Social class: Weberian

Question 1

3 dimensions to social class:

Answer 1

• Social class
• Party
• Status

Question 2

Weber: Social class

Answer 2

• Weber said that this was a group of people who had a similar market situation.
• This means that they receive similar economic rewards.
  He suggested that there were 4 main social classes:
• The propertied upper class
• The property-less white-collar workers
• The petty bourgeoisie
• The manual working class

Question 3

Weber’s 4 classes:

Answer 3

• The propertied upper class = Wealth owners of big businesses
• The property-less white-collar workers = People with better market situation than manual worker due to having more skills and educational qualifications
• The petty bourgeoisie = owners of small businesses
• The manual working class = This class has the poorest market situation as they don’t have wealth or qualifications to improve their market situation

Question 4

Weber status:

Answer 4

• Weber suggests that people with common status situation from a stronger group identity.
• Status is linked to someone’s economic position, ethnicity, religion, lifestyle.
• This means that ethnic minorities have low status because they face prejudice and discrimination even though they are wealthy.
• Weber says that although class may not be important for people’s identities – individuals are usually very aware of their status situation and gravitate towards those of similar positions.

Question 5

Weber: Party:

Answer 5

• Weber said party was groups who were concerned with exercising power or influence decision making.
• Parties are bigger than the standard political parties
• Parties may include trade unions or pressure groups or groups that represent specific status groups (e.g, Stonewall campaigns for the rights of LGBTQ+ people)

Question 6

Evaluation of Weberian theory:

Answer 6

• Strength = allows for sociologists to create more complex models of how society is stratified.
• Limitation = Focuses on multiple social classes and hides the fundamental importance of class divisions in capitalist society.
• Strength = Has influences on modern sociologists (E.g. Hope-Golthorpe class scale