Social class

Social class (or simply "class") is a set of concepts in the social sciences and political theory centered around models of social stratification in which people are grouped into a set of hierarchical social categories.

Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. However, there is not a consensus on the best definition of the term "class", and the term has different contextual meanings. In common parlance, the term "social class," is usually synonymous with "socio-economic class," defined as: "people having the same social, economic, or educational status," e.g., "the working class"; "an emerging professional class."

Etymology

The term "class" is etymologically derived from the Latin classis, which was used by census takers to categorize citizens by wealth, in order to determine military service obligations.

In the late 19th century, the term "class" began to replace hereditary classifications (such as estates, rank, and orders) as the primary means of organizing society into hierarchical divisions. This corresponded to a general decrease in significance ascribed to hereditary characteristics, and increase in the significance of wealth and income as indicators of position in the social hierarchy.

Theoretical models

Definitions of social classes reflect a number of sociological perspectives, informed by anthropology, economics, psychology, and sociology. The major perspectives historically have been Marxism and Functionalism. The common stratum model of class divides society into a simple hierarchy of working class, middle class and upper class. Within academia, two broad schools of definitions emerge: those aligned with 20th-century sociological stratum models of class society, and those aligned with the 19th-century historical materialist economic models of the Marxists and anarchists.

Another distinction can be drawn between analytical concepts of social class, such as the Marxist and Weberian traditions, and the more empirical traditions such as socio-economic status approach, which notes the correlation of income, education and wealth with social outcomes without necessarily implying a particular theory of social structure.

Marxist

Main article: Class in Marxist theory

"[Classes are] large groups of people differing from each other by the place they occupy in a historically determined system of social production, by their relation (in most cases fixed and formulated in law) to the means of production, by their role in the social organization of labor, and, consequently, by the dimensions of the share of social wealth of which they dispose and the mode of acquiring it."

Vladimir Lenin, A Great Beginning - June, 1919

For Marx, class has three primary facets:

1. Objective factors: A class shares a common relationship to the means of production.
2. Subjective factors: The members will necessarily have some perception ("class consciousness") of their similarity and common interest. Class consciousness is not simply an awareness of one's own class interest but is also a set of shared views regarding how society should be organized legally, culturally, socially and politically.
3. Reproduction of class relations: Class is a set of social relationships that is reproduced from one generation to the next.

In Marxist theory, the capitalist stage of production consists of two main classes: the bourgeoisie, the capitalists who own the means of production, and the much larger proletariat (or 'working class') who must sell their own labour power (See also: wage labour). This is the fundamental economic structure of work and property (See also: wage labour), a state of inequality that is normalised and reproduced through cultural ideology.

Marxists explain the history of "civilized" societies in terms of a war of classes between those who control production and those who produce the goods or services in society. In the Marxist view of capitalism, this is a conflict between capitalists (bourgeoisie) and wage-workers (the proletariat). For Marxists, class antagonism is rooted in the situation that control over social production necessarily entails control over the class which produces goods—in capitalism this is the exploitation of workers by the bourgeoisie.^{[citation needed]}

Marx himself argued that it was the goal of the proletariat itself to displace the capitalist system with socialism, changing the social relationships underpinning the class system and then developing into a future communist society in which: "..the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all." (Communist Manifesto) This would mark the beginning of a classless society in which human needs rather than profit would be motive for production. In a society with democratic control and production for use, there would be no class, no state and no need for money.^{[citation needed]}

Weberian

Main article: Three-component theory of stratification

Max Weber formulated a three-component theory of stratification, that saw political power as an interplay between "class", "status" and "group power". Weber believed that class position was determined by a person's skills and education, rather than by their relationship to the means of production. Both Marx and Weber agreed that social stratification was undesirable, however where Marx believed that stratification would only disappear along with capitalism and private property, Weber believed that the solution lay in providing "equal opportunity" within a competitive, capitalist system.

Weber derived many of his key concepts on social stratification by examining the social structure of Germany. He noted that contrary to Marx's theories, stratification was based on more than simply ownership of capital. Weber examined how many members of the aristocracy lacked economic wealth yet had strong political power. Many wealthy families lacked prestige and power, for example, because they were Jewish. Weber introduced three independent factors that form his theory of stratification hierarchy; class, status, and power:

• Class: A person's economic position in a society. Weber differs from Marx in that he does not see this as the supreme factor in stratification. Weber noted how managers of corporations or industries control firms they do not own; Marx would have placed such a person in the proletariat.
• Status: A person's prestige, social honor, or popularity in a society. Weber noted that political power was not rooted in capital value solely, but also in one's individual status. Poets or saints, for example, can possess immense influence on society with often little economic worth.
• Power: A person's ability to get their way despite the resistance of others. For example, individuals in state jobs, such as an employee of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or a member of the United States Congress, may hold little property or status but they still hold immense power.

