Unit G322: Section A

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Social Class Theory1

Social Class is the form of stratification found in industrial societies, like modern Britain or the
United States. Social classes can be defined as broad groups of people who share a similar
economic situation, such as occupation, income and ownership of wealth. Often these criteria
are closely related to each other and to other aspects of individuals’ lives, such as level of
education, their status and lifestyles (for example, housing, car ownership and leisure
activities), and how much power and influence they have in society.

Social Class And Status

An individual’s social class and status are often closely linked, and a member of a high social
class will usually have higher status as well. This is because the amounts of social respect
individuals get is often linked by the same factors as their social class – their wealth, their
income, their occupation.

There are two main definitions of social class:

• The Marxist view of class,

• The Occupational view of class.

The Marxist Theory Of Social Class

This highly influential theory of social class was developed by the German social theorist Karl
Marx (1818-83). Marx based his ideas on industrial capitalism in the nineteenth-century
England.

Ownership Of The Means Of Production

For Marx, an individual’s social class was defined by whether or not she or he owned the
means of production. By this Marx meant factories and land – the key resources necessary
for producing society’s goods, whose ownership brought to their owners an unearned income
in the form of profit.

Bourgeoisie And Proletariat

Marx argued that there were two basic social classes in industrial society: the class of owners
of the means of production (whom he called the bourgeoisie or capitalists) and the class of
non-owners (whom he called the proletariat or working class). The proletariat, since they
owned no means of production, had no alternative means of livelihood, but to work for the
bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie exploited the proletariat, making profits out of them by keeping
wages low and paying them as little as possible instead of giving them the full payment for
their work.

The Ruling Class

The class of owners was also a ruling class, according Marx. For example, because they
owned the means of production, the bourgeoisie could decide where factories should be
located and whether they should be opened or closed down, and they could control the
workforce through hiring and firing. Democratically elected governments could not afford to
ignore the power of the bourgeoisie, otherwise they might face rising unemployment and other
social problems if the bourgeoisie decided not to invest its money.

1
BROWNE, K (1997). Social Stratification, An Introduction To Sociology: Second Edition, Polity
Press: Cambridge, pgs. 15-26.

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The Ruling Ideas

The ruling ideas in society – what Marx called the ‘dominant ideology’ – were those of the
owning class, and the major institutions in society reflected these ideas. For example, the
laws protected the owning class rather than the workers; religion acted as the ‘opium of the
people’, persuading the proletariat to accept their position as just and natural (rather than
rebelling against it), by promising future rewards in heaven for putting up with their present
suffering; the bourgeoisie’s ownership of the mass media meant only their ideas were put
forward. In this way, the working class were almost brainwashed into accepting their position.
They failed to recognise they were being exploited and therefore did not rebel against the
bourgeoisie, because they thought their position was ‘natural’ and they could see no
alternative to it. Marx called this lack of awareness by the proletariat of their own interests
false consciousness.

Exploitation, Class Conflict, And Revolution

Marx predicted that the working class would become poorer and poorer and society would
become divided into two major social classes:

• A small, wealthy, and powerful bourgeoisie and

• A large, poverty-stricken proletariat.

The exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie, Marx believed, would eventually lead to
major conflict between the poverty-stricken proletariat and the bourgeoisie.

The proletariat would struggle against the bourgeoisie through strikes, demonstrations, and
other forms of protest. The proletariat would then develop class-consciousness – an
awareness of their common working-class interests and their exploitation – until eventually
they would make a socialist revolution and overthrow the bourgeoisie.

Communism
After the revolution, the proletariat would nationalise the means of production (which were
formally the private property of the bourgeoisie) by putting them in the hands of the state. The
means of production would, therefore, be collectively owned and run in the interests of
everyone, not just of the bourgeoisie. Capitalism would be destroyed and a new type of
society would be created, which would be without exploitation, without classes, and without
class conflict. This equal, classless society Marx called Communism.

