Stratification- Problems With Defining Social Class

Question 1

What does Giddens argue about social class?

Answer 1

-society can be divided into an UC,MC,WC, drawing on Weber- argued that class position is determined by ‘market capacity’ (the way people make a living)
-distinguished 3 types of market capacity:
- upper class - capital ownership
- middle class- educational credentials
- working class- labour power
-acknowledged that one can identify subdivisions within each of these 3 classes, e.g graduates and non graduates among the MC, but nevertheless saw these 3 divisions as fundamental

Question 2

What are wrights views on the class structure?

Answer 2

-competes with traditional Marxism by acknowledging the complexity of modern class structures,
-not everyone fits neatly into either the capitalist or working class, instead some people occupy positions in between, especially managers and supervisors.
-These people:
• May exploit workers below them (like a capitalist),
• But are still controlled by those above (like a worker).

-This means they are in a contradictory class location — they share features of both classes.
-the resulting matrix generated ten ‘contradictory class locations’ between the bourgeoise at the top and the proletariat at the bottom

Question 3

What is Bourdieu’s competing views of the class structure?

Answer 3

• wished to explain how the class structure was reproduced across space and time and how the priviledges of these at the top came to be seen as just as fair
• his crucial innovation was to suggest that capital was not just a matter of money, but also of the possession of valued cultural attributions and social connections, identified 3 types of capital:
• economic capital- income, wealth, inheritance
• cultural capital- attitudes of mind, qualifications, tastes
• social capital- the range and depth of peoples contacts based on their social networks
• once any is recognised as legitimate they provide an individual with ‘symbolic capital’ - represent high status to to others

Question 4

What is the Hope- Gold Thorpe scale and what is its strengths/ weaknesses?

Answer 4

• class classification system that focuses on employment relations, job securities, authority in the work place
• recognised the growth of MC occupations
  Introduced the idea of 3 main social divisions, share similar market position:
• service class (1&2), intermediate class (3&5), working class (6+7)

Strength- it moves beyond simple income or job titles, focusing on work conditions and social position
Weakness- feminists argue it ignores situations where women are in a higher-grade occupation than their husbands

Question 5

What is the Great British Class Survey (GBCS) and what is its strength/ weakness?

Answer 5

• savage draws on Bourdieu’s view that class is not just a matter of economic qualities, but also economic, social and cultural capital
  -with BBC, devised an online questionnaire that people were invited to fill in, asked questions designed to measure economic
  ( assessed by household income/ savings, rented/owned), cultural capital (Leisure interest, music taste) and economic (asking if they knew people in 37 different occupations from cleaner to chief executive)

Strength- doesn’t use occupation as an indicator of economic status, it takes account both income and wealth - allows it to identify a distinct ‘elite’ class at the top of the class structure.

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