Transcript Measuring Social Class

Measuring Social Class
•Need to know:
•The meaning of social class
• How social class is measured
• Reasons for measuring it
• Changes in Social Class
Social class
• Social class is a way of dividing society
into different groups
• The way it is measured is usually based
on income, wealth and occupation
Why do we measure social class?
• It can be used as a predictor of an
individuals “life chances”
• It provides information about the
population which can help the government
when making social and economic policies
• It helps us to understand how society is
changing
How does the Government
measure social class?
• The Registrar Generals Model of Social
Class (5 classes all related to job)
• Standard Occupation System (9
groupings – again all related to jobs)
• National Statistics Social Grades (still
mostly jobs but now includes people not
working, students, non-working spouses
etc. It also grades peoples ‘status’ within
an occupation)
Recap
• “Middle-class” and “working class” carry an
identity that many of us keep throughout our
lives – pride in our “roots”
• Old definitions of Middle-class and working class
are less useful today due to changes in society
and employment
• We examined 3 ways of measuring social class
• Standard occupational Classification (SOC) (p9)
• National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification
(NS-SEC) (p9)
• The Registrar General’s classification (p11)
Task
• Looking at the three tables, which social
classes would you equate with:
• Upper middle class
• Lower middle class
• Working class
Social Class Distribution in the
British Isles (p10)
• Which is the largest social class group (use the
NS-SEC)?
• Are social classes distributed evenly across the
British isles?
• Which areas have the highest concentration of
– Upper middle class (ONS class 1.1)
– Lower middle class (ONS class 1.2 and 2)
– Working class (ONS class 3-8)
• Give statistics from the table to back up your answer
• Can you think of any reasons for this?
The Runciman Scale
This is also based on 3
categories:
1. People who own
companies etc
2. People who have control
within companies
3. How valued a person’s
skill are by society.
What Changes have taken
place in the class structure in
recent years?
Decline of traditional working class:
Decline of heavy industry such as coal
mining, shipbuilding etc.
In 1911, ¾ of the workforce were in manual
jobs.
By the 1991 census it had fallen to about
one third – this is called ‘structural
economic change
Growth of the service, white collar and light
manufacturing sectors
Growth of the ‘new
working’ class:
Increased home
ownership
Increased
shareholding
(privatisation of public
industries)
Growth of self
employed
The growth of women as a % of the
workforce:
29% of workforce in 1900 to 46% 2000
Over ½ of people in the top 3 job
categories are female
More females in skilled non-manual
than male (See above re ‘structural
economic change’ for reasons)
Charles Murray’s theory of the
underclass
• Murray is an American sociologist
• Identifies a group of people excluded from
society who experience greater
disadvantage than the working class (the
unemployed/never worked/benefit
dependent
• Blames the underclass for their problems
through attitudes and choices
(laziness/criminality/single-motherhood)
Hutton’s ‘30:30:40’ model
Divides population into 3
main groups
1. The advantaged 40% full-time, secure high
paid jobs;
2. The newly insecure
30% - in work but
poorly paid
3. The disadvantaged
30% - Unemployed,
part time workers,
casual workers