Measuring Social Class www.educationforum.co.uk

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Measuring Social Classwww.educationforum.co.uk

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Class Systems

• Class is the stratification system common to most
  modern industrial societies.
• People can be grouped in terms of their
  occupation, income and wealth.
• People located within recognizable social classes
  almost always also share similar levels of
  education, status and power.

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How are Class Systems Different?

• Class systems differ from other stratification
  systems such as caste or feudalism in the
  following ways
• Based on economic factors not religion, law or
  race
• Tend to be open not closed
• Borders between classes are fuzzy when compared
  to caste or feudal estate
• Class systems aspire to be meritocratic with
  opportunities for social mobility
• People in industrial societies have equal rights
  despite class differences
• There are no legal barriers to cross class
  marriage

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Measuring Social Class

• Politicians, social scientists and advertisers
  all have an interest in operationalising the
  concept of social class (defining in a way that
  can be measured).
• Politicians may wish to implement policy which
  addresses inequality
• Social scientists may wish to evaluate the causes
  and impact of inequality
• Advertisers may wish to target their marketing to
  particular social groups

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Class and Occupation

• Most people work therefore the single most
  measurable factor linked to social class is
  occupation.
• There are a number of scales on social class
  based on occupation including the Registrar
  General, The Hope Goldthorpe Scale and the
  NS-SEC.
• One weakness of all occupation based definitions
  of class is that they ignore people who dont
  work!