Social Class Inequalities Flashcards

1
Q

What did Marx find?

A
The infrastructure (economy) shapes the superstructure (institutions). e.g. Bourgeoisie have designed the education system in a way that ensures they remain in power.
2 social classes = the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat. 
A class is a social group who share the same relationship to the means of production. 
The relationship between the classes is one of mutual dependence. Dependant on labour, dependant on money Not an equal relationship, based on exploitation. 
Capitalism is seen as just, rather than exploitative due to the infrastructure shaping the superstructure. 
False class consciousness. 
Proletariat would eventually stage a revolution which would lead to a communist society.
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2
Q

What did Westegaard find?

A

Polarisation is occurring where the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

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3
Q

What did John Scott research?

A

Social Closure. ‘Toffs and Snobs’.

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4
Q

What did Gramsci research? (Neo Marxism)

A
Hegemony 
Ruling class dominate intellectual marketplace - persuade people that capitalism is the only system that can work. They accept it, they feel any alternative would be worse = dual consciousness.
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5
Q

What did Wright find?

A
3 classes: ruling, middle and working 
The middle class hold a contradictory class position, as they are both exploited by the ruling class and also exploit the working class. Mainly due to having managerial roles.
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6
Q

What did Braverman research?

A
Proletarianisation of the middle classes and worker becoming deskilled. 
Identifying more with working class identity in terms of pay and the conditions of their employment - particularly the amount of control and freedom they have with their work. 
The skill of their work has been reduced, mainly due to technology replacing jobs. Some professional jobs have become deskilled. E.g. Secutary.
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7
Q

What did Feeley study?

A

Family is designed to teach passivity, not rebellion.
Socialises family members into traditional roles.
Ideology of the family in a capitalist society supports patriarchy.

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8
Q

What did Benston study?

A

Women’s domestic work is unpaid. By a wife feeding her husband and looking after him, it keeps capitalism running smoothly.
Criticises the nuclear family and a women’s role within it it is a stabilising force in a capitalist society

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9
Q

What did Ansley study?

A

‘Safety valve’. Women are the takers of shit. Husbands take their frustration out on their wives after a long day. Acts as a ‘sponge’ aids false class consciousness and discourages a revolution.

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10
Q

What did Beechey study?

A

Women are the reserve army of labour. Women sees women as a reserve army of labour, brought in during economic booms. One of their functions is to reduce wages. A group of unemployed people creates competition. This gives employers an advantage and allows them to reduce wages and increase the rate of exploitation.
Women don’t tend to be in unions, they are prepared to work for less if their wage is a second income and they are seen as combining work with domestic responsibilities

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11
Q

What did Durkheim research?

A

Modern societies are characterised by a specialised occupational division of labour, in which people have different functions, skills and abilities. It is characterised by social divisions. Value consensus means that members of society accept the legitimacy of stratification. They accept that occupations should be graded in terms of their value to society and that these should receive greater rewards. Stratification is beneficial because it sets limits on competition, in that it clearly links criteria such as skills and qualifications to particular roles so people don’t become overly ambitious.
Ascription, where roles are allocated on the basis of fixed inherited criteria e.g. gender.

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12
Q

What did Parsons study?

A

Social inequality and difference are functional. Social systems which need to be hierarchal to achieve order and ranking. Ranking is based on consensus about society’s values, esepcially with regard to:
kinship, personal qualities, achievment, possessions, authority.
Stratification is the outcome of general agreement in society about how roles should be ranked in terms of their functional importance.

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13
Q

What did Davis and Moore study?

A

Stratification is a permenant and universal feature because it is functionally necessary. Society faces the task of ‘placing’ people. It needs to motivate these people, so society offers higher rewards, for important jobs. Normally they are ‘unique’. The most important jobs tend to have other positions dependant on them. Also, no other occupation can subsitue for them.
Second criteria is the scarcity of personnel. This is either the shortage of people with innate ability or to the necessity of a long period of job training. Tempt gifted people by guarentee financial rewards and high social status.

