Paper 2 Social Class Flashcards
What is income
The flow of money to a person
How is information on income gathered
Family resources survey- ran by government on living conditions
Annual survey of hours and earnings- shows hours worked by employees in all jobs
British household survey- interviews every adult in the household that works
What did the High pay centre find in 2012
Found companies on the London stock exchange has increased wages by 49% compared to the 3% increase their employees received
What do functionalists and new right say about social class and income
Say unequal rewards are beneficial for society to ensure most talented are encouraged to work hard and use their abilities
What do Marxists and weberians say about social class and income
Believe company owners choose their own salary
What is wealth
A stock concept
How does the ONS define wealth
Physical wealth
Property wealth
Financial wealth
Private pension wealth
What did the annual Sunday times rich list say in 2012
The richest 200 families had between them a total wealth averaging £225 billion
Why is wealth difficult to measure
Defying what should be counted as wealth is difficult
Calculating value difficult
People hide their wealth
How much wealth do the poorest 50% have between them
10%
What did Atkinson say in 2013
Found that lots of incomes comes from inherited wealth
Shows that wealth doesn’t come from working
What do weberian sociologists say about social class and work
Believe more privileged workers tend to be in more skilled/high status occupations
What do Marxist sociologists say about social class and work
Believe inequalities come from employers keeping wages down and profits up
What does white the child poverty action argue
3.5 million in poverty today
What is absolute poverty
Lack of basic essentials needed to survive
What is relative poverty
So little money they are excluded from a normal lifestyle
What did Mack and Lansley do in 1985
Measured poverty by asking different groups what they regarded as necessities in their lives
Items rated 50% or more were seen as necessities
Over time this list has gotten bigger
In 2012 how many households were in poverty
33% compared to 14% in 1983
What is social mobility
Movement up or down a social class
What is inter generational mobility
Between generations
What is intragenerational mobility
Between social class during their working life
What does lots of social mobility suggest
An open society
Those with talent and if they work hard can move up a social class
What does a little amount of social mobility suggest
A closed society
If you are born into a social class there is no way of getting out of it
Why is it hard to research social mobility
People do not agree on what occupation is what social class
Very wealthy may not even work e.g royal family
Women used to be ignored from studies in the past
What was Goldthorpes study in 1972
He sampled 10000 men and he found that after ww2 there had been lots of upward social mobility
How was Goldthorpes study criticised
Saunders and new right sociologists said everyone had the opportunities to achieve
Feminists said that Goldthorpes study had far too much focus on men
What were the results of Savage and Egerton study
Involved women
- working class comities to get smaller giving more opportunity to them
- however 55% of men who originated from working class stayed there
- women from working class are more likely to move up compared to men
Why is functionalism a consensus theory
It suggests society works best when there is an agreement
What does Parsons believe
Believe that social stratification reflects this consensus value
What is social stratification
The way different people are placed within a society usually based on wealth and income
What does Parsons say about individuals in society
Some individuals are better than others at achieving things
Why does Parsons say CEOs and owners should deserve the highest rewards
They contribute to the smooth running of society by creating jobs
What do Davis and Moore say the main function of social stratification is
Ensure right role allocation and performance of people
What is functional uniqueness
Only one person or a small number can carry out that role
What is the degree of dependence of others
Someone who makes lots of decisions, gives orders to staff
Who does Tumin critique
Davis and Moore
Why does Tumin critique Davis and Moore
How can you say one position is more important
Power and rewards- some people get paid due to their power not because they deserve it
Pool of talent- others may not have had the opportunity to do top jobs
What does Tumin believe about social stratification
Causes problems as not everyone has the same life chances
Saunders argued a society based on social equality would only be possible if….
