1. Activity: What do you think about "Social Class"?
1. Look for a dictionary definition of "class" and write it down
.
2. Assuming that you were asked to assess the social class
position of a particular individual, list the factors which you
would consider in making your assessment
3. Which three factors in your list do you consider to be the most
significant factors influencing an individual's social class
position?

2. . Using a scale of 1-10 where 10 equals "strongly agree" and 1 equals "strongly
disagree" write down numbers which reflect your attitude to the following
statements:
1.Most people of working age are workers. Therefore most people are
working class.
2.Modern societies such as the UK are fairly equal and so social class
differences are fairly insignificant.
3.The UK is essentially a meritocratic society.
4.Significant differences in wealth and income are essential in order to
provide incentives to work, save and invest.
5.Greater economic equality would lead to lower economic efficiency

3. Since 2001 the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC) has
been used for all official statistics and surveys. It replaced Social Class based
on Occupation (SC, formerly Registrar General's Social Class) and Socio-
economic Groups (SEG).
However, there are two ways in which ‘class’ can be measured and understood:
Objectively: This refers to precise quantifying of class, such as that undertaken
by the government and published by the Registrar General. Sociologists also
seek to define class, though as we shall see they often find it a challenge to
satisfactorily do so. They often tend also to disagree with one another on
classifications!
Subjectively: This one is trickier, and though Sociologists may pull their hair
out over our ability to define ourselves in ways which bare little reality to our
actual circumstances, nonetheless we have to take note of people’s subjective
appraisal of their own circumstances . Self image has a significant impact on
our behaviour and to what degree we conform to or dissent from dominant
values and norms.

4. •A recent study carried out by Britain Thinks (2011) offers a fascinating insight into the
current subjective self appraisals of the UK public. In a previous report, ‘Speaking
Middle English,’ the group found that 71% of Britons define themselves as ‘middle
class.’
•In their latest report, they consider the self definitions of the 24% who see
themselves as working class. This compares with 67% as recently as the late 1980s.
•* For Mattinson, the founder of Britain Thinks, the term ‘working class’ ‘used to be a
badge of pride, but not any more for most people who call themselves working class.’
•* What in your opinion has changed since then? Remember to distinguish between
what has actually changed, if anything, and what people may have perceived to have
changed.

5. In their survey, Britain Thinks found that being called working class
was close to an insult, associating the term with the ‘chav’ class who
choose to live on benefits.
In ‘Chavs: the Demonization of the Working Classes’ (2011),
author Owen Jones responds to this caricaturing of what it means to
be working class. He argues that:
The findings depend heavily on the wording of the Britain Thinks
questions. Ipsos MORI found that 2/3 described themselves as
‘working class and proud of it’ in 2002, and in 2007 the British Social
Attitudes Survey found that ‘57% called themselves ‘working class’ or
‘upper working class.’
However, Jones points to the demonization of the working class as
having consequences for how people define themselves. The term has
been diminished and ridiculed by a media dominated by privately
educated broadcasters and journalists.

6. Crime and Deviance
 Jones may have identified a striking new trend in UK society, namely the
emergence of a widespread hostility to working class people within UK society.
This has in part been facilitated by a media only too happy to portray working
class individuals and families as benefit scroungers, drunk, lazy, criminal and
without a distinct culture of their own that might legitimise their existence.
Thus, the public perception of the working classes has been manipulated to
such an extent that we now feel comfortable with deriding whole communities
as ‘chavs.’
 But is this entirely new? Margaret Stacey (1950) in a study in Oxfordshire found
that members of the manual working class distinguished three status groups
within their own class: ‘Respectable,’ ‘Ordinary’ and ‘Rough.’
 What Owen Jones has identified though, is an apparently concerted effort to
undermine traditional self-definitions of class, chipping away at the possibility
of class consciousness developing, replacing pride with feelings of shame.

7. From The Independent (2011):
‘Jones focuses on the case of Shannon Matthews, the child who disappeared in
February 2008, to expose the way the rich and the powerful define the nature
of contemporary working-class existence. Scores of Dewsbury Moor residents
raised money, volunteered and searched for the young girl before she was
discovered on 14 March, drugged and hidden in a divan bed at the home of a
relative. From this moment, the community itself was seen through the prism
of Shannon's mother Karen. Their efforts were ignored as a picture was
painted of a lawless, morally corrupt, workless nation. The press and
politicians used the case to shine a light on a politically expedient, dystopian
vision of "Broken Britain", dominated by a feral underclass. Valiantly, Jones
unpacks this caricature step by step, posing the appropriate questions as to
why the people are being so demonised.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl75zfq3rhQ&feature=related

8. ‘The case of Shannon Matthews gives him his route into a wider discussion of day-
to-day chav bashing and class hatred: Little Britain and Jeremy Kyle; gym classes
sold as "chav fighting”; the promotion of "chav-free holidays"; Harry Enfield and
Shameless; the Little Book of Chavs, Wife Swap and the website Chav Scum. The
list culminates in the appalling treatment of Jade Goody...’
The Independent (2011)
19th century Sociologist Herbert Spencer, argued that, as humans were evolving to a
higher state, any attempt to improve the lives of the poor and vulnerable should be
rejected. Such efforts would only serve to undermine the our progress.
What consequences might such ideas have for welfare spending or general
redistributive policy?