Social class

Social class refers to the ranking of people into a hierarchy within a culture. The idea of social class entered the English lexicon about the 1770's, with no specific originator. Many sociologists and historians see that "higher" classes control subordinate classes. At times, social class can be related to elitism, and those in the higher class are usually known as the "social elite". This ranking may be legal, as in former Indian castes, or abstract.

Various schools of sociology differ in postulating which social traits are significant enough to define a class. The relative importance and definition of membership in a particular class differs greatly over time and between societies, particularly in societies that have a legal differentiation of groups of people by birth or occupation. In the well-known example of socioeconomic class, many scholars view societies as stratifying into a hierarchical system based on economic status, wealth, or income.

Contents

1 Signifiers of class

2 Class models

3 The Lower Class

4 Objective and subjective factors in class in Marxism

5 See also

6 External link

7 Further reading

Signifiers of class

Various schools of sociology differ in postulating which social traits are significant enough to define a class. The following traits are sometimes used:

education
genealogy
income
manners and style. For example, Bourdieu seems to have a notion of high and low classes with a distinction between bourgeois taste and the working class taste.
net worth
occupation
ownership of land, means of production, slaves...
political standing vis-a-vis the government
reputation of honor or disgrace
social prestige, as from an honorary title, or association with an esteemed organization or person

Class models

Two Classes Using wealth as a dimension, many have used a bi-partite model to view societies, from ancient history to the present day:

an Upper class of the immensely wealthy and/or powerful
a Lower class of the poor and/or weak

Social class formed a very important component of Karl Marx's relations of production. He suggested that the primary social division was between a "ruling class" and a labouring class. Under slavery, this division corresponds to that between the slave-owners and the slaves, while under feudalism, it corresponds to that between lords and serfs. Under capitalism, Marx argued, the capitalists (the bourgeoisie) exploit the working class (the proletariat, or in other words the wage-earners). See labor theory of value.

Note that the Marxist definition of class polarisation is based in the first instance on how money is earned, not how much money is earned. The bourgeois are those who own capital assets or means of production (i.e. business owners), and hire people to work for them. Proletarians are those who do not own means of production and earn their living by working for the bourgeois and receiving wages. However, the amount of money earned becomes important in defining class boundaries, since beyond a certain amount, the capital owned removes the necessity to work for an employer. Persons from intermediate classes such as the middle class own substantial assets and earn higher incomes, possibily making their employment a matter of choice.

When sociologists speak of "class" they usually mean economically based classes in modern or near pre-modern society. Modern usage of the word "class" outside of Marxism generally considers only the relative wealth of individuals or social groups, and not the ownership of the means of production.

Three Classes With the social changes of the 20th century, a gradually developing urban middle class appeared in most Western countries, producing three strata:

an Upper class of the immensely wealthy and/or powerful
a Middle class of managers and highly paid professionals
a Lower class of people paid average or low wages or receiving "welfare". This includes the homeless.

Some view this as an oligarchy, i.e., a ruling class with the assistance of a middling class dominating the working class. Other theories are less critical of the upper classes, seeing them as protectors or innovators (not mere leeches).

Four Classes After the Industrial Revolution a great deal of snobbery arose in Europe and its former colonies as to whether one's occupation got one dirty or not. Jobs became know as white collar if they were clean and safe, or blue collar if they posed a physical threat and got one dirty. Some people maintain this distinction, separating the middle class of workers into white or blue collar.

Upper class- live off investments and do not work
Upper middle class- work in clean, safe environments and have a degree of economic freedom
Lower middle class- work in dirty, dangerous environments and have a degree of economic freedom
Lower class- are entirely dependent on pleasing employers and landlords in order to survive

Five Classes

Overclass- actively rules the society and makes decisions affecting large groups of people
Upper class- Controls some employees and/or renters, but is not a maker of laws or national policies
Middle class- Is economically independent, but does not control others
Lower class- Is dependent on others, but maintains freedom of movement between rentals and jobs
Underclass- Does not have freedom of movement: prisoners, slaves in some societies...

