Social class

Social class describes the relationships between people in hierarchical societies or cultures. While anthropologists, historians and sociologists identify class as a social structure emerging from pre-history, the idea of social class entered the English lexicon about the 1770s. Social classes with more power usually subordinate classes with less power. Social classes with a great deal of power are usually viewed as an elite, at least by their own societies.

Sociological class

Various schools of sociology differ in postulating which social traits are significant enough to define a class, though when sociologists speak of "class" they usually mean economically based classes in modern or near pre-modern society. The relative importance and definition of membership in a particular class differs greatly over time and between societies, particularly in societies that have a legal differentiation of groups of people by birth or occupation. In the well-known example of socioeconomic class, many scholars view societies as stratifying into a hierarchical system based on occupation, economic status, wealth, or income.

Related Topics:
Sociology - Occupation - Economic

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Weberian class

The seminal sociological interpretation of class was advanced by Max Weber. Weber formulated a three-component theory of stratification, with social, status and party classes (or politics) as conceptually distinct elements.

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• Social is based on economic relationship to the market (owner, renter, employee, etc.)
• Status has to do with non-economic qualities such as education, honour and prestige (see status class)
• Party refers to factors having to do with affiliations in the political domain (see party class)

All three dimensions have consequences for what Weber called "life chances".

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Dimensions of sociological class

Various schools of sociology differ in postulating which social traits are significant enough to define a class. The following traits are sometimes used:

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• occupation
• education
• income
• manners, style and cultural refinement. For example, Bourdieu suggests a notion of high and low classes with a distinction between bourgeois tastes and sensitivities and the working class tastes and sensitivities.
• net worth
• power
• ownership of land, property, means of production, slaves...
• political standing vis-a-vis the government
• reputation of honor or disgrace
• social prestige, as from an honorary title, or association with an esteemed organization or person

Stratum models of class

Sociologists generally identify different classes as social stratum in higher or lower order based on a classes' measurable position on a dimensional scale. The number of models possible is dependent upon the analytical and statistical frame-work used in particular sociological studies. Some more typical models include

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;Two class models: That divide societies between the powerful and weak.

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;Three class models: That develop a two class model with a postulated middle class.

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;Multi-stratum models: Sociologists who seek fine-grained connections between class and life-outcomes often develop precisely defined social stratum, like Paul Fussell's nine tier stratification of American society.

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Historian Paul Fussell's model classifies Americans in terms of the following classes:

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• Top out-of-sight: the super-rich, heirs to huge fortunes
• Upper Class: rich celebrities and people who can afford full-time domestic staff
• Upper-Middle Class: self-made well-educated professionals
• Middle Class: office workers
• High Prole: skilled blue-collar workers
• Mid Prole: workers in factories and the service industry
• Low Prole: manual laborers
• Destitute: the homeless
• Bottom out-of-sight: those incarcerated in prisons and institutions

Warnerian social class model

Another example of a stratum class model was developed by the sociologist William Lloyd Warner in his 1949 book, Social Class in America. For many decades, the Warnerian theory was dominant in U.S. sociological theory.

Related Topics:
William Lloyd Warner - 1949

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Based on social anthropology, Warner divided American into three classes (upper, middle, and lower), then further subdivided each of these into an "upper" and "lower" segment, with the following postulates:

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• Upper-upper class. "Old money." People who have been born into and raised with wealth.
• Lower-upper class. "New money." Individuals who have become rich within their own lifetimes.
• Upper-middle class. High-salaried professionals (i.e., doctors, lawyers, corporate executives).
• Lower-middle class. Lower-paid professionals, but not manual laborers (i.e., police officers, non-management office workers, small business owners).
• Upper-lower class. Blue-collar workers and manual laborers. Also known as the "working class."
• Lower-lower class. The homeless and permanently unemployed, as well as the "working poor."

To Warner, American social class was based more on attitudes than on the actual amount of money an individual made. For example, the richest people in America would belong to the "lower-upper class" since many of them (i.e, Bill Gates, as a modern example) created their own fortunes; one can only be born into the highest class. Nonetheless, members of the upper-upper class tend to be more respected, as a simple survey of U.S. presidents may demonstrate (i.e., the Roosevelts; John Kennedy; George W. Bush)

Related Topics:
Bill Gates - Roosevelt - John Kennedy - George W. Bush

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Another observation: members of the upper-lower class might make more money than members of the lower-middle class (i.e., a well-salaried factory worker vs. a secretarial worker), but the class difference is based on the type of work they perform.

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In his research, Warner held that American social class was largely based on these shared attitudes. For example, he noted that the lower-middle class tended to be the most conservative group of all, since very little separated them from the working class. The upper-middle class, while a relatively small section of the population, usually "set the standard" for proper American behavior, as reflected in the mass media.

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