The common three-stratum model

Today, concepts of social class often assume three general categories: a very wealthy and powerful upper class that owns and controls the means of production; a middle class of professional workers, small business owners, and low-level managers; and a lower class, who rely on low-paying wage jobs for their livelihood and often experience poverty.

Upper class

Members of the upper class generally wield much greater political power than members of the lower or middle class. Pictured here are U.S. President George W. Bush and World Bank President James Wolfensohn.

Main article: Upper class

See also: Elite, Aristocracy, and Oligarchy

The upper class is the social class composed of those who are wealthy, well-born, or both. They usually wield the greatest political power. In some countries, wealth alone is sufficient to allow entry into the upper class. In others, only people born into certain aristocratic bloodlines are considered members of the upper class, and those who gain great wealth through commercial activity are looked down upon as nouveau riche. The upper class is generally contained within the wealthiest 1 or 2 percent of the population. Members of the upper class are often born into it, and are distinguished by immense wealth which is passed from generation to generation in the form of estates. Sometimes members of the upper class are called "the one percent".

Middle class

Main article: Middle class

The middle class, (sometimes called the bourgeoisie^{[citation needed]}), are the most contested of the three categorizations, the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the lower class and upper class. In the United States, the term "middle class" is applied very broadly and includes people who would elsewhere be considered lower class. The vast majority of Americans identify themselves as being middle class, so there are multiple theories as to what constitutes the American middle class.^{[citation needed]} Middle class workers are sometimes called "white-collar workers".

Theorists such as Ralf Dahrendorf have noted the tendency toward an enlarged middle class in modern Western societies, particularly in relation to the necessity of an educated work force in technological economies. Perspectives concerning globalization and neocolonialism, such as dependency theory, suggest this is due to the shift of low-level labour to developing nations and the Third World.

Working class

Working class people often live in decaying, crime-ridden urban areas with low-quality civil services.

Main article: Working class

The working class (or "proletariat") are those employed in low-paying wage jobs with very little economic security. Marx believed that the working class would be responsible for the creation of a socialist society, both because they comprise the majority of humanity, and because they experience the most economic exploitation at the hands of the upper class.

The working class is sometimes separated into those who are employed but lacking financial security, and an underclass—those who are long-term unemployed and/or homeless, especially those receiving welfare from the state. The latter is sometimes called the "lumpenproletariat". Members of the working class are sometimes called blue-collar workers.

Indicators of class position

In class societies a person's class status is a type of group membership. Theorists disagree about the elements determining membership, but common features appear in many accounts. Among these are:

• Relationships of production, ownership and consumption
• A common legal status, including ceremonial, occupational and reproductive rights
• Family, kinship or tribal group structures or membership
• Acculturation, including education

Classes often have a distinct lifestyle that emphasizes their class. The most powerful class in a society often uses markers such as costume, grooming, manners and language codes that mark insiders and outsiders; unique political rights conferred by honorary titles; and concepts of social honour or face that are claimed to only be applicable to the in-group. The distinctive features of a class often become defining elements of personal identity and uniting factors in group behaviour. French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu suggests a notion of high and low classes with a distinction between bourgeois tastes and sensitivities and the working class tastes and sensitivities.^{[citation needed]}

Consequences of class position

A person's socioeconomic class has wide-ranging effects. It may determine the schools they are able to attend, the jobs open to them, who they may marry, and their treatment by police and the courts.^{[citation needed]}

Education

A person's social class has a significant impact on their educational opportunities. Not only are upper-class parents able to send their children to exclusive schools, but in many places state-supported schools for children of the upper class are much higher quality than those the state provides for children of the lower classes. This lack of good schools is one factor that perpetuates the class divide across generations.

Health and nutrition

A person's social class has a significant impact on their physical health, their ability to receive adequate medical care and nutrition, and their life expectancy.

Lower-class people experience a wide array of health problems as a result of their economic status. They are unable to use health care as often, and when they do it is of lower quality, even though they generally tend to experience a much higher rate of health issues. Lower-class families have higher rates of infant mortality, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and disabling physical injuries. Additionally, poor people tend to work in much more hazardous conditions, yet generally have much less (if any) health insurance provided for them, as compared to middle and upper class workers.

Employment

The conditions at a person's job vary greatly depending on class. Those in the upper-middle class and middle class enjoy greater freedoms in their occupations. They are usually more respected, enjoy more diversity, and are able to exhibit some authority. Those in lower classes tend to feel more alienated and have lower work satisfaction overall. The physical conditions of the workplace differ greatly between classes. While middle-class workers may "suffer alienating conditions" or "lack of job satisfaction", blue-collar workers are more apt to suffer alienating, often routine, work with obvious physical health hazards, injury, and even death.

