trends

Question 1

Life chances

Answer 1

Life chances = some members of society had much better opportunities than others to achieve the things that are desirable:
1. The chance to live a long and healthy life
2. The chance to achieve good educational qualifications and go on to higher education
3. The chance to have a well-paid job and avoid unemployment
4. The chance to own your own home
5. The chance to go on holidays and enjoy leisure activities
Weber said that the higher someone’s social class, the more opportunities they are to have the desirables.

Question 2

Income affects:

Answer 2

• Food
• Housing
• Transport
• Consumer goods

Question 3

Income definition

Answer 3

the flow of money to a person or household over a period of time

Question 4

Main sources of income

Answer 4

• Earning from employment
• State benefits
• Pensions
• Savings
• Pensions

Question 5

Gini Coefficient

Answer 5

Represents the income distribution of a nation’s residents
0 = complete equality
1 = complete inequality

Question 6

Effects of taxes:

Answer 6

• The government takes more taxes from the rich than the poor.
• More welfare benefits are given to the poor than the rich.
• Direct taxes fall directly on the rich (e.g. income tax)
• Indirect taxes fall heavily on the poor (e.g. VAT and duty on alcohol)

Question 7

Income inequalities are disappearing:

Answer 7

Income has increased for almost everyone in the UK over the last 50 years, means that the rich are richer and the poor are better off.

Question 8

Income inequalities exist

Answer 8

• The rise of the poor’s income has been much slower since the 70’s
• the middle class have enjoyed larger increases and the richest have seen the biggest increase overall
• increasing income isn’t proportional.

Question 9

Wealth definition

Answer 9

measures the economic resources and possessions of a person or household at a fixed point

Question 10

4 ways the ONS define wealth:

Answer 10

• Property wealth = houses/land
• Physical wealth = jewellery/cars
• Financial wealth = money in savings
• Private pension wealth = pension fund

Question 11

Issues with measuring wealth:

Answer 11

• Defining what is counted as wealth isn’t difficult (should state pensions be included as well as private pensions)
• Calculating the value of an asset is difficult (e.g. house prices changing)
• Finding truthful data about wealth is difficult (people try to evade tax)

Question 12

Weberian perspective of work and employment

Answer 12

• The more privileged people are more skilled
• Privileged = high status people with higher level of pay
• Those with less skill have less bargaining power leading to a poorer market situation

Question 13

Marxist perspective of work and employment

Answer 13

• Capitalist employers keep wages down and increase profits which is where the inequalities come from
• Managers are more likely to be highly rewarded because they act as an ‘agent’ by ensuring profits for owners

Question 14

Types of rewards that cause inequality

Answer 14

• Financial rewards = Senior staff often get occupational pensions or longer paid holidays which routine workers don’t get.
• Status = Different uniforms or facilities for different types of workers
• Power and control = More senior staff can control their own working hours and where they work
• Opportunity for advancement = In managerial jobs there is a career ladder that allows progression. Manual jobs often stay at the same level throughout their whole career.
• Job satisfaction = More skilled workers have more skills which can provide satisfaction
• Job security = Manual workers are much more likely to face job losses

Question 15

Absolute poverty

Answer 15

• Lack of essential needs
• (e.g. housing, food, fuel)

Question 16

Limitation of absolute poverty:

Answer 16

But it only looks at physical needs rather than mental needs (e.g. social interaction)

Question 17

Relative poverty:

Answer 17

If someone has a lower income than the majority of society and they are excluded from a normal lifestyle due to being unable to afford it.

Question 18

HBAI:

Answer 18

• Households below average income
• Method for measuring poverty
• HBAI defines low income as being below 60% of the median

Question 19

Limitation of the HBAI:

Answer 19

However, this looks at a cut-off point but not all those exactly on 60% may be so bad off that they should be defined as poor.

Question 20

Mack and Lansley:

Answer 20

• Method for measuring relative poverty
• Asked focus groups what they class as ‘necessities’
• Then asked people how many necessities they couldn’t afford
• Households that couldn’t afford 3 were classed as ‘poor’, those that couldn’t afford 5 were classed as in ‘severe poverty

Question 21

Social mobility:

Answer 21

movement of individuals up or down the social scale

Question 22

2 ways social mobility can be measured

Answer 22

• Intergenerational: mobility between generations
• Intragenerational: movement between classes by an individual during their working life

Question 23

Open society

Answer 23

a society where there a few obstacles to those with talent rising out of their social class (also known as meritocracy

Question 24

Closed society:

Answer 24

little to no social mobility (e.g. the feudal system in the Middle ages

Question 25

Issues with researching social mobility

Answer 25

- Classifying occupations (not all sociologists agree on how this classification should happen) - Studying mobility of women (Most older studies only looked at male social mobility) - Studying mobility of the very rich and very poor (Difficult to identify these groups and they are very closed off) - Studying current patterns of social mobility (Can’t begin to fully understand someone's social mobility until they are in their 40’s, means that different government policies are being analysed)

Question 26

Oxford mobility study:

Answer 26

- Studied by Goldthorpe in 1972 - One of the largest social mobility surveys in the UK - 10,000 men - Used the Hope-Goldthorpe scale to compare the occupational classes of fathers and sons - Calculated the odds of men from two different generations ending up in the service class - 2nd Generation had increased absolute social mobility – the 1:2:4 rule - Rule = whatever chance a working-class boy had of reaching the service class, the intermediate was twice as likely and the service class was 4 times as likely to maintain

Question 27

Reasons for the findings of the oxford mobility study:

Answer 27

- Due to free secondary education in 1944 - Because of a decrease of working-class jobs and increase in intermediate and service class jobs

Question 28

Absolute social mobility:

Answer 28

how much living standards have been raised

Question 29

Relative social mobility:

Answer 29

how likely children are to move from their parents’ place in the social hierarchy

Question 30

Saunders: Limits the Oxford mobility study

Answer 30

- We should focus on absolute not relative mobility - Left-wing bias (presents society as class-ridden and closed) - Assumes that the ability of innate intelligence is evenly across the classes – Saunders thinks that service class children are likely to be more intelligent than working class children

Question 31

NCDS - Savage and Egerton

Answer 31

- Longitudinal study of people from 1958-1991 - They divided results into fathers and sons and fathers and daughters - 40% of sons from intermediate workers moved to the service class - 26% of manual workers moved to the service class

Question 32

Wilkinson and Pickett:

Answer 32

Countries with the highest levels of incomes also have the lowest social mobility