IDENTITY: SOCIAL CLASS

Question 1

What did Macintosh and Mooney state about the upper class?

Answer 1

One key feature of the upper class is their invisibility. The upper class operate ‘social closure’.

Question 2

What did Fox state about the middle class?

Answer 2

Discusses ‘upper middles’, ‘middle middles’ and ‘lower middles’ to highlight key distinctions in the middle class.

Question 3

What did Hutton argue about the working class identity?

Answer 3

Decline in trade union memberships and the manufacturing sector, and the dispersal of working-class communities, has eroded the working class identity.

Question 4

What did Skeggs state about working class women?

Answer 4

Felt humiliated by the ways in which others, such as teachers and doctors, judged and dismissed them due to their working-class background.

Question 5

How does Murray define the underclass?

Answer 5

Over-generous benefits encourage some people to develop a culture in which they do not take responsibility for their own actions.

Question 6

What do Pakulski and Waters suggest about social class and identity?

Answer 6

There has been a shift from production to consumption in the definition of identities - what we buy not what we do.