What are the determinants of social class in Britain at the beginning of the new millennium?

Résumé du document

Most surveys depict that the majority of British people recognize the existence of social classes and categorize themselves into one such class. The word ?class' describes "broad groupings within a national population that are seen as forming a set of layers" (R. Crompton, 2000, p.1). A person's social class reflects "wealth, income, education, status and power". Generally, sociologists use the occupational structure to define a social class. Marxists stress more on the relationship with ownership and production. Nevertheless, in British sociology, the current dominant way of measuring class is ?Weberian' and is primarily based on occupation. This essay discuss the markers of class membership today in Britain and three distinguishable social classes that can be defined by different features, such as occupation.

Extraits

[...] What are the determinants of social class in Britain at the beginning of the new millennium? Most surveys show that the majority of British people recognizes the existence of social classes and see themselves as belonging to one such class. The word class describes “broad groupings within a national population that are seen as forming a set of layers” (R. Crompton p.1). A person's social class reflects “wealth, income, education, status and power”. Generally, sociologists use the occupational structure to define social class. [...]

[...] The middle class has known the increase of higher professionals, managers, clerks and foremen. Women have massively moved into clerical jobs. Men tend to go into the higher white collar jobs. There are more people employed in white collar tasks, growth concentrated in newer occupations rather than in traditional middle class occupations such as lawyers, doctors or clergymen” (N. Abercrombie p.177). The middle class has a characteristic accent, a specific environment of upbringing, social network and manners that differ from other classes. [...]

[...] Lastly, it has to be noted that social mobility within the middle class is becoming high. The upper-class is a small part of the population, which has great economic, political and social power in Britain. The upper class possesses very large amounts of wealth. top 1 percent of wealth holders own 25% of the nation's wealth”. It is distinguishable by some features such as property, networks and power. Taxes have led wealthy people to spend more money in their family. [...]

[...] Working class members generally live in the suburbs rather than in city centres. The market situation of manual workers is distinctive and inferior to that of other classes. Manual workers experience varied market situation with different control of their work, jobs and wages, although today, manual worker's wages are higher than before. However, opportunities for promotion are very poor and manual workers work longer hour. Unlikely non manual workers, their profile of earnings is not attractive and there is no security of employment. [...]

[...] The middle class is divided between the routine white collar workers and the upper middle class, with some lower professions between them. Routine white collar workers have good prospects of promotion, especially male clerks. However, “numbers of routine white collar workers have been proletarianized while others have been mobile into managerial positions” (G. Marshall p.265). The upper middle class is composed of managers, professionals and small employers. The lower professions have a better market situation than routine white collar workers but they are vulnerable to the deskilling process due to mechanization. [...]