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