Six Classes

Ruling class
Leisure class
Upper middle class which works to maintain a luxurious lifestyle
Lower middle class which works to support a comfortable lifestyle
Lower class which works to support subsistence
Underclass which is barred from work, so is not allowed to advance its status (prisoners, youth, elderly, women in many cultures...)

Seven Classes

Overclass- rulers
Upper class- live off investments
Upper middle class- live luxuriously from wages
Middle class- live comfortably from wages
Lower middle class- live precariously from wages, but still own their own home
Lower class- renters and squatters
Underclass- prisoners, slaves, homeless...

Nine Classes Historian Paul Fussell has developed a nine-tier structure to describe the American class system:

Top out-of-sight: the super-rich, heirs to huge fortunes
Upper Class: rich celebrities and people who can afford full-time domestic staff
Upper-Middle Class: self-made well-educated professionals
Middle Class: office workers
High Prole: skilled blue-collar workers
Mid Prole: workers in factories and the service industry
Low Prole: manual laborers
Destitute: the homeless
Bottom out-of-sight: those incarcerated in prisons and institutions

Ten Classes

Invisible overclass- those who can affect sweeping change without ever exposing themselves to public criticism
Visible overclass- government leaders
Old money upper class
New money upper class
White collar homeowners
Blue collar homeowners
White collar renters
Blue collar renters
Free lower class- homeless
Imprisoned lower class

Multiple variations The sociologist Max Weber formulated a three-component theory of stratification, with social, status and party classes (or politics) as conceptually distinct elements. All three dimensions have consequences for what Weber called "life chances".

Class is based on economic relationship to the market (owner, rentier, employee etc.)
Status has to do with non-economic qualities like honour and prestige (see status class)
Party refers to factors having to do with affiliations in the political domain (see party class)

The Lower Class

Most of the historical interest in the idea of class has revolved around middle class people who wanted to learn ways to become upper class. It was Karl Marx who most importantly first focused on the lower class as the primary agent of change in the World. Marx termed the lower class as a "proletariat", thus removing the stigma of the word "lower". "Proletariat" has now come into general usage, although its use is considered suspect by many capitalists.

The most important transformation of society for Marxists has been the massive and rapid growth of the proletariat in the world population during the last two hundred and fifty years. Starting with agricultural and domestic textile labourers in England and Flanders, more and more occupations only provide a living through wages or salaries. Private enterprise or self-employment in a variety of occupations is no longer as viable as it once was, and so many people who once controlled their own labour-time are converted into proletarians. Today groups which in the past subsisted on stipends or private wealth -- like doctors, academics or lawyers -- are now increasingly working as wage labourers. Marxists call this process "proletarianisation," and point to it as the major factor in the proletariat being the largest class in current societies in the rich countries of the "first world."

It should be kept in mind that poor rural labourers are a still a huge part of the human population, and quite possibly still the statistical majority. Their relationship with production is predominantly as landless wage labourers or rural proletarians. The destruction of a self-sufficient peasantry, and its conversion into a rural proletariat, is largely a result of the general proletarianisation of all work. This process is today largely complete, although it was arguably incomplete in the 1960s and 1970s.

Objective and subjective factors in class in Marxism

Marxism has a rather heavily defined dialectic between objective factors (i.e., material conditions, the social structure) and subjective factors (i.e. the conscious organization of class members). While most Marxism analyses people's class status based on objective factors (class structure), major Marxist trends have made excellent use of subjective factors in understanding the history of the working class. E.P. Thompson's Making of the English Working Class is a definitive example of this "subjective" Marxist trend. Thompson analyses the English working class as a group of people with shared material conditions coming to a positive self-consciousness of their social position. This feature of social class is commonly termed class consciousness in Marxism. It is seen as the process of a "class in itself" moving in the direction of a "class for itself," a collective agent that changes history rather than simply being a victim of the historical process.

External link

Dictionary of the history of ideas: (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-54) Class

Social class

Signifiers of class

Class models

The Lower Class

Objective and subjective factors in class in Marxism

See also

External link

Further reading

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