Force is used
E.g threat of death or imprisonment as this would ensure people did their job properly
Why is Saunders critical of left wing governments (labour)
Thinks they are misguided
E.g taxing the rich to pay for benefits from the poor reduces the drive for rich people to work hard
What do critics of Saunders say
Say we cannot assume a free market (less controlled by the government) even offers everyone more freedom
Social groups will still be excluded
What did Murray call the people trapped at the bottom of society
The underclass
What created a dependency culture
Government who provided welfare benefits for groups such as the unemployed and lone parent families
What did Murray want to happen to the benefits
Wanted them to reduced as they were doing more harm than good
What do critics of Murray say
Murray is victim blaming- majority of the underclass want to do well
What is the bourgeoise
Those who invested their wealth into industries
Owns means of production
What is the proletariat
Working class who owned no wealth and forced to work for wages
What is surplus value
Marx
Workers create the wealth but only a fraction of what they create comes back to them in wages
How does Marx believe workers are exploited by employers
Wages are low and profits high
What is the polarisation of social classes
The divide between the working class and capitalists would grow wider as the bourgeoisie tried to keep wages low and profits high
This means small businesses would be driven out of business by increasingly powerful big businesses which widens the divide
What is alienation
Workers would not be able to find any satisfaction because they have no control over their own work
What is economic crisis
Marx argued that capitalist economies tend to suffer
Eventually a crisis would lead to collapse of the whole capitalist system
How would capitalism be overthrown
When the working class realise they are being exploited they would rise up and overthrow capitalism
What system did Marx believe wold replace capitalism
Communism
What is communism
Production would be shared by the whole community
Instead of wages everyone would receive what they needed
This means social classes would disappear (classless society)
Criticism of Marxism
Economic determinism
People may think in a certain way for cultural reasons therefore religious beliefs may be more important for someone than their economic position
Marx’s tend to ignore other inequality such as gender and ethnicity
What is class consciousness
When you don’t know you are being exploited
Criticism of Marx
Success of capitalism
Despite what Marx says capitalist societies have actually flourished
In western societies the working class have enjoyed the rise of living standards and allows everyone to elect their own government and encourage freedom
Criticism of Marxism
The middle class
Marx ignored the classes in between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat
Critics say these groups have grown in size and are important so cannot be ignored
In defence of Marxism
Continuity of social classes
Westergaard and Resler argued there was little evidence of class divisions disappearing
Class divisions have actually widened more
In defence of Marxism
The proletarianisation of middle classes
The gap between the rich and poor widens, Marx prediction of polarisation has come true
Working class have been de skilled as jobs are taken over by machines
In defence of Marxism
Neo Marxists
Gramsci developed the concept hegemony to explain why working class in Western Europe countries had not risen up
He believes ruling class do not need to use force to exert power they rule through persuasion
They use institutions such as media and education to control people
In defence of Marxism
Globalisation and transnational corporations
TNCs e.g Coca Cola have annual profits which are more than the national income of many poor countries
Sklair says TNCs have greater power than some governments
How does weber define social class
A group who share a similar market situation
What did Weber say are the four main social classes
Propertied upper class- owners of big businesses
Property less white collar workers- better market situation than manual workers due to qualifications
Petty bourgeoisie- owners of small businesses
Manual working class- poorest market situation
What did Weber say status is
Refers to the distribution of social honour
How much respect a person receives from others and whether they are seen as superior or inferior to others
How is status linked
To a persons economic or class position
Also ethnicity religion or lifestyle
How does Weber define party
Groups who were concerned with exercising power
Parties might include groups such as
Trade unions that seek to improve the wages and conditions of specific groups
Criticism of Weber
Marxists argue focussing on multiple social classes masks the importance of class divisions
How has weber had a big influence on modern sociologists
Most sociologists take on a multi class model rather than Marx’s two classes
The idea that social class affects life chances
New social movements e.g women’s movements
Why does Abbot criticise Goldthorpes study of social mobility
He completely ignored women
Social classifications are based around men’s occupations which led to the development of new classifications such as
The Surrey scale
Why do women have lower rates of absolute mobility
They have less chances of reaching top jobs
What do postmodernists argue about class
They are losing their significance in a contemporary society
What do pakulski and waters argue
That people are not stratified by cultural rather than economic differences
What does Beck argue
That the class conflicts of early industrial societies concerned the distribution of wealth
What does Becks term risk society mean
The central problem is no longer creating and distributing wealth but is managing the risks created by science and technology
What does individualism mean
People’s willingness to act together has diminished, instead people become individualised and more concerned with personal interests