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14
Q

What did Saunders study?

A

A degree of inequality is desirable and functional in order to encourage competition. Social mobility. 80% of people born in households below the poverty line escape poverty when they reach adulthood.

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15
Q

What did Saunders and Hayek believe?

A

Inequality is justified because it promotes economic growth. Competition ensures goods and services increase in quality and fall in price. Not everyone is able to afford consumers products initially but standards of living will constantly increase. Trickle down theory.

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16
Q

What did Murray say?

A
The underclass promote a 'dependency culture'. Depend on welfare state to survive, no incentive to work. 
Nanny Statism, become reliant on the state - don't do things for themselves.
17
Q

What did Max Weber say?

A

Social inequality was largely a product of the three dimensions of class, status and party. Concepts of class (marketability), status (how society views you) and party (how much political power you possess).
Defines class in terms of position in the economic marketplace. Market consists of many positions which vary according to source and amount of income, occupational skills and educational qualifications.
Finely graded occupational classes, each based on market position. People share broadly similar life chances. Defined social classes as clusters of occupations with similar life-chances and patterns of mobility. Identified four different social class:
- the propertied upper class
- property less white collar workers
- the petty bourgeoisie
- manual workers (the working class)

18
Q

What did Savage say?

A

There are different types of middle class identities and lifestyle. He claims that the middle class is separated into public sector professionals (working in health, education and welfare) and private-sector entrepreneurs whose incomes were considerably higher than their public-sector counterparts.

19
Q

What did Zweig research?

A
Skilled manual workers had adopted the economic and cultural lifestyle of the middle class. This is the 'embourgeosiment thesis'. Skilled workers had become more middle class by supporting bourgeoisie values as well as enjoying similar levels of income. Differences between the middle class and working class are disappearing, with well-paid manual workers merging into the middle class. 
Wages and living standards of skilled manual workers have improved. However, still many differences e.g. promotion opportunity and job security. Also more instrumental attitudes to work i.e. the purpose of work is not to achieve status promotion or job satisfaction, but to get money for life outside of work.
20
Q

What theory can be tied to the Embourgeoisie thesis?

A

Goldthorpe and Lockwood found little evidence to support Zweig. Despite earning similar amounts, they didn’t enjoy the same working conditions or fringe benefits such as expense accounts, company car, and sick pay or company pensions. They also have to work longer hours with less chance of promotion.
However, they did argue that there were signs of convergence, but instead of them becoming middle class, there’s a new working class.

21
Q

Postmodern explanations of class inequality?

A

Focus on the place of consumption and style which is leading to the decline in the importance of social class. Globalisation and media technology help construct our identity from a wide range of influences and as a result we are more likely to pick and choose our identities based on what we consume. Our lifestyles, fashion, sport, consumer choices etc become more important than class boundaries.

22
Q

What did Pakaulski and Walters study?

A

Post-Modernists
‘The Death of Class’
Social, political and economic importance of class is in decline. ‘Status conventionalism’ = now class is as a result of consumption patterns.
Property ownership is now less restricted.
Societies now stratified based on what you have/what you do with the money.
International Division of Labour.

23
Q

What did Beck study?

A
Post-Modernist 
We now live in a risk society; innovation, technological and biological developments has meant that we are exposed to 'risks of the unknown'. He states that despite our social class background, risks are now posed to everyone. 
These changes have lead to the development of more 'individualised' identities, as we no longer feel a sense of social class identity focused around lifestyles.
24
Q

What did Furlong and Cartmel research?

A
In a Post modern society use the metaphor of a railway journey.
Working class and middle class students boarded trains bound for different destination. Once on the track they had little opportunity to change destination, and so they tended to end up in working class jobs. 
In a postmodern society this journey is more likely to be taken by car, where young people are constantly faced by choices and have opportunities to make lots of different choices. This theory suggests that your class origin does not necessarily determine your class destination.