Although a basic difference between class and status is shown above, Weber went onto draw out and analyse further details of the two included within the titles. Weber looks on class as rooted in the economic sphere and considers classes to be economic entities in that the “market situation is primary in determining class”. He believed there are many more possible classes than just capitalists and workers where capital and labour form the basis for class these can include financiers, entrepreneurs, lawyers and so forth.
Weber saw classes as not communities but bases for communal action in which a number of people have in common a specific component represented by economic interests. “Class situation” is determined as “market situation” in the sense that the chance of using goods or services on the market is the decisive moment, which presents a common condition for the individual’s fate. Weber states “We may speak of ‘class’ when a number of people have in common a specific causal component of their life chances, in so far as this component is represented exclusively by economic interests in the possession of goods and opportunities for income, and is represented under the conditions of commodity labour or labour markets.”
Weber accordingly placed a strong emphasis on how market and property relate to class situation. This element regarding the market “is represented under conditions of the commodity or labour markets”. It is determined by skills and services that can be used on the market such as credentials and certificates, which can act to increase life chances [Morrison, 1995:234]. Class situation refers to a similar position with respect to the ownership of property or goods, or having (or lacking) opportunities to obtain specific types of income on the market (e.g. lawyers, entertainers)3. That is, those having similar economic interests with respect to particular markets are in a similar position. Weber notes “The typical chance for a supply of goods, external living conditions, and personal life experiences, in so far as this chance is determined by the amount and kind of power, or lack of such, to dispose of goods or skills for the sake of income in a given economic order”.
“A group of people in a similar situation they correspondingly have their life chances determined more or less in common, by a factor that strongly affects this, therefore”4 Weber argues that owners are in a better position to benefit from what they have than are non-owners, because the propertied can increase their life chances by profitable deals and increasing their monopoly whereas the other main class can increase their life chances by selling their services on the market; the profitability of this is determined by the market conditions. Thus, classes tend to fall along the lines of owners and non-owners (i.e. labourers) 4. Each of these can then be broken up by the type of ownership and type of service they provide.
This eventually leads to the formation of major classes from Weber’s perspective. While there could be such a pluralism of classes that it would be difficult to analyse class structure4, Weber also argued that at a particular time and place there were a number of major classes that are most important. The working class as a whole, the more so the more automated the work process becomes. Weber notes that members of the propertyless intelligentsia may have a chance to move become members of the classes privileged through property or education, and Weber notes that “money increasingly buys everything”.
Whereas conventionally it can be difficult to distinguish between class and status, (as briefly outlined previously) Weber defined clear differences. Status is primarily defined by consumption patterns, lifestyle and habits of taste [Morrison, 1995:239] as opposed to position on the economic market or property. Weber believed that Marx had overlooked the relevance of such categorization because of his exclusive attention that class was the only division of people.
Traditionally there is a fairly high correlation between standing in class and in status order. Although in principle different classes can appear in the same status group as property or economics are not necessarily linked to status, however it is more common for the economically powerful class to acquire high status in society. In contrast to classes, status groups are normally communities5, which are held together by notions of proper life-styles and by the social esteem and honour accorded to them by others. Linked with this are expectations of restrictions on social intercourse with those not belonging to the circle of the status group and assumed social distance toward inferiors. A status group can exist only to the extent that others accord its member’s prestige or degrading, which removes them from the rest of social actors and establishes the necessary social distance between “them” and “us”.
Status groups are organized on the basis of what Weber calls honour. We might think of this as a sense of group identity and distinctiveness. Every successful class must become a status group. Status group formation is the manner in which social classes become conscious of themselves, of their interests, and of their particular virtues (for example, chivalry as the virtue of the nobility) [Morrison, 1995:240]. Different status groups can be ethnic groups, nationality, and members of a school or profession creating an intellectual division, members of social elite such as country clubs, debutants, and old/new money.
From this it can be seen that there are many differences between class and status, from how they are formed to what can be achieved by them. I believe classes to be more politically orientated, as they are used as a tool of revolution and to change society. Whilst status is more sociologically orientated, it is formed by conceptions and created by/ingrained on people’s minds. Therefore status is not inherent to society, but a creation (mainly from capitalism) that will always be present. This is due how Weber stratified society into three, class, status and power, both class and status are vehicles for exuding power over the socially “weak” classes and extending the power of the economically dominant. Although the two will always be intrinsically linked, you cannot have status without class nor vice verse, in Weber's view every society is divided into status groups with distinctive life-styles and views of the world, just as it is divided into distinctive classes. In modern society Weber’s stratification of society is far more appropriate than Marx’s, the detail and separation he creates an accurate view of society that transcends time to still be applicable to analysing today’s culture.
Books
Morrison, Ken. (1995) Marx, Durkheim, Weber – Formations of Modern Social Thought, Sage
Weber, Max. (1978) Economy and Society, University of California Press
Websites
Max Weber: I. Class, Status, Party
www.soc.sbs.ohio-state.edu/classes/ Soc488/Moody/class_notes/Weber.htm
1/12/03
Multiple Sources of Power – Class, Status, and Party
www.uregina.ca/~gingrich/o2302.htm
1/12/03
Max Weber
www.cf.ac.uk/socsi/undergraduate/introsoc/mweber.html
2/12/03
Stratification - The act or process or arranging persons into classes
Website - Multiple Sources of Power – Class, Status, and Party
4 Website - Max Weber: I. Class, Status, Party
5. Website - Multiple Sources of Power – Class, Status, and Party
