Social Class

"Social class is a division of society made up of persons possessing certain common social characteristics which are taken to qualify them for intimate, equal status relations with one another, and which restrict their interaction with members of other social classes".

Krech, Crutchfield & Ballachey in Dubois 2000

Britain was once a class-ridden society. Class was a staple part of the British way of life. Today, multiculturalism and a changing economy are gradually eroding the British class system, but some features of the system still remain. Mandy Barrow [online] 2009

Over time, the views of the different classes has slowly evolved and become a lot broader than in the past. At the turn of the century, there were only seen to be 3 different class types. These were: working and lower class (the majority), middle class, and upper class (a tiny proportion).

In today's society, sub classes have been created due to people not feeling that they belonged in either of the previous 3 classes. Today, the different social class categories are: poverty class, upper lower class, working class, lower middle class, middle middle class, upper middle class, and upper class.

As you can see, where before there was just one class that you could fit into, there are now up to 3 classes within that one class. For example, there was the time when you could only be middle class...today, there are 3 different types of middle class!

In societies where classes exist, there are a number of ways in which people make assumptions of peoples social rankings. These may be physical characteristics which may indicate class such as their clothing, their manners and their language. Alternatively attributes that arent apparant from appearance and mannerisms that are used to judge social class could be; income or wealth, occupation, level of education, or family background.

There has been a social class system scale put into place by which people can rank themselves according to the class that they think they best fit into. This scale is as follows:

• A - Upper Middle Class
• B - Middle Class
• C1 - Lower Middle Class
• C2 - Skilled Working Class
• D - Working Class
• E - Lower Class

There is a short quiz that can be taken in order to establish your class type. This is quite interesting to take part in as the result the quiz comes back with may not be the class type that you previously had perceived yourself to be. The quiz bases its questions around political views, personal aspirations, wealth and self image. I got my dad and his brother to partake in this quiz in order to see whether being related and growing up together meant they shared the same class type. The results were very interesting, my dad came out to be of luxurious upper class (yeah right!!) and my uncle as middle class. These outcomes show how social class is able to change over time, and just because you are born into a certain social class doesn't necessarily mean that it is the class that you have to stay in forever.

In a recent article taken from The Independent, the role of social class has said to play a big part in education and children's exam results. "The performance of a school and a child in it is highly linked to social class". This shows that although social class doesnt play such a major role like it has done previously, it is still looked upon as very important in the success of the younger generation, which in time are going to be the ones to shape and create our future population. Richard Garner [online] 2008

It is now extremely flexible to move through the social classes in situations such as marriage, there are no legal rules as to who can marry into whose family, meaning that the social class you are born into may not be the social class that you fit into for your whole life. This was extremely different in the 1800's, where social classes had no contact with each other what so ever. In Jane Austen's novel Emma, social class is one of the main aspects highlighted throughout the story. The main focus of the book is finding a suitable husband, and how social class gets in the way of marrying for love rather than status. One quote that shows how strong the barriers were between the classes is talking about a potential husband that is assumed to be of too lower class even to be considered; "The yeomanry are precisely the order of people whom I feel I can have nothing to do with" Jane Austen 1816

Although people today can easily change their social class by marriage inot families of different status's, people are still very much judged on the class that they were born into. For instance a person may have been born into a working class family, and then marry into an upper class family, therfore changing their status. However the fact that they were originally born into a working class family will always be remembered, and that person may be judged on the basis of their original class type rather than their acquired one.

People maybe judged on the basis on what they have got in terms of tangeable possessions as well as how long they have had them for. The longer something of value (either a status, a job or an item, house, car etc) has been owned, the stronger it makes your social class seem.

One question that should be asked when considering class types is, "can income be used as a sufficient indicator of social class?" This question is quite interesting as some people may perceive wealth to mean high social class, but this perception can sometimes be misleading.

Mickey Carroll, a former "Chav" won an astronomical £9.7 million pounds after playing the national lottery, does his new found wealth portray him to be a higher upper class member of society? I think not! This video helps to show how the man who won into fame and money has not been looked upon in any different way than we was as a 21 year old dustbin man. An article from the Evening standard written shortly after his win, also highlights how money does not necessarily buy class.

It is important for markters to consider both social status and income when placing their products on the market, (especially those products such as houses, cars and even fridge freezers) because as Mickey Carroll shows, you dont have to be of high social class to live a wealthy and lavish lifestyle. This one off example may suggest that marketers need to decide whether they want their product to appeal to a person of high social class with wealth, or whether they want to appeal to the Mickey Carrolls of the world, lots of money but little class.

Have a read of this article from The Daily Mail, today. It is highlighting how the government are a reason for children from working class homes underachieving, leading to a 'lost generation'.