Social Class Inequality Flashcards
How are societies in the world ordered
They are ordered into unequal layers or strata of wealth, status, power and privilege according to socially recognised differences.
With the most wealthy at the top and and the poorest at the bottom.
What is it when the wealthy are labelled at the top and the poor are labelled at the bottom
Social stratification
What are social classes?
Groups of people who share a similar economic position in terms of occupation, income and ownership of wealth. They are also likely to have similar levels of education, status and power.
What do some sociologists believe about the link between social class and life chances
Social class differences and the inequalities in wealth and income associated with them have a significant effect on the life chances of social groups.
For example those at the top of the stratification system are likely to have a better education and qualified job than those at the bottom.
What are the reasons behind measuring social class
- Sociologists want to address class differences in all areas of social life in order to identify reasons why inequalities occur.
- Advertisers want to target particular social groups to maximise sales
- Governments need to formulate social policies to address inequalities
What is the best measurable factor in social class
Occupation
What have sociologists discovered about occupation
The thing the majority of the population have in common. They discovered that occupation governs many aspects of a persons life such as:
- Level of education
- Income
- What type of TV they watch
- Standard of living
Is occupation a good indicator of social identity and why?
Yes
Because for example, people in particular manual jobs may profess pride in being working class while people in professional managerial jobs may share a similar middle class outlook.
What does the occupational approach not account for
People who do not work, such as the extremely rich living of inherited money, or the extremely poor living of benefits.
Have occupational statistics been able to measure social class
Yes but getting such measures right has proven to be a problem and has been criticised.
What did the Government use to measure social class up until the 2000s
The Registrar-General’s (RG) classification of occupations
How did RG measure social class
By the ranking of thousands of jobs into six groups
What are the six groups that RG ranked
Higher professional and managerial
Lower professional and managerial
White-collar clerical workers (middle class)
Semi-skilled and unskilled Blue-collar workers (working class)
What was the RG replaced by and when
The national statistics socio-economic classification (NS-SEC) in the 2000s
Who constructed the NS-SEC and why
John Goldthorpe and Mike Savage
In attempts to class occupations according to ‘employment relations’ - whether people are employed or self-employed and also ‘Market conditions’ - salaries, promotions and pensions etc.
How many social classes did NS-SEC identify
8
What is the main significant difference between the RG and the NS-SEC
NS-SEC acknowledgement to the new class ‘Long-term unemployed and never worked’.
What New right sociologists to refer the’Long-term unemployed and never worked’
Murray and Saunders and they call it the ‘Underclass’
What arguments does the NS-SEC acknowledge compared to the RG
They acknowledge feminist arguments about the patriarchal nature of previous occupational occupational classifications such as the RG scale which only focused on male jobs. The NS-SEC recognises women workers and no longer classes women according to the occupation of their husbands or fathers
What does Standing identify
A new socio-economic group which has appeared since the 1990s that he calls the ‘precariat’. Members of this group occupy low-skilled and low-paid jobs. These jobs are also often insecure.
What does Standing argue
That the precariat often enjoy fewer rights than other workers who are entitled to holiday and sickness may and pension rights.
What do the precariat not have
No occupational identity or community that they can take pride in or feel loyal to because they are forever living in and out of jobs
What are members of the precariat forced to do
Jobs that they would not normally choose as a career path, and may hold down two to three jobs
What is Standing adamant about
That the precariat is not an underclass because they do not spend enough time together to construct a shared identity or community
What do social surveys suggest about interpretation of class
That there is a gap between peoples subjective interpretation of their class position and the objective criteria used by government classifications such as NS-SEC
What did Mike Savage carry out and what did he find
An in-depth unstructured interview with over 170 people in Manchester in 2001.
He found that only a minority of his interviewees had the confidence to express their class position in an articulate way. A second group of his interviewees preferred to not identify with a particular class because themselves as individuals and not wider social grouping. However, the majority of the sample identified with a particular class in a ‘muted way’
What did Marshall et al find
That 53% of their sample identified as ‘working class’ despite the fact most of them were in white-collar jobs
What do some critics argue against the NS-SEC
That the NS-SEC still obscures important differences in pay and status because their categories are too wide in scope.
