Social Class
Sociology: AQA A Level, topic 3.3.1
The Relationship of Identity to Social Class
A social class is a group of people who share a similar economic situation, such as occupational level, income and wealth. There are four main social classes in society: upper class, middle class, working class, and underclass.
Social stratification
- Stratification describes the dividing of a society into strata (layers) by factors like gender, social class, ethnicity etc.
- Lots of societies nowadays mainly stratify by social class, including the UK and other Western capitalist societies.
Occupation
- People’s occupation is an important marker of social class and is often central to how people see themselves (their individual identity) and how other people define them (their social identity).
- Marxists see social class as a key marker of social identity.
Bourdieu: Class habitus
- Bourdieu argues that each social class has its own cultural framework (a set of ideas or ‘habitus') which people learn during primary and secondary socialisation.
- Habitus includes the way people use language and their accent, attitudes and culture tastes (including diet choices, leisure activities, clothing, and fashion).
'Cultural capital’
- According to Bourdieu, those with access to the habitus of the dominant class possess ‘cultural capital’.