Social Class Inequality

Question 1

How are societies in the world ordered

Answer 1

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.

Question 2

What is it when the wealthy are labelled at the top and the poor are labelled at the bottom

Answer 2

Social stratification

Question 3

What are social classes?

Answer 3

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.

Question 4

What do some sociologists believe about the link between social class and life chances

Answer 4

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.

Question 5

What are the reasons behind measuring social class

Answer 5

• 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

Question 6

What is the best measurable factor in social class

Answer 6

Occupation

Question 7

What have sociologists discovered about occupation

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Is occupation a good indicator of social identity and why?

Answer 8

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.

Question 9

What does the occupational approach not account for

Answer 9

People who do not work, such as the extremely rich living of inherited money, or the extremely poor living of benefits.

Question 10

Have occupational statistics been able to measure social class

Answer 10

Yes but getting such measures right has proven to be a problem and has been criticised.

Question 11

What did the Government use to measure social class up until the 2000s

Answer 11

The Registrar-General’s (RG) classification of occupations

Question 12

How did RG measure social class

Answer 12

By the ranking of thousands of jobs into six groups

Question 13

What are the six groups that RG ranked

Answer 13

Higher professional and managerial
Lower professional and managerial
White-collar clerical workers (middle class)
Semi-skilled and unskilled Blue-collar workers (working class)

Question 14

What was the RG replaced by and when

Answer 14

The national statistics socio-economic classification (NS-SEC) in the 2000s

Question 15

Who constructed the NS-SEC and why

Answer 15

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.

Question 16

How many social classes did NS-SEC identify

Answer 16

8

Question 17

What is the main significant difference between the RG and the NS-SEC

Answer 17

NS-SEC acknowledgement to the new class ‘Long-term unemployed and never worked’.

Question 18

What New right sociologists to refer the’Long-term unemployed and never worked’

Answer 18

Murray and Saunders and they call it the ‘Underclass’

Question 19

What arguments does the NS-SEC acknowledge compared to the RG

Answer 19

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

Question 20

What does Standing identify

Answer 20

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.

Question 21

What does Standing argue

Answer 21

That the precariat often enjoy fewer rights than other workers who are entitled to holiday and sickness may and pension rights.

Question 22

What do the precariat not have

Answer 22

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

Question 23

What are members of the precariat forced to do

Answer 23

Jobs that they would not normally choose as a career path, and may hold down two to three jobs

Question 24

What is Standing adamant about

Answer 24

That the precariat is not an underclass because they do not spend enough time together to construct a shared identity or community

Question 25

What do social surveys suggest about interpretation of class

Answer 25

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

Question 26

What did Mike Savage carry out and what did he find

Answer 26

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’

Question 27

What did Marshall et al find

Answer 27

That 53% of their sample identified as ‘working class’ despite the fact most of them were in white-collar jobs

Question 28

What do some critics argue against the NS-SEC

Answer 28

That the NS-SEC still obscures important differences in pay and status because their categories are too wide in scope.

Question 29

What do other critics suggest

Answer 29

That ethnicity and gender may be more important in bringing about inequalities and divisions and in shaping identity

Question 30

What is income defined as

Answer 30

The flow of money to a person or household over a period of time

Question 31

What was income like between 1979 and 1997

Answer 31

Income inequality between the rich and poor in Britain widened until its most unequal since records began at the end of the 19th century

Question 32

The UK is ____ most unequal in terms of ______ ________

Answer 32

The UK is fifth most unequal in terms of income distribution

Question 33

What do the government do to try ease the unequal distribution

Answer 33

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

Question 34

What is the main source of data on income

Answer 34

Official statistics carried out by the government

Question 35

What two surveys does the Government carry out annually

Answer 35

The family resources survey and the Annual survey of hours and earnings

Question 36

What do functionalists and new right thinkers say about unequal distributions of wealth

Answer 36

That it is good for society as it encourages hard work

Question 37

What do marxists argue about the unequal distributions of wealth

Answer 37

That this unfair distribution is created by the rich few, for whom it is beneficial

Question 38

What is wealth defined as

Answer 38

The ‘stock’ resources or possessions of a person or household at a fixed point in time.

Question 39

How does the Office for National Statistics define wealth

Answer 39

In forms of wealth:
- Property wealth = house
- Physical wealth = cars
- Financial wealth = cash in bank
- Private pension wealth = pension

Question 40

Is wealth distributed more or less equally than income

Answer 40

Less. It is very unequal

Question 41

Statistic showing wealth distribution

Answer 41

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%

Question 42

What did the report by Rowlingson and Mullineux into wealth distribution in 2013 conclude

Answer 42

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

Question 43

What did Rowlingson and Mullineux observe

Answer 43

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

Question 44

What is data on wealth hard to come by

Answer 44

• 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

Question 45

What do functionalists and New right say about social class inequalities in the workplace

Answer 45

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

Question 46

What do Marxists claim about social class inequalities in the workplace

Answer 46

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

Question 47

What do Weberian’s claim about the workplace

Answer 47

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

Question 48

What two approaches do sociologists use when defining poverty

Answer 48

• Absolute poverty
• Relative poverty

Question 49

Define Absolute poverty

Answer 49

Lacking the basics or essentials required for healthy standard of living such as food, water and shelter

Question 50

What does the definition of absolute poverty fail to take into account

Answer 50

That poverty changes over time.

Poverty is actually a relative concept because what is a luxury today may be a necessity tomorrow.

Question 51

Define Relative poverty

Answer 51

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

Question 52

What do critics argue about relative poverty

Answer 52

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

Question 53

What does social mobility refer too

Answer 53

The movement of people up or down the social scale

Question 54

What does Inter-generational mobility refer to

Answer 54

The mobility between the generations - children of a milkman who is working class may become teachers that is middle class

Question 55

What does Intra-generational mobility refer to

Answer 55

The movement between classes by someone during the course of their lifetime

Question 56

What are some problems sociologists have come across when researching social mobility

Answer 56

• Classifying jobs into different classes
• Feminists say most the studies are based on men and ignore women

Question 57

What did Roberts (2001) find about social mobility

Answer 57

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