Essay
Is class still relevant in everyday life?
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- University Of Westminster (UOW)
it's a sociology essay about class and our everyday life
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In this essay I will be discussing and examining how relevant social class is incontemporary Britain and what causes social division and social inequalities using
sources by Tony Bilton (1978), Donny Dorling (2018), Geoff Payne (2020), Davis
and Moore (1979) and Stamarski and S. Son Hing, as well as drawing on reports
from the National Health to support my arguments in relation on how health
inequalities is affected by social class in Britain. The current essay also explores the
different ways that social class impacts other type of inequalities like school
inequalities as well as workplace inequalities also occasionally drawing from Karl
Marx definition of social class.
The term social class was first defined by Karl Marx, who believed that social classes
was determined by an individual economic factors such as the possession of land
and property as well as the means of production and the production itself,
differentiating then the bourgeoisie (middle classes) from the proletariats (lower
class) However, there are various definitions of social class, an example would be
Tony Bilton (1987), definition who referred class as the “refer to a group sharing a
similar position in a structure of objective material inequalities, produced by a
particular system of economic relations characteristic of a particular mode of
production”.
Social class can also be characterized by an individual education as well profession
resulting to social inequalities and social division to take place as individuals view
social class as a “source of identity” as higher social classes view themselves solely
based by their economic and their social status leading them to perceive themselves
as better than other individuals around them. This idea can also be linked to Marxist
idea, as Karl Marx argued that a person most significant element in one’s identity is
determined by their social class.
Although, an individual social class can be changed as a consequence of what is
known as social mobility which was initially described by Sorokin (1059/2001: 133) ,
a Russian-American Sociologist as ‘…any transition of an individual or social object
or value- anything that has been created or modified by human activity- from one
social position to another’ expressing that any individual has the ability of moving the
social class, whether it in positively (moving up the social class) or by (moving
down). A social mobility can be impacted as a result of different factors such as an
individual skills and training leading to a possible promotion and higher income, or
because of an individual unfortunate loss of employment resulting in going bankrupt
and losing money as well as going down social hierarchy. However, is not always
possible to move social class as times have changed making it difficult to attain a
higher social hierarchy.
Social class produces social inequalities caused by hierarchy and it includes
examples like gender, race, disability which affects a person and how they can`
reach their opportunities. An example of social inequality is ‘school inequality” which
refers to social institutions like in this case, ‘schools’, that are still keeping a social
hierarchy. Danny Dorling (2018), compares social division in Britain “similar to that
seen in South Africa before apartheid ended, except that it is rich and poor being
separated by school in Britain rather than white and black”. Dorling also argues that
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