Social class

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  • Created by: holly6901
  • Created on: 31-12-19 09:33
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  • Social class
    • Upper class
      • Traditionally wealthy
        • Often in the form of land
      • Social closure: The leisure time and daily lives are seperate from the rest of the population
      • This group is waning in number
        • The new super rich is based on achievement rather than ascribed status
    • Middle class
      • Seen as the majority of the population by many
      • Associated with professionals or those who run businesses
      • likely to have gone to university and own their own homes
        • These characteristics  are more achievable
      • Very diverse group with a range of lifestyles
      • Big difference between public sector workers and private sector workers
      • Unlikely they share a common identity
    • Working class
      • Used to form the majority of the population though it is shrinking
      • It was traditionally made up of manual workers
      • Often romanticised as hard-working, straight-talking, salt-of-the-earth identity
        • Many middle-class cling to this identity
      • Women took care of their appearance to be respected
    • Underclass
      • Controversial term coined by New Right thinker Murray
      • Unlikely many will consciously identify as this
      • Originally used by conflict sociologists to highlight inequality
      • Governments are concerned about the underclass
      • Portrayed negatively through Jeremy Kyle and Benefits Street
    • Studies
      • Mooney (2004): A key feature of the upper class is social closure
      • Fox (2004): upper middles, middle middles and lower middles
      • Hutton (1995): The decline in trade union membership  and the manufacturing sector and the dispersal of working-class communities has erased working class identities
      • Skeggs (1997): Studied working class women who were humiliated by the way they were dismissed because of their working class identity
      • Murray (1984): Over-generous benefits encourages some people to develop a culture in which they do not take responsibility for their actions and expect to be looked after by the state

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