Social Class Inequality

Question 1

Marx (Marxism)

Answer 1

-infrastructure (economic system, Capitalism) shapes superstructure (rest of society like education, family, media)
- Bourgeoisie own means of production and control through power
- pass ruling class ideology onto Proletariat to keep P being exploited
Eg. Education system shaped by requirements of Capitalist system (queuing, ) leads to obedient work force. Political and legal systems- laws protect rights of Capitalists to take profits
Supports unequal distribution of wealth and a dominant class exploiting the obedient class

Question 2

Westergaard (Marxism)

Answer 2

Polarisation: widening gap of rich and poor
Top 10% pop massive increases in their income whereas lowest have had no rise
Privatisation and decline in union led to this gap getting bigger
Eg. Wealthiest 1% UK owned 21% UK wealth

Question 3

Scott (Marxism)

Answer 3

Social closure keeps divide between rich and poor
Old boys network advanced upper class as they socially network to gain jobs and status
Can be enforced through intermarriage which combines economic capital and created exclusive elite
Eg. Rich family will tell their children to marry another rich family so their children can stay financially secure and gain more status
Keeps poor from having a chance networking with higher status people and so they have less opportunity

Question 4

Gramsci (Neo-Marx)

Answer 4

Hegemony- ruling class keep just enough W/c people on their side to follow their ideology to stop revolution 
Eg. Pensions, promotions 
Keeps them being exploited as long as they’re in a state of false CC, they don’t rebel and stay with lower wages which benefits B

Question 5

Wright (Neo-Marx)

Answer 5

Class divide into 3 classes ruling, middle, working 
Middle have contradictory class position 
Eg. Ruling would own Sainsbury’s, middle would be manager of that store, working class work on tills 
- middle are exploited and exploit working class

Question 6

Braverman (Neo-Marx)

Answer 6

Proletarianisation (middle class identify more with working class due to lack of freedom and conditions/pay) 
Due to deskilling- specialist knowledge being replaced with machinery, internet access etc (specialist knowledge not desirable anymore)
White collar jobs no longer enjoy advantages over blue collar employees 
Upper class exploits middle and working class as middle class aware there is reserve army of labour as they are replaceable, limited number of jobs and pay threats

Question 7

Feeley (Marx Fem)

Answer 7

Home structure promotes patriarchal views and teaches passivity
Socialises into traditional gender role where women transfer passivity to their children which creates passive workers and subordinated women to support men at work

Question 8

Benston (Marx Fem)

Answer 8

Nuclear family keeps capitalism
Women unpaid labour means women are dependant on husband
Husband unlikely to question Capitalism as they are able to provide
Eg. Men being exploited on low wage working as a teacher, but doesn’t ask for higher pay or threaten to leave as men feel they have to be the breadwinner and provide

Question 9

Ansley (Marx Fem)

Answer 9

Women act as safety valve for Capitalism ‘takers of shit’
Proletariat men take out anger from being exploited on wife
Eg. Male workers will work on minimum wage/ bad conditions for longer as they have their wives to rely on to purge anger and get emotional support

Question 10

Beechey (Marx Fem)

Answer 10

Women form reserve army of labour
Women viewed as disposable as assumed to be second income and prioritise children over work so exploit more
Eg. Female worker disposed of during economic slump in factory over a male as male is assumed to be breadwinner
They can use women to create competition and lower wages of members in workforce

Question 11

Durkheim (Functionalism)

Answer 11

Inequality is caused by meritocracy
Society characterised by social divisions
Society accepts legitimacy of stratification: occupations should be graded in terms of value to society, more functional the more they should be rewarded
Eg. Inequality caused by unequal effort skill, qualification and is functional for society to work (spend 4 years at university to gain unique useful skill to society, have higher starting salary) unequal to someone with no qualification and skill working on tills

Question 12

Parsons (Functionalism)

Answer 12

Social systems need to be hierarchical to achieve order
Ranking based on consensus on what society values, which is: kinship (family status), personal qualities (intelligence, age), achievement, possessions, authority KAPPA
achievement held in consensus as most valuable
Eg. Higher qualifications linked to higher wage which can cause social inequality, but this is functional as it’s held in consensus as valuable to society

Question 13

Davis & Moore (Functionalism)

Answer 13

Scarcity of personnel- not everyone has innate ability to become brain surgeon and commit to long term training and so stratification system rewards them to attract them to training period

Question 14

Saunders (New Right)

Answer 14

Inequality promotes economic growth
Competition ensures services increase in quality and drop in price making them available to population
Inequality is due to differences in ability and effort. Genetically inherited ability- middle class children may deserve to be more successful as they inherit hard working abilities from parents
Eg. Working class children may come from parents working in Tesco’s without qualifications and so children may get low paying job due to low genetic ability
Eg. 80% people born in poverty escape poverty in adulthood
Inequality is natural and not due to unequal opportunity

Question 15

Murray (New Right)

Answer 15

Underclass developing in UK which promotes dependency culture (don’t take responsibility, life off Welfare state and benefits)
Welfare state took incentive to work
Led to unemployment, single mothers, crime
Eg. Single mothers use welfare state instead of finding breadwinner husband and creating secure nuclear family. Drains system if single mother doesn’t work
Create inequality as underclass don’t take responsibility and so don’t work and encourage others to not work which creates lower classes

Question 16

Weber (Weberian)

Answer 16

Class: people within each class broadly share life chances and patterns of mobility (ability to move occupational ladder) 
Status (how society views you) and party (political power) 
Eg. If you’re in a lower social class manual workers (don’t possess qualifications and poor market situation) less likely to move up occupational ladder than petty bourgeoisie as they may own small businesses 
Some social groups likely to stay in poverty due to characteristics of that class

Question 17

Savage (Weberian)

Answer 17

Differences in status would always undermine any common cause 
Fragmentation- Too many competing status groups within social classes to band together 
Eg. 3 middle classes established middle class, technical middle class, new affluent workers 
Eg. Established middle class may not identify with new affluent workers and so would not band together to make change 
Create inequality as stops the majority which are exploited working together to overthrow minority which own the means of production and demand higher wages to get out of working class

Question 18

Paluski & Waters (Post modern)

Answer 18

Political, social and economic importance of class is declining 
Now live in status conventionalism- stratified into what we consume and the lifestyle that comes with it 
Markets get more competitive so now there’s more power with the consumer
Use consumer choices which traditionally portray a particular class 
Eg. Football used to be seen as working class but now society is individualised, people chose to consume football and now it’s popular culture and consumed by all classes 
Inequality is irrelevant as classes are so fragmented that if everyone consumes popular culture they don’t feel defined by income

Question 19

Beck (Postmodern)

Answer 19

Risk society: innovation, technological advances and biological developments mean we are all exposed to risk of the unknown
We all hold this in common despite class background
Eg. Covid 19 fear of unknown virus and vaccine
Inequality is irrelevant because we have more important issues which money can’t solve. We all face same issues but not together; as individuals