Social Class Inequality

• 2012 the annual Sunday Times Rich List suggested the richest 200 families had between them total wealth averaging £225 billion between 2008 and 2010, an avg of more than £1b each (Sunday Times 2012). John Hills (2013) suggests Sunday Times list is probably better at capturing business assets but ONS data gives better coverage of assets such as pensions
• In 2013 poorest 1/5 pop pay far less tax in terms of cash than richest 1/5. Poorest 1/5 pay 37.4% income compared to rich at 35.1%
• 2012 High Pay Centre  report total pay of chief executives of 100 largest companies on London Stock Exchange risen 49% during previous year alone
• Functionalists + New Right thinkers argue unequal incomes + rewards are good b/c they ensure people work hard for better rewards
• Marxist + Weberian thinkers argue senior managers + company directors often in position to determine own salaries - it is the power that creates culture where huge rewards = norm
• Birmingham Commission Report 2013 - Rowlingson and Millineux - found wealth inequalities occur when some people have higher incomes than others, some choose to accumulate wealth, some receive higher levels of inheritance, wealth affects physical + mental wellbeing, educational opportunities - gain political influence. Argue gov needs to reconsider how it distributes wealth, fairer rewards for work + tax reform

Material deprivation

• Douglas (1964) - argues lower income famillies are disadvantaged in education for many reasons, overcrowded home, poor diet, low income/unemployment, lack of nursery provision
• Web (2009) 2006 only 33% children receiving free school meals gained 5A*-C (compared to 61% of children who did not receive free meals, exclusions and truancy are more likely amongst w/c + 90% of failing schools are located in deprived areas
  
• Howard (2001) argues people from poorer homes have lower intake of vitamins + minerals, which leads to poor health, absences then failure
• Wilkinson (1996) argues lower income family children more likely to have emotional or behavioural problems
  
• Financial burden of education might deter w/c from higher education - National Audit Office (2002) found w/c students spend double amount of time in paid employment to pay off debts than middle class students

Cultural capital 

• W/c lack necessary views, attitudes, knowledge + support for educational success
• Middle class being dominant in society get to dictate what counts as right kind of knowledge, attitudes + views  - b/c society is based on m/c culture, m/c have high cultural capital whilst w.c have low levels 
• Douglas and Fernstein argue parents less likely to take interest in education, more likely to fail

Labelling Theory 

• Becker (1971) used interviews of 60 highschool teachers + found teachers stereotyped students based on their work, conduct + appearance
• Hargreaves (1976) another response to stereotyping, labelling, teacher expectations + halo-effect is the formation of anti school subcultures

• Goldthorpe: The Oxford Mobility Study - largest study of social mobility in UK + study sample of 10,000 men + used Hope-Goldthorpe scale to compare class of father + son
• Considerable upward social mobility after the war; 2/3 service class started off in service/working class; can be explained through intro of free comprehensive education for all
• Peter Saunders (1990) argues we should focus on absolute, not relative poverty - argues increasing no. of w/c  children doing well in education + go into work in service class should be celebrated
• Savage and Egerton  NCDS Study - more recent study of social mobility in GB undertaken in 1997 + used data from National Child Development Study based on class the people from 1958 had reached in 1991
• Working class continued to contract and the intermediate and service classes to expand. Upward mobility for working
• Chances of leaving working class did not change greatly; 55% men originating in working stayed
• NCDS service class sons more than twice as likely to end up with service class jobs compared to working class

• Currently 3.7m children in UK living in poverty, 1/4 all children, 1.7m severe poverty
• 63% children in poverty in a family where someone works
• Less than half pupils entitled to FSM achieve 5 GCSEs at C or above, compared to 61% of those not elligible 
• 58% families living in poverty would like to go on holiday but cannot = cultural deprivation
• Incomes of poor households increasingly sensitive to what happens in labour market + income from employment male up 50% income for poorest 1/5 households 2014-15 - poorest vulnerable to downturn in labour market
• Between April 2016 and March 2017 Trussell Trust's Foodbank Network provided 1,128,954 three day emergency food supplies to people in crisis

• Wakeman (2015) argues that families relying on foodbanks do not have a balanced diet leading to deficiencies in fibre, calcium, iron + a variety of vitamins
• Bottero 2005“There is a strong socio-economic gradient to almost all patterns of disease and ill-health. The lower your socio-economic position, the greater your risk of a low birth weights, infections, cancer etc.”
• Marmot et al (1991) found social position is to blame for these differences. Research found the cause of ill health was being lower in the social hierarchy. Those in lower classes have less social control and this can lead to behaviour such as drinking and smoking
• Males in most deprived areas had life expectancy 9yrs shorter than males in least deprived areas., whereas females in most deprived areas had life expectancy 6.9yrs shorter than females in least deprived areas
• The cultural - suggests lower social classes prefer less healthy lifestyles, eat more fatty foods, smoke more and exercise less than the middle and upper classes.
• Social capital (how connected to communities) through work, family, membership of clubs, faith groups and political and social organisations has an impact on health.
• Material - blames poverty, poor housing conditions, lack of resources in health and educational provision + high-risk occupations for the poor health of the lower social classes

