Social Class (40)

Question 1

Stratification

Answer 1

The way in which different groups of people are placed within society

Question 2

Inequality

Answer 2

The existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses within a group or society

Question 3

Social Inequality

Answer 3

The idea that some people are at a disadvantage due to a particular characteristic like race, gender, age or social class.

Question 4

Social Class

Answer 4

• A form of social stratification
• Share the same economic position (income and wealth)
• Lower, Middle and Upper

Question 5

Introduction: Evidence for SC Inequality

Answer 5

• No longer relevant today while v Britain has a deeply unequal class system that effects life chances, income, work and employment, education
• Men in Blackpool live ten years less than men in Kensington and Chelsea
• Equality Trust 2017 found the poorest 1/5 only 8% of the total wealth while the top 1/5 own 40%

Question 6

Functionalism (Parsons)

Answer 6

• Society works when there consensus over shared values
• Forms of social stratification (s/c) reflect value consensus.
• In all societies, some are better than others at achieving things that are regarded as worthy of reward according to the value consensus
• Some occupations are more highly regarded and therefore more highly valued/rewarded so individuals are evaluated and placed in rank order
• Inequality is inevitable. Conflict is minimized by the common value system as it recognises the need of unequal rewards
• Most people agree that in modern industrial societies, entrepreneurs who successfully run businesses creating wealth and jobs deserve the highest rewards as they contribute most to the smooth running of society.

Question 7

Functionalism (Davis and Moore)

Answer 7

-Soical Stratification has been a feature of all societies and it is functionally necessary
-Main function of social stratification is to ensure effective role allocation and performance.
-So it does two things:
1.) Allocates the right people to the most important roles.
Higher rewards to motivate.
2.) Need to perform to high standard. Important to motivate them to work to the best of their ability for the good of the whole organisation.
-Argue that we can tell which positions are most important by two factors:
1.) Functional uniqueness. Only one person or a small number could carry out the role.
2.) The degree of Dependence. Makes decisions and gives orders to poeple lower down and is dependent on nobody.

Question 8

Criticisms of Functionalism (Tumin)

Answer 8

1. ) Importance of a position is debateable. (Nurses are important but aren’t paid like doctors. 7/10 think nurses are underpaid.)
2. )Resentment about the unequal distribution of rewards
3. ) Power over agreement from a society that they deserve
4. ) The Pool of Talent (Not just unique people who can perform high skilled jobs others have the ability but not the opportunity. Not everyone has the same opportunities. Funding cuts mean schools have less money, no social or debate, volunteering work. Disportantatly effects W/C while upper and middle classes can purchase this privately so they have an advantage)

Question 9

The New Right and Functionalism

Answer 9

Agree but don’t think inequality is an inevitable.

Question 10

The New Right

Answer 10

• Emphasis on free choice

- Any perceived inequality is a person choice

Question 11

The New Right (Saunders)

Answer 11

• We live in ‘fluid and open society’
• Stratification is not inevitable
• An equal society only possible if the threat of death or prison was used. As everyone would need to do jobs to best ability without rewards
• Legal and Opportunity equality is possible but rejects equality of outcomes as would be rewarded regardless of whether or not it was deserved
• A degree of inequality is desirable and functional in order to motivate people to compete, as everyone has an equal opportunity to take part in the competition.
• Attempts to equalise are misguided.
• Attempts to ensure that w/c children do as well as m/c children are mistaken because he argues that m/c children are more able and intelligent and deserve it.
• Intelligence is inherited and m/c have brighter parents so have a genetic advantage.

Question 12

The New Right (Murray)

Answer 12

• Gov intervention has created a ‘dependency culture’
• Welfare benefits for groups such as the unemployed and lone-parent families created the ‘underclass’ of people trapped at the bottom of society.
• Underclass was not only a drain on taxpayers paying for their benefits but also poorly socialise their children, meaning that they generally underachieved at school and turned to crime.
• Needed to be encouraged to stand on their own feet rather than expecting the state to support them.

Question 13

New Right Supporting Evidence

Answer 13

• DoE Attainment Gap Data 2015. 36.5% of disadvantaged students achieved A*-C grades compared to 64% of all other students.
• Amato (2015) 60% of children living in lone parent households are below the basic level of maths proficiency

Question 14

Criticisms of New Right

Answer 14

1) No evidence for different values of the underclass. Or that it is there norms causing a ‘lack of motivation to work’
2) No basis for poor parenting argument
3) New Right policies affect the poor resulted in inequality and limited life chances even further. Top 5th own 40% of wealth compared to the bottom 5th 8%
4. ) M/W argue ‘underclass’ is a social construction, serves as a political weapon and paints the poor into deserving when the capitalist system is to blame

Question 15

Marxism and Neo-Marxism

Answer 15

• Two classes: Bourgeoisie who invested their wealth in financing the new industries and the Proletariat who owned no wealth and were forced to sell their labour for wages
• The bourgeoisie was the ruling class because they owned the means of production: the factories, banks and other businesses used to generate wealth.
• Control the political system and cultural institutions that shaped people’s ideas such as the media and the education system.

