1A — social class

Question 1

sociologists for satisfaction with work

Answer 1

Ritzer
Abrams

Question 2

Ritzer

Answer 2

MCJOBS: 🍔
working class workers dehumanised fast food chains
- reciting scripts
- no creativity, rotas and instructions.
- not expected to be empowered/enjoy

Question 3

Abrams

Answer 3

• studied working class workers below the minimum wage
• often not paid for time spent at work: undercover job gave unpaid training, breaks and lunch, buying own equipment
  UNETHICAL, already low working class pay is further eroded. 😡

Question 4

studies for Top Jobs

Answer 4

Elite theory (neo-marxism)

Milburn

Question 5

Elite theory (neo-Marxist)

Answer 5

middle and upper classes have advantages in employment opportunities
Sutton Trust: ruling class elite use elite schools —> elite universities —> old boys network —> employment
in elite jobs
Working class disadvantaged in job market.
50% of elite Westminster schools Oxbridge 2007.
top 7% private schools

Question 6

Milburn

Answer 6

‘Fair Access to Professional Careers Report’ (2012)
- Glass floor: invisible safety net which the children of
rich parents use to help maintain high paid jobs for their children
– private tutors, elite internships / job opportunities to make sure they progressed, even ungifted get high wages
- judiciary remains solidly socially elitist
- 15 / 17 Supreme Court judges and heads of division private schools
- 43% of barristers fee-paying school

“This is social engineering on a grand scale. The
senior ranks of the professions are a closed shop.”

Question 7

studies for employment opportunities

Answer 7

Goldthorpe + Lockwood

Mac an Ghail

Question 8

Goldthorpe + Lockwood

Answer 8

working class increasingly instrumental attitude to work

• compared to professional middle classes, less likely to gain satisfaction and status from their jobs, instead means to an end.
• fraternity and unity within traditional working class jobs NO MORE, further disadvantage

Question 9

Mac an Ghail

Answer 9

CRISIS OF MASCULINITY
- decline of traditional manual labour jobs (mining, ship building) —> high working class men unemployment
men.
- left without jobs, impacts status in community and identity as work = essential part of a
working-class male identity.

• growing service sector just isn’t the same.

Question 10

studies for pay and income

Answer 10

ONS, Owen Jones, Garrod

Question 11

ONS on pay and income

Answer 11

those in the bottom paid 40% were paid just 20% of the pay.

Question 12

Owen Jones

Answer 12

income inequality in tax + benefits system

— poorest 10% pay 43% of their income in tax, richest 10% pay just 35%.
— policy of austerity in noughties hit the poorest hardest as local councils had their budgets cut by an average of 40%: public libraries, roads, parks, schools and other facilities the working
class are more likely to stop
— UK is run by political and economic elite who manipulate society in their interests.

— Noughties: in ‘austerity’ 77% of budget deficit was recouped by public
expenditure cuts which hit the lowest paid, only 23% was repaid using tax.
— pandemic: PPE/test kit contracts were given to friends and associates of the
elite
— David Meller, a conservative MP received a contract for £170 million contact which turned a profit of
£16.4million
— profiteering of taxpayer’s money is unethical, corrupt.
— Prince Charles inherited £600 million, didn’t pay inheritance tax

incomes of the wealthy are protected by preferable treatment, whilst the
incomes of the poor are continually under attack, argues Jones.

Question 13

Garrod

Answer 13

— increasing zero hour contracts (pay variable week to week, sometimes no work or pay)
— no guaranteed income compared to middle class
— 2021: 3% of workforce on zero hour contract
— GIG ECONOMY: workers get paid fora “gig” rather than week’s work. Freelance work, short term contract
— no basic rights like sick/holiday pay
— estimated 1 million ppl work in gig economy e.g. deliveroo, uber
— Denise Coats CEO of Bet365 earned 14,200 times average UK salary