Post on 23-Dec-2015
transcript
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
• 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
Why do we measure social class?
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% 200029% of workforce in 1900 to 46% 2000Over ½ of people in the top 3 job Over ½ of people in the top 3 job
categories are femalecategories are femaleMore females in skilled non-manual More females in skilled non-manual
than male (See above re ‘structural than male (See above re ‘structural economic change’ for reasons)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