Police and the courts

The poor are much more likely to be beaten or detained by the police, and in the often over-crowded court systems are much less likely to receive a fair trial. Lower-class citizens are far more likely to go to jail than upper-class citizens guilty of the same crime. This is especially true of crimes involving illegal drugs. In the United States, a Black man (who is ofter viewed as being in the underclass regardless of wealth) is much more likely to be arrested and imprisoned for a drug-related offense than a White, while many upper-class Americans, especially in Hollywood, use drugs publicly with impunity. The last three presidents of the United States have all admitted to using illegal drugs; none has been arrested for the crime.

Class conflict

Main article: Class conflict

Marx believed that the exploitation and poverty inherent in capitalism would drive the lower classes to revolt, in efforts to bring about a more equitable distribution of wealth and political power.

Classless societies

Main article: Classless society

Relationship between race and class

Main article: Racial inequality

Race and other large-scale groupings can also influence class standing. The association of particular ethnic groups with class statuses is common in many societies. As a result of conquest or internal ethnic differentiation, a ruling class is often ethnically homogenous and particular races or ethnic groups in some societies are legally or customarily restricted to occupying particular class positions. Which ethnicities are considered as belonging to high or low classes varies from society to society. In modern societies strict legal links between ethnicity and class have been drawn, such as in apartheid, the caste system in Africa, and in the position of the Burakumin in Japanese society.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Caste
• Chattering classes
• Class conflict
• Class consciousness
• Classless society
• Drift Hypothesis
• Elite theory
• Elitism
• Gilbert Model

• Health and Social Class
• Mass society
• National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC)
• Passing
• Poverty
• Ranked society
• Raznochinets
• Second-class citizen

• Social exclusion
• Social mobility
• Social position
• Social status
• Social stratification

Class by region or historical period

• Class in Aztec society
• Class in the contemporary United States
• Four divisions of society
• Inca society
• Indian caste system
• Korean ruling class
• Social class in ancient Rome
• Social structure of Britain
• Social class in Italy
• Social structure of China
• Social class in New Zealand
• Poverty in the United States
• Social class in American history
• Social structure of the United States

Further reading

• Archer, Louise et al. Higher Education and Social Class: Issues of Exclusion and Inclusion (RoutledgeFalmer, 2003) (ISBN 0-4152-7644-6)
• Aronowitz, Stanley, How Class Works: Power and Social Movement, Yale University Press, 2003. ISBN 0300105045
• Barbrook, Richard (2006). The Class of the New (paperback ed.). London: OpenMute. ISBN 0-9550664-7-6. http://www.theclassofthenew.net. 
• Beckert, Sven, and Julia B. Rosenbaum, eds. The American Bourgeoisie: Distinction and Identity in the Nineteenth Century (Palgrave Macmillan; 2011) 284 pages; Scholarly studies on the habits, manners, networks, institutions, and public roles of the American middle class with a focus on cities in the North.
• Bertaux, Daniel & Thomson, Paul; Pathways to Social Class: A Qualitative Approach to Social Mobility (Clarendon Press, 1997)
• Bisson, Thomas N.; Cultures of Power: Lordship, Status, and Process in Twelfth-Century Europe (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995)
• Blackledge, Paul (2011). "Why workers can change the world". Socialist Review 364 (London - A useful analysis of class generally and nature of working class more specifically). http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=11839. 
• Blau, Peter & Duncan Otis D.; The American Occupational Structure (1967) classic study of structure and mobility
• Brady, David "Rethinking the Sociological Measurement of Poverty" Social Forces Vol. 81 No.3, (March 2003), pp. 715–751 (abstract online in Project Muse).
• Broom, Leonard & Jones, F. Lancaster; Opportunity and Attainment in Australia (1977)
• Cohen, Lizabeth; Consumer's Republic, (Knopf, 2003) (ISBN 0-375-40750-2). (Historical analysis of the working out of class in the United States).
• Croix, Geoffrey de Ste.; "Class in Marx's Conception of History, Ancient and Modern", New Left Review, No. 146, (1984), pp. 94–111 (good study of Marx's concept).
• Dargin, Justin The Birth of Russia's Energy Class, Asia Times (2007) (good study of contemporary class formation in Russia, post communism)
• Day, Gary; Class, (Routledge, 2001) (ISBN 0-415-18222-0)
• Domhoff, G. William, Who Rules America? Power, Politics, and Social Change, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice-Hall, 1967. (Prof. Domhoff's companion site to the book at the University of California, Santa Cruz)
• Eichar, Douglas M.; Occupation and Class Consciousness in America (Greenwood Press, 1989)
• Fantasia, Rick; Levine, Rhonda F.; McNall, Scott G., eds.; Bringing Class Back in Contemporary and Historical Perspectives (Westview Press, 1991)
• Featherman, David L. & Hauser Robert M.; Opportunity and Change (1978).
• Fotopoulos, Takis, Class Divisions Today: The Inclusive Democracy approach, Democracy & Nature, Vol. 6, No. 2, (July 2000)
• Fussell, Paul; Class (a painfully accurate guide through the American status system), (1983) (ISBN 0-345-31816-1)
• Giddens, Anthony; The Class Structure of the Advanced Societies, (London: Hutchinson, 1981).
• Giddens, Anthony & Mackenzie, Gavin (Eds.), Social Class and the Division of Labour. Essays in Honour of Ilya Neustadt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982).
• Goldthorpe, John H. & Erikson Robert; The Constant Flux: A Study of Class Mobility in Industrial Society (1992)
• Grusky, David B. ed.; Social Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective (2001) scholarly articles
• Hazelrigg, Lawrence E. & Lopreato, Joseph; Class, Conflict, and Mobility: Theories and Studies of Class Structure (1972).
• Hymowitz, Kay; Marriage and Caste in America: Separate and Unequal Families in a Post-Marital Age (2006) ISBN 1566637090
• Kaeble, Helmut; Social Mobility in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Europe and America in Comparative Perspective (1985)