Question 16

Marxism: Class Conflict

Answer 16

• The bourgeoisie and the Proletariat depend on one another
• Based on conflict or class struggle. Workers create the wealth of the bourgeoisie, only a fraction of what Marx called the surplus value that they create comes back to them in wages. The workers are exploited by their employers who seek to keep wages low and profits high.
• Capitalism suffered from problems which would eventually lead to its downfall:
  1. ) The polarisation of social classes: The divide is growing as they try to drive down wages to increase profits.
  2. ) Alienation: Workers can’t find any satisfaction because they would have no control over their own work. Used as commodities to increase p/p. Encouraged to find satisfaction in materialism.
  3. ) Economic crisis: Competition between companies creates boom periods but these are followed by recessions.

Question 17

Marxism: The Overthrow of Capitalism

Answer 17

• The WC could overthrow capitalism as the majority.
• ‘False class consciousness’.
• Communism would replace capitalism where the means of production would be shared by the whole community.
• Everyone contributes something to society ‘according to their ability’ and would receive what they needed over wages
• Social classes based on economic inequalities would disappear and result in a classless society.

Question 18

Neo-Marxism: Gramsci

Answer 18

• Hegemony to explain why the working class in western European countries had not risen up in revolution.
• Ruling class rule through persuasion not force
• Hegemony means using cultural and political means to encourage working class to side with the RCI to ensure the stability of the economic system.
• Media and education to control people’s minds.
• W/C have dual consciousness and are aware of the inequalities and injustices of capitalism.

Question 19

Marxism: Modern Example

Answer 19

• Big businesses such as IBM, BP, Coca-Cola operate in a global economy, often controlling assets spread across a number of countries
• Largest TNCs have annual sales in excess of the gross national income of many of the poorer countries in the world.
• Sklair: Nation-states now find it difficult to control the activities of TNCs, so they greater power. Become a global ruling class.

Question 20

Criticisms of Marxism

Answer 20

1. ) Economic Determinism: Ignores the importance of other types of inequality.
2. ) The Middle Class: Dismisses the importance of this class small business owners, highly paid professionals and managers who run businesses on behalf of the capitalists.
3. ) Class Consciousness and Revolution: Saw the downfall of capitalism in Britain as inevitable. Communist revolutions have usually occurred in relatively under-developed societies such as Russia, China and Cuba. Little sign of class consciousness; for example, fewer and fewer workers support trades unions
4. ) Capitalist societies seem to have flourished. A cycle of ‘boom and bust’. Discontent created by economic problems is contained. W/C have enjoyed rising living standards and access to consumer goods
5. ) Democracy associated with many capitalist societies allows everyone to elect governments and enjoy political freedoms and human rights.

Question 21

Weberianism

Answer 21

• S/C inequalities are due to a struggle between two groups to secure resources like wealth but status and power as well as they are also distributed unequally
• Economic divisions and class struggle are based for stratification
• Three Dimensions: S/C, Status and Party
• Weber was a critic of Marx; sceptical as to whether a revolution. Western societies and suggested that communism might end up being just as oppressive as capitalism.

Question 22

Weberianism: Status

Answer 22

Status refers to the distribution of social honour, how much respect a person receives from others and whether they are seen as superior or inferior to others. 
Status may be linked to a person’s economic or class position but may also derive from other things such as their ethnicity, religion or lifestyle.

Question 23

Criticisms of Weberianism

Answer 23

• based on economic factors, it could be argued that they have much more to do with individuals’ social status
• Marxists, who argue that focusing on multiple social classes and different dimensions of inequality obscures the fundamental importance of class divisions in capitalist societies. Argue that status distinctions within the working class are often encouraged as a means of ‘divide and rule’ by the ruling class and that the really important political struggles are linked to the class struggle and conflicts over economic interests

Question 24

Feminism

Answer 24

-Focus on Gender/other theories ignore women

Question 25

Feminism: Abbot

Answer 25

• Criticised Goldthorpe who claimed that S/C position is obtained by the family
• Need to study women separately as their social mobility is different
• Men gain at the expense of women

Question 26

Feminism Social Mobility

Answer 26

• Women have less chance at the top positions

- Postpone marriage and children increases the ability to get top jobs

Question 27

Feminism Example

Answer 27

A higher proportion of women are in persistent poverty 8% v 6% (2017 ONS)

Question 28

Postmodernism

Answer 28

• Class is losing its significance.
• Argue that theories of class developed by writers in the 19th century to describe modern societies are no longer relevant
• 21st century, people see themselves much more as individuals over part of a social class.

Question 29

Postmodernism: Beck

Answer 29

• Since the 1970s, in economically advanced societies, most people have enough to meet their material needs such as food and housing.
• Focus on new problems and conflicts in what Beck terms ‘risk society’.
• Central problem of society is no longer creating and distributing wealth but of managing the risks created by science and technology, (nuclear energy or pollution)
• Risks affect everyone, rich and poor alike, and so people’s awareness of social class has diminished.
• People have become individualised and more concerned with their personal interests.
• Beck concludes that class is insignificant and people are more individualised

Question 30

Postmodernism Criticisms

Answer 30

• Not helpful as clear divisions still exist
• Limited funds mean limited choices
• Gender and race needs to be considered
• Evidence of inequalities in multiple areas of life