UK Introduction

1
UK Introduction

• Britain three nations
• The UK includes Northern Ireland
• Long history
• Importance of tradition

2
National Characteristics

• Reserved
• Polite
• Friendly
• Humorous
• Traditional (conservative)
• Patriotic

3
Divisions in society

• Class
• Gender
• Race
• Education
• Wealth

4
Is class still important?

• 90 reply yes in recent survey

5
Placing others (ascription)

• accent
• manners
• tastes
• occupation
• education
• residence

6
Increased social mobility

• Social status based increasingly on what you do
• achievement-based criteria
• career prospects
• job security
• income differential
• Trends
• increase in service-sector jobs
• decline in number of jobs in industry

7
Women changing role

• more women seeking paid employment
• but 45 work part-time
• 2/3 of all new jobs created go to women
• earn approx. 80 of mens wage
• 25 of middle managers are female
• 7 of top management
• in spite of Britains masculine business culture
• rapid improvements in academic qualifications

8
Social mobility among immigrants

• High mobility
• African-Asians
• Chinese
• well-educated
• professionals
• managers
• self-employed
• effective networks
• above average income

• Low Mobility
• Pakistanis
• Bangladeshis
• Afro-Caribbeans
• living in relative poverty
• in poorly paid jobs
• poor academic qualifications
• more likely to become unemployed
• many single-parent families among A-Cs

9
Divisions in education

• Independent schools
• Pre-prep (4-8)
• Prep. school (9-13)
• Public school (14-18)
• 7 of school population
• based on fees
• highly-qualified staff
• small classes
• high go on to university
• popular, but expensive

• State sector
• Primary school (6-10)
• Secondary school (11-16)
• Sixth-form college (17-18)
• varying standards
• larger classes
• new focus on results
• OFSTED set up to monitor standards
• league table of schools
• high drop-out rate

10
Differences in wealth

• Bad news!
• marked increase poverty
• reduced social benefits
• greater salary differentiation
• reduced job security
• less solidarity - tougher society
• wealth gap 17th highest among western democracies

• Good news!
• improvement in average standard of living
• lower taxes
• low unemployment level (4.2) job seekers
• increased social mobility
• more dynamic, individualist culture
• increased equality of opportunity

11
Recent changes in values

• Margaret Thatcher Britains Reagan
• More achievement-based culture
• Increased individualism
• Increased competition
• Focus on the market
• Privatisation

12
Continuing the change

• Tony Blair - Britains Bill Clinton
• Focusing on the future
• Politician of the radical centre
• The Third Way (rights and responsibilities)

New Labour