Social Class Flashcards
What is SCOTT’s key concept for the upper class and what does it mean?
‘Old boy network’ - a group made of people who have the same cultural assets. It exercises social closure
How do the upper class gain ‘social capital’ according to SCOTT?
By being invited to the right events that are exclusive
Who did KENWAY study in the upper class?
Privately educated school girls
What does KENWAY explain about the school girls?
That social class and class position is important to them
How did the girls in KENWAY’S study attain high self esteem?
By devaluing the success and achievements of state educated people.
What is MACINTOSH and MOONEY’S key concept for the upper class?
‘A sense of belonging’
What do MACINTOSH & MOONEY argue?
That identity in the work place gives belonging and that occupation and identity link.
What do KING & RAYNOR focus on? What key term do they use?
The family - “Child Centeredness”
What do KING & RAYNOR say that the family encourages?
Educational success
What is GOODWIN’S key concept?
“Yummy Mummy”
What do “Yummy Mummies” define themselves by?
Give examples
What they own.
Eg - handbags, pushchairs, clothing for their child.
What is BOURDIEU’S key concept?
“Hidden Curriculum”
What doe BOURDIEU suggest?
That the middle class have an advantage in education due to their knowledge, values and leisure activities it gives them “cultural capital”
What are SAUNDERS’ key concepts?
“Conspicuous consumption”
‘Highly disposable income’
What did SAUNDERS find in the middle class?
Found that the middle class satisfy their needs through the purchase of goods. They’re highly influenced by the media.
What is WRIGHT’S key concept? What does it mean?
“Contradictory class position” - being both exploited and exploit the working class in the workplace.
What kind of roles did the MIDDLE CLASS have that caused the “contradictory class position” according to WRIGHT?
Managerial and supervisory roles
What is MAC AN GHAIL’S key concept for the WORKING CLASS?
“Crisis of Masculinity”
Why did the “crisis of masculinity” happen according to MAC AN GHAIL?
De industrialisation
What did the ‘Macho Lads’ want to do in terms of work? (MAC AN GHAIL)
Follow their fathers footsteps into manual work as it shaped their identity.
What was MAC AN GHAIL’S study called and what did it involve?
‘Making of Men’
Ethnographic study
Inner-city industrial areas in the midlands.
What did WILLIS study?
12 working class boys in secondary education
referred to as “LADS”
They had a counter-school subculture
What did WILLIS find?
That the 12 boys did not value education and that they found manual work superior to mental work - they didn’t get qualifications as a result ( link to MAC AN GHAIL)
What are MERTENS & D’HAENENS key concepts?
“Digital divide”
“Digital inequality”
What did MERTENS & D’HAENENS find?
That lower social classes used the internet less
81% ( lower class )
94% ( middle class )
What do BOWLES and GINTIS argue?
That educations function is to maintain, legitimise and reproduce class inequalities.
What is BOWLES and GINITIS’ key concept?
“Obedient and passive workers”
What do BOWLES ANS GINTIS suggest?
That the ruling class designed education and for children to become the “obedient passive worker”
What does OFFE claim?
That less individuals share a common unifying experience.
What kind of view point does OFFE come from?
Post modernist
What are SKEGG’s key concepts?
“Social mobility” and “instrumental attitudes”
What did SKEGGS find in the underclass?
Found that women of the under class had “instrumental attitudes” to working.
Underclass saw society as meritocratic and that mobility existed.
What does MURRAY say about the underclass?
That they were “lazy”, “workshy”, “dependent on benefits”.
Their culture is based around idleness and failure - “achieved status”
What does JORDAN say about the underclass?
That they have a “sense of shame”
They have an ascribed status
Believes that they have the same norms and values as everyone else.
Who does JORDAN disagree with?
Murray
What do PAKULSKI and WATERS suggest?
There has been a shift from production to consumption
What is PAKULSKI and WATERS key concept?
“Defined by what we buy”
