A mid-nineteenth century German philosopher named ‘Karl Marx’ is a very important figure in understanding the concept of social class. He published many writings preaching his theories and principles on his insight into social class. This gained him great status in sociological circles, although he did have many critics to his theories, e.g. functionalists. His theory of society is now very famously known as ‘Marxism’, although other social theorists have evolved his theory through time such as ‘neo-Marxists’. At Karl Marx’s time of writing he believed all societies were divided into two groups. These two groups were known as the bourgeois; the owners of the means of production (e.g. the middle/upper class) and the proletariat; the people who work for a living (e.g. the working class). The U.K industrial revolution made an enormous change in our social structure. The two classes mentioned by Marx emerged throughout this period. The bourgeois exploited their workers so they could increase their profits which showed an obvious and unfair split in society, and according to Marx this exploitation was only going to increase in the future. Marxists believed in equality of distribution of income and wealth, predicting the time would come when the proletariats would fight back causing a mass revolution which would see the working class taking control, collectively spreading the wealth and income earned.
The social signifigance of class is important to sociology. However social class is progressively difficult to agree on a social class classification due to the evolution and changes in areas such as occupation, wealth, status and even material possessions. As occupations have been changing through the years as in the nature and types of work people do, some sociologists claim this has led to a change in the social class structure. The fact that wealth and material possessions have also generally increased along with, and maybe even due to, work changes then this may be where these sociologists have taken onboard this theory. There are two formal ways the U.K measures social class classification, one being the Governments Register-Generals classification and the other being Goldthorpes class scheme. Both indicators of class have their strengths and weaknesses but Goldthorpes version seems to have more flaws as I see it. The major weakness being the fact that there is no place for non-paid workers particularly childcare which should not be ignored in our society. Goldthorpe also states that his classification does not have a hierarchical form, wheras this statement has been subject to wide range of criticism from many other leading sociologists such as Marsh (1986); Prandy (1991). Another flaw to point out here is that his scheme is not particularly suitable where womens employment is concerned when in this day and age our society must surely consider this.
An important term used when discussing social stratification and social class is social mobility. It is a phrase used to describe the movements of individuals between the different classes. As the U.K is an open-system it means people can move up and down the class hierarchy. Upward social mobility will occur when people increase there income and wealth, so therefore their status. This means they will move up the ladder of social class. However downward social mobility also occurs, this will happen when people lose income, wealth and status. Hence, they shall move down the ladder of social class. There have been many studies of social mobility in the U.K such as David Glass, Oxford mobility study and the Scottish mobility study. The more recent studies seem to have given us the basis of another theory known as ‘embourgeoisement’ which is a term meaning ‘becoming middle class’. This is the theory that the U.K’s working class has become more middle class, in general terms, as we have seen an increase in salaries and lifestyles of the working class. The best way to illustrate this is through the following diagram:
old class structure new class structure
When people are placed in the different social classes then the effects these people have on their personal life chances are to the extreme when comparing someone at the top of the social ladder to someone at the lower end of the ladder. The higher a person is in the social class ladder the better their life chances will be. Life chances are the opportunities we have in life and how we are able to access them. These chances include factors in areas such as educational opportunities, housing, health and occupation.
