However, many sociologist claims that the influences of social class on identity structure have deteriorated and some even suggest that class no longer exists. (Pakulski and Waters, 1996) These claims were based due to the dramatic rise of unemployment in 1970-80s, where social and economic structure within large manufacturing industries and organisations dominated by man, fragmented, such as mining, trade unions and political and social clubs, which resulted not only with work-base identification within community culture to diminish but also created a shift to other sources of identity, such as gender and ethnicity. (Woodward, 2004, p.96) For example, an extract of writing by a former coal miner, John Greaves, who worked at Goldthorpe mining pit, portray his account before 1984, where he identified and made sense of himself by being part of coal mining community. Subsequent of the pit closure, John not only lost his identity but also his sense of belonging. (Woodward, 2004, p.29)
Although the concept of class within identity is contested, there are two main theories, written by Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Max Weber (1864-1920), which help us understand the link between social class and our identities. Both theories express that class is embedded in the economic structure, which defined as capitalism. However, for Marx, capitalist society produced “two great warring and hostile camps”(Marx and Engels, 1848, p.49), which he calls ‘bourgeoisie’- ruling class and ‘proletariat’- working class. He predict that big business would exploit or squeeze out small-scale capitalists, such as shop owners and self-employed, which will ignite a conflict and class-consciousness within society through collective identity. (Woodward, 2004, p. 98) Conversely, Weber’s vision of social class expressed as stratification, focusing on the status division within a particular organisation, which refers to a group of individuals that share market position by having common background, interests and similar opportunities for earning income through work or trade. These various class groupings, with a distinct market circumstances, creates division and inequalities according to their status, which restrict them or privilege them for opportunities to a better life style with relation to consumption of goods and services, such as, better housing, health, education, employment and income. (Woodward, 2004. p.100).
Furthermore, the British Social Attitudes Survey has also given evidence of how class permeates people’s understanding of society. The 1995-96 edition, has shown that 69 per cent of individuals who took part in the survey said that; a person’s social class affected their opportunities in life a ‘great deal‘ or ‘quite a lot‘ {Jowell et. al}. A different survey made in 1996 has shown that two- thirds of the interviewees believed that ’there is one law for the rich and one for the poor’ and ’ordinary people do not get their fair share of the nation’s wealth’ {Adonis and Pollard, 1998 p.11}. Therefore, individuals see their class position as a barrier to their abilities and growth. (Woodward, 2004, p.95)
In conclusion, class has been a major influential source of identity. It is a social term used to represent and associate us to a certain group with the same economic status through our occupation and income with relation to what we do and have and who we are, which not only gives us a sense of belonging but also justify our existence. However, our economic structure as well as our occupation and income changes over time and evidence show that in the past our social class identification were determined by communality work base as collective identity, where as our society of today shifted to individuality and our social class identification rely upon our life style and consumption.
Word count – 839
References
Questioning identity: gender, class, ethnicity by Kath Woodward, 2004 The Open University