postmodernism - class

Question 1

Bauman

Answer 1

Bauman believes that contemporary society is divided by inequalities. These inequalities are based upon consumption rather than occupation or relation to the means of production. Bauman sees people who are unable to join the consumption culture of shopping as outcast by the rest of society. The poor are criminalised and ghettoised because they cannot compete in a world of consumption so they are seen as deviant and undesirable. Consumption becomes key to identity.

Question 2

Pakulski and Waters - Postmodern explanations of the changes to the social class structure

Answer 2

Pakulski and Waters argue that class diverts attention away from more important areas such as identity, race and gender. In their opinion, postmodern societies are no longer class societies, since production and the marketplace are now of minor significance. So class is more or less ‘dead’. Inequalities and conflicts still exist but they no longer run along class lines. People are slotted into British society according to their ‘status’ rather than their class. The old class identities have crumbled away in the face of postmodern social trends.

Question 3

Beck and Beck-Gernsheim - Postmodern explanations of the changes to the social class structure

Answer 3

Individualisation - One of the things that helped to make class identities so powerful in the past was their collective nature. However, some sociologists claim that class collectivism has weakened in the age of ‘late modernity’. Beck and Beck-Gernsheim describe the trend towards individualisation. Class traditions no longer seem so relevant or appealing in an age when people are increasingly forced to exercise personal choice and take their own individual decisions. Traditional certainties have collapsed and the old ‘fixed’ categories of class, religion and gender no longer provide detailed guidance on how people should lead their lives.

Question 4

Furlong and Cartmel - Postmodern explanations of the changes to the social class structure

Answer 4

Furlong and Cartmel accept that contemporary Britain resembles a postmodern society in important respects. In the past, the metaphor of a railway journey captured the way young people’s lives were shaped by social class. Within the school, working class and middle class children boarded different trains bound for different destinations. Once on the track, there was little opportunity to switch destinations or to change trains. Nowadays, in contrast, the journey from class origins to class destinations is more likely to be taken by car. In this new postmodern world, young people are constantly faced by choices and they have to make lots of individual decisions: where shall I head? which route shall I take? How many stops will I make?

Question 5

Postmodern explanations of the changes to the social class structure eval - Westergaard

Answer 5

Westergaard rejects the idea that social class is no longer important. He accepts that people’s class consciousness may have declined but their class position has in fact hardened. By this he means that increased polarisation has led to the class differences between people strengthening instead of loosening. Westergaard observes ‘new’ divisions are always connected to class in some way. For example, many of the disadvantages suffered by women and ethnic minorities are essentially ‘class’ matters of income, wealth and power.

Question 6

Postmodern explanations of the changes to the social class structure eval - Marshall

Answer 6

Marshall (1997) maintains that the pronouncements of postmodern theorists rest on ‘data free’ sociology. He carried out a large survey and found that about 60 per cent of the sample thought of themselves as belonging to a particular social class and over 90 per cent could place themselves in a class if prompted. These figures hardly suggest that class awareness has disappeared.

Question 7

Postmodern explanations of the changes to the social class structure eval - Savage

Answer 7

Savage (2000) is not convinced by the postmodernist argument that class is now outdated and irrelevant. On the contrary, he thinks class remains massively important. structurally, class is as important as ever, possibly even more important than it was thirty years ago. He claims there is abundant evidence to show that patterns of economic and social inequality are marked in Britain, and that it makes good sense to see them in terms of class.