Social Class - Overview

Registrar Marxist Class White/Bl

General’s Structure ue
Scale Collar
Upper Class Ruling Class N/A
Upper Middle Class Bourgeois White Collar
Lower Middle Class Petit-Bourgeois White Collar
Upper Working Class Proletariat Blue Collar
Lower Working Class Lumpen-Proletariat Blue Collar
The Poor Peasants N/A

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Media Class Classifications

Class Type Media

Classification
Upper Middle Class (3% of population) A
Middle Class (13% of population) B
Lower Middle (22% of population) C1
Skilled Working Class (32% of population) C2
Working Class – excluding skilled (22% of population) D
Lower Class E

The Upper And Upper-Middle Classes

The ‘Upper Class’ consists of the few thousand wealthiest and most culturally privileged
businessmen and property owners in the country. We also consider the very top of the upper
middle class in this section because they often work closely with the upper classes and are
highly privileged themselves. The difference between the upper and upper-middle classes
can also be defined in terms of ‘new’ and ‘old’ money. The term ‘old’ money refers to families
who have been rich and privileged for many generations (at least three/four generations)
whereas ‘new’ money refers to families whose wealth and privilege have been obtained fairly
recently.

By ‘upper-middle’ class we mean people like managing directors of large companies rather
than middle level management; chiefs of staff rather than high-ranking officers; top rather than
middle level government employees, etc.

The important issue in terms of class structure is whether the wealth and opportunities of the
upper class also give them much greater power and control over industrial, political, and
cultural life than other social groups.

The Middle-Class’
The ‘middle-class’ is a huge group. There is, however, a big difference between the ‘upper’
and ‘lower’ middle-class.

The Upper-Middle’Class (Bourgeois)

The ‘upper-middle’ class is composed of professional, managerial and administrative
occupational groups and higher technicians. The very highest levels of the upper-middle
classes are very close to the upper classes but the majority of the upper-middle class do not
achieve any national power or prominence but locally many have significant influence or
status. They often participate in voluntary organisations, become magistrates or stand for
local government. Comparatively speaking, they are well off. Typically, they might earn one
and a half to two and a half times as much as the average national wage, and enjoy
substantially more than average fringe benefits. They earn much more than their lower
middle class counterparts. The average wage of a doctor, for example, is well over twice that
of a schoolteacher.

The Lower-Middle Class (Petit-Bourgeois),

The lower-middle class, or white-collar workers as they are also known, represent one of the
largest of the social classes. Office workers, shopkeepers and sales people make up the
majority of the lower-middle classes. At the top of the lower-middle class are the so-called
‘semi-professionals’ of teaching and nursing. The ‘typical’ white-collar figure is the clerical

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worker, although Marxists would argue that they are wage earners and are therefore part of
the working class.

The Working-Class (Proletariat)

The working-class represents the other large social class. The working classes are those
citizens who work in the so-called ‘blue-collar’ sector that traditionally referred to the low paid
heavy industries, such as coal, steel etc, and the manufacturing industries. Today, however,
with the decline of the heavy and industrial industries, these low paid jobs largely consist of
the service and un-skilled clerical sectors.

The Upper Working-Class

The upper-working class include those with higher status jobs, which are better-paid or highly
skilled such as factory foremen or technicians.

The gap between the working class and the middle-class has, in recent times, began to
disappear. The upper working classes have gone through a period of ‘embourgeoisement’ as
they become more like the middle-classes. With the decline of heavy industry, and the
introduction of legislation such as the minimum wage the working classes have, in some
cases, become relatively better paid to the extent that even working class people now expect
to have a certain standard of living, particularly in terms of the furnishing of their homes, as
well as regular foreign holidays.

The Lower Working Class

The lower working classes refer to those workers with low prestige, low-paid, unskilled jobs,
such as cleaners, shop assistants etc. These jobs are often part time and are filled
mainly by teenagers, who are too young to receive the full minimum wage payments, and
women who tend not to be paid as much as men and are, therefore, cheaper to employ.

The Underclass (Lumpen-Proletariat)

The underclasses are those citizens who are outside of the employment structure such as old
age pensioners, the unemployed, students and the homeless. These people tend to be
poor and rely on state benefits, such as unemployment benefit, state pension, student
loans etc., for their survival.

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Working Class /Underclass Council Estates

Factory workers
 Shop workers
 Minimum wage jobs
 Unemployed

Middle Class Suburbs

Lower Middle Class▲ Upper Middle Class▲

 Lower middle class jobs: teachers, police officers, office workers, nurses etc.
 Upper middle class jobs: doctors, lawyers, company bosses, people who own the
business etc. Surgeons, really rich company owners, city workers, stock brokers etc.

Upper Class/Super Rich Houses

 People who are so rich they don’t need to work.

 Only people who have titles - royalty.