What do other critics suggest
That ethnicity and gender may be more important in bringing about inequalities and divisions and in shaping identity
What is income defined as
The flow of money to a person or household over a period of time
What was income like between 1979 and 1997
Income inequality between the rich and poor in Britain widened until its most unequal since records began at the end of the 19th century
The UK is ____ most unequal in terms of ______ ________
The UK is fifth most unequal in terms of income distribution
What do the government do to try ease the unequal distribution
They take more in taxes from the rich and gives more to the poor in forms of benefits. However, the poorer sections of the population actually pay more tax as a proportion of their income than the rich because of indirect areas such as VAT on food
What is the main source of data on income
Official statistics carried out by the government
What two surveys does the Government carry out annually
The family resources survey and the Annual survey of hours and earnings
What do functionalists and new right thinkers say about unequal distributions of wealth
That it is good for society as it encourages hard work
What do marxists argue about the unequal distributions of wealth
That this unfair distribution is created by the rich few, for whom it is beneficial
What is wealth defined as
The ‘stock’ resources or possessions of a person or household at a fixed point in time.
How does the Office for National Statistics define wealth
In forms of wealth:
- Property wealth = house
- Physical wealth = cars
- Financial wealth = cash in bank
- Private pension wealth = pension
Is wealth distributed more or less equally than income
Less. It is very unequal
Statistic showing wealth distribution
The total wealth of the top tenth households in 2008-2010 amounted to 850 times as much as the total owned by the bottom 10%
What did the report by Rowlingson and Mullineux into wealth distribution in 2013 conclude
That there are different ways in which wealth inequalities occur, some accumulate wealth and not spend it and save it, but some invest in land and property and not have the hard gas
What did Rowlingson and Mullineux observe
That wealth affects physical and mental wellbeing as well as education and job opportunities.
That wealthy people also has greater political influences than poorer people
What is data on wealth hard to come by
- Not all experts agree on what ‘wealth’ is
- Calculating the value on personal wealth is difficult because the value of property is always changing
- The very wealthy are extremely secretive about their assets
- It is very difficult to estimate the value of stocks and shares
What do functionalists and New right say about social class inequalities in the workplace
They merely reflect the meritocratic nature of modern societies such as the UK. People who have worked hard in the educational system to acquire skills and qualifications deserve greater rewards than those who failed to make the most of their education
What do Marxists claim about social class inequalities in the workplace
They perform two functions:
- The wages of routine workers are deliberately kept low by the capitalist class in order to enhance profits
- The managerial executives and professionals who run capitalist enterprises are highly rewarded because they are agents of the bourgeoisie or capitalist class
What do Weberian’s claim about the workplace
They claim stratification in the workplace is caused by status inequality. Those with less common qualifications and skills such as professionals have greater bargaining power with regard to salaries and working conditions than those with routine skills
What two approaches do sociologists use when defining poverty
- Absolute poverty
- Relative poverty
Define Absolute poverty
Lacking the basics or essentials required for healthy standard of living such as food, water and shelter
What does the definition of absolute poverty fail to take into account
That poverty changes over time.
Poverty is actually a relative concept because what is a luxury today may be a necessity tomorrow.
Define Relative poverty
The condition in which people lack the minimum amount of income required to maintain the average standard of living that the majority in a particular society take for granted
What do critics argue about relative poverty
The relative approach is confusing inequality with poverty and because social expectations about living standards are constantly changing, it is virtually impossible to eradicate this type of poverty
What does social mobility refer too
The movement of people up or down the social scale
What does Inter-generational mobility refer to
The mobility between the generations - children of a milkman who is working class may become teachers that is middle class
What does Intra-generational mobility refer to
The movement between classes by someone during the course of their lifetime
What are some problems sociologists have come across when researching social mobility
- Classifying jobs into different classes
- Feminists say most the studies are based on men and ignore women
What did Roberts (2001) find about social mobility
Used Data from the NCDS and concluded that although the working class had got smaller, the chances of escaping from the working class hasn’t improved
- 55% of working class men stayed in the class
