social class

Question 1

traditional upper class

Answer 1

landowning aristocrats - inherited wealth, social closure, intermarriage, elite education

tradition and conservative, authority and hierarchy

Question 2

new upper class

Answer 2

entrepeneurs - self made, lives centres around work, exclusive social occasions to network

jet set - self made eg sport - publicity, fame

Question 3

key features of upper class subculture

Answer 3

scott
- primary socialisation through family life - close relationships with similar families
- secondary socialisation - boarding schools, top unis
- cultural capital leads them to appreciate high culture, sense of leadership and superiority - social capital
- military sevice
- high culture
- particular codes of manners
- leisure activities

Question 4

key features of middle class

Answer 4

Savage and Roborts - difficult to generalise due to recent changes

• commitment to education
• importance of personal ambition
• sense of individual and family self-interest
• concern for future gratification and deferred gratification
• greater respect for high culture than popular culture

Question 5

sub groups of middle class values

Answer 5

the professionals - doctors, lawyers, teachers - high cultural capital

managers of businesses and government officials - consumption, lawful behaviour, high culture

self-employed small business owners - individualistic identity, work focused, independent

financial middle class - young, well off, popular and high culture

lower middle class - similar to new working class lifestyle

Question 6

traditional working class

Answer 6

active or politicised identities - class consciousness

manual labour

collectivist
political - trade unions
traditional roles at home

left wing

Question 7

new working class

Answer 7

passive class identities

work in newer types of high-tech manufacturing industries

privatism - base lives around home and family activities
apolitical - vote for party that will further interests
less likely to be involved in trade unions
changing gender roles

Question 8

underclass

Answer 8

murray - long-term unemployment, single parents with inadequate parenting skills, state benefits, anti-authority, immoral

Jordan - do not enjoy high standard of living, lack basics, in debt

Question 9

features of traditional working class

Answer 9

Hogart - strong moral values

close night community
men as breadwinners
manual labour - masculinity
strong commitment to labour party
enjoyment of popular culture

Charlesworth - traditional working class community in Rotherham - a lot of swearing, insults

Question 10

attitudes of traditional working class

Answer 10

immediate gratification - enjoy today’s pleasures
present-time orientation - focus on the now
sense of fatalism

Question 11

features of the new working class

Answer 11

privatised lifestyle - little involvement with community
instrumental approach to work - simply way to get money
women in paid employment
little sense of loyalty
emphasis on consumer goods

Question 12

importance - marxism

Answer 12

social identity determines by social class - single and fixed - taught our class identities through agents of socialisation

Acheson - life changes of top two classes better than bottom two - longer life expectancy - class polarisation

Question 13

importance of agents of socialisation

Answer 13

family, education - provides us with income that leads to association with similar people in same socio-economic

Question 14

important - work

Answer 14

McKenzie - w/c manufacturing jobs declined - strong sense of identity and solidarity between redundant workers

Question 15

important - stats

Answer 15

guardian poll 2007 - 89% of 18-24 year olds believed class still significant

british attitudes survey - 2012 - 95% identifies within a class - 60% saw themselves as w/c

Question 16

not important - postmodenism

Answer 16

classless society - fluidity, choice, individualism - pick and mix identities

media broken down cultural barriers - less stigma attached - more disposable income

clarke and saunders - fragmentation - identity through consumption

pakulski and waters - class is dead

lash and urry - class subcultures have weakened and people’s cultural choices are more individualistic and based on a range of lifestyles

Question 17

not important - decline in working class identity

Answer 17

collectivity, manual jobs, traditions - replaced with individualism, new forms of employment

class have become passive - meaningless to our identity

Question 18

not important - traditional upper class changed

Answer 18

now characterised by entrepreneurs and jet sets

importance of conspicuous consumption

savage - class is passive identity - not many people in his survey willing to identify in terms of class - preferred to see themselves as individuals