• Jens Hoff, "The Concept of Class and Public Employees". Acta Sociologica, vol. 28, no. 3, July 1985, pp. 207–226.
• Mahalingam, Ramaswami; "Essentialism, Culture, and Power: Representations of Social Class" Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 59, (2003), pp. 733+ on India
• Mahony, Pat & Zmroczek, Christine; Class Matters: 'Working-Class' Women's Perspectives on Social Class (Taylor & Francis, 1997)
• Manza, Jeff & Brooks, Clem; Social Cleavages and Political Change: Voter Alignments and U.S. Party Coalitions (Oxford University Press, 1999).
• Manza, Jeff; "Political Sociological Models of the U.S. New Deal" Annual Review of Sociology, (2000) pp. 297+
• Manza, Jeff; Hout, Michael & Brooks Clem; "Class Voting in Capitalist Democracies since World War II: Dealignment, Realignment, or Trendless Fluctuation?" Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 21, (1995)
• Marmot, Michael; The Status Syndrome: How Social Standing Affects Our Health and Longevity (2004)
• Marx, Karl & Engels, Frederick; The Communist Manifesto, (1848). (The key statement of class conflict as the driver of historical change).
• Merriman, John M.; Consciousness and Class Experience in Nineteenth-Century Europe (Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1979)
• Ostrander, Susan A.; Women of the Upper Class (Temple University Press, 1984).
• Owensby, Brian P.; Intimate Ironies: Modernity and the Making of Middle-Class Lives in Brazil (Stanford University, 1999).
• Pakulski, Jan & Waters, Malcolm; The Death of Class (Sage, 1996). (rejection of the relevance of class for modern societies)
• Payne, Geoff; The Social Mobility of Women: Beyond Male Mobility Models (1990)
• Savage, Mike; Class Analysis and Social Transformation (London: Open University Press, 2000).
• Sennett, Richard & Cobb, Jonathan; The Hidden Injuries of Class, (Vintage, 1972) (classic study of the subjective experience of class).
• Siegelbaum, Lewis H. & Suny, Ronald; eds.; Making Workers Soviet: Power, Class, and Identity. (Cornell University Press, 1994). Russia 1870-1940
• Wlkowitz, Daniel J.; Working with Class: Social Workers and the Politics of Middle-Class Identity (University of North Carolina Press, 1999).
• Weber, Max. "Class, Status and Party", in e.g. Gerth, Hans and C. Wright Mills, From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, (Oxford University Press, 1958). (Weber's key statement of the multiple nature of stratification).
• Weinburg, Mark; "The Social Analysis of Three Early 19th century French liberals: Say, Comte, and Dunoyer", Journal of Libertarian Studies, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 45–63, (1978).
• Wood, Ellen Meiksins; The Retreat from Class: A New 'True' Socialism, (Schocken Books, 1986) (ISBN 0-8052-7280-1) and (Verso Classics, January 1999) reprint with new introduction (ISBN 1-8598-4270-4).
• Wood, Ellen Meiksins; "Labor, the State, and Class Struggle", Monthly Review, Vol. 49, No. 3, (1997).
• Wouters, Cas.; "The Integration of Social Classes." Journal of Social History. Volume 29, Issue 1, (1995). pp 107+. (on social manners)
• Wright, Erik Olin; The Debate on Classes (Verso, 1990). (neo-Marxist)
• Wright, Erik Olin; Class Counts: Comparative Studies in Class Analysis (Cambridge University Press, 1997)
• Wright, Erik Olin ed. Approaches to Class Analysis (2005). (scholarly articles)
• Zmroczek, Christine & Mahony, Pat (Eds.), Women and Social Class: International Feminist Perspectives. (London: UCL Press 1999)