Social class

Question 1

Ruling class and subject class

Answer 1

Marx:
- Britain was divided into 2 social classes
- Bourgeoisie/ ruling class – owned the means of production (e.g. factories and other businesses)
- Proletariat/ subject class – employed by the ruling class to produce goods and services

Question 2

Manual and non-manual workers:

Answer 2

• Some argue that there is a middle class between the wealthy upper class and the working class at the bottom
• Middle class are seen as non-manual workers who depend on educational skills and mental skills

Question 3

The hope-goldthorpe classification:

Answer 3

• Goldthorpe distinguished 3 main classes
• Further sub-divided into 7 different occupational classes
• (1) Higher managerial and professional (Company directors)
• (4) Small employers and own account workers (Window cleaners, decorators)
• (7) Routine (Cleaners, labourers, bin men)

Question 4

The underclass

Answer 4

• Murray claims that new class called the ‘underclass’ has emerged
• Poorest members of the society (unemployed, lone-parent families, sick and disabled)
• Groups are largely dependent on state benefits

Question 5

Occupation and social class

Answer 5

• Many approaches base their classification on occupations
• Occupation allows us to figure out social class for three reasons
• How much money the job earns, how respected the job is and how much power you have

Question 6

Subjective class

Answer 6

• The social class that people see themselves belonging to
• Marshall = found that many people in their research saw themselves as ‘working class’ even if they were in non-manual or white-collar jobs
• Savage = significant proportion of respondents were reluctant to assign themselves to any social class and that class identity is not very significant

Question 7

The great British class survey

Answer 7

• BBC used Bourdieu’s initial ideas
• Class was separated into 3 different types of capital
• Cultural, economic and social capital
• The survey scored respondents based on the degree that they possessed of each form of capital
• Segregated into 7 different categories such as the elite, established middle class, traditional working class