• Weber (1948) suggests there were 3 dimensions to social stratification - social class, status and party
• Agree with Marx that there was a basic economic division between property owners + those who sold their labour for wages - argues there was a further division within each of these groups - argues there are 4 main social classes - propertied upper class, propertyless white collar workers, petty bourgeoisie and the manual working class
• Suggested in some circumstances people with common status situation may form stronger group identity - people more aware of their status than social class
• Weber defined parties as groups who were concerned with exercising power or influencing decision-making.

• Saunders (1990) - argues a society based on equality would only be possible if considerable force was used  - to ensure everyone did their jobs to the best of their abilities  b/c they have no motivation from economic rewards. Saunder rejects 3rd type of equality, equality of outcomes. This would involve everyone being rewarded in the same way - argues a degree of inequality is needed in order to motivate people to compete, as long as everyone has equal opportunity. Critical of left-wing attempts to equalise society by helping w/c children achieve the same as m/c, argues m/c more able + deserve to achieve
• Murray (1984) underclass - argue policies of providing welfare benefits for unemployed + lone parents creating a culture of dependency where poor has no motivation to better themselves. They tend to socialise children poorly, normally uneducated + turn to crime

• Two classes emerged in 19th century - bourgeoisie + proletariat - bourgeoisie invest wealth in new ind + proletariat sell their wages cheaply
• John and Westergaard and Henrietta Resler (1976) - argue there is little evidence of class divisions disappearing + inequalities could only be understood as a result of the way that capitalist system operates - divisions widened since 1970s
• Harry Braverman (1974) - argues many m/c workers in reality been deskilled - skills of clerical workers programmed into machines/broken down into simple tasks that can be done by less skilled workers - can be paid lower wages. This is the proletariatinisation where previous m/c workers now considered w/c
• Neo-Marxism - Antonio Gramsci (1971) - developed idea of hegemony to explain why w/c in Western European countries had not risen up in revolution. Gramsci argue ruling class rarely need to use force to exert power b/c they rule through persuasion. This involves using institutions such as media + education to control people's minds - argues some w/c have dual consciuosness + aware of the inequalities + injustices of capitalism 

• Feminist theories have focused primarily on gender inequalities + discussed further in next chapter - some feminists highly critical of traditional sociological theories of class for ignoring women + gender inequalities
• Abbott (1990) criticises Goldthorpe's (1980) study of social mobility for completely ignoring women. Abbott argues there is a need to study women's social mobility as women's experiences of work are different from men - women have lower rates of social mobility b/c they have lower chance of reaching top jobs - boosts men's upward mobility
• Some feminists argue social classifiications such as the Hope-Goldthorpe scale are based around men's occupations + not well suited to exploring class situation of women - new Surrey Occupational Class Schema which differentiates between women + men in different occupationaal classes more effectively

• Jan Pakulski + Malcolm Waters (1996) argue in advanced capitalist societies people now stratified by cultural rather than economic differences
• Ulrich Beck (1996) - argues conflicts of early ind societies concerned distribution of wealth, reflecting fact that many people suffer from poverty + lack of job security - since 1970s in economically advanced societies, most people have enough to meet their material needs such as food + housing - led to focus on new problems + conflicts in risk society -  central problem no longer creating + distributing wealth but of managing risks created by science + tech 
• People become more individualised + more concerned with their personal interests

• Parsons (1951) value consensus - different forms of social class reflects consensus of stratification. Parsons argues in all societies some individuals are better than others at achieving things that are regarded as worthy of reward according to prevailing value consensus. Entrepreneurs deserve who successfully run businesses deserve highest rewards b/c they contribute to smooth running society
• David and Moore (1945) - stratification is functionally necessary and does 2 things 1). allocates right people to most important roles + ensures most important positions in society + filled by most able people by offering them higher rewards such as income + status 2) ensures people in these roles perform them to highest standards + people in key positions such as doctors have many others depending on them so it is important to motivate them to work to the best of their abilities. 
• Davis and Moore argue we can tell what positions are important by 2 factors: 1) functional uniqueness, only unique if only 1 or small no. people can carry out role 2) degree of dependence of others, a chief executive may be not be functinally unique, but they make decisions independently and do not rely on people above them