DOES THE CONCEPT OF CLASS RETAIN ANY SOCIOLOGICAL

Does the concept of class retain any sociological significance today?

Does the concept of class retain any sociological significance today?

Introduction

The main aim of this paper is that of class and its significance in today's world, notably two components of class, the ideas of class identity and of class consciousness. These ideas are to be discussed in terms of two classes. The upper class and the notion of an underclass, along with the extent to which gender and ethnicity have a bearing on these.

To return to the first statement the overlying subject is that of class. No clear definition has ever been arrived at for this phenomenon, however the majority of sociologists would probably agree with Abercrombie & Ward et al. (2000) that class is: The socioeconomic differences between groups creating differences in material wealth and power. The second thing I wish to say regarding class is that it is a relative concept. To illustrate this, imagine a house on its own; imagine it with twenty-four bedrooms and a swimming pool. It's still just a house. Now put next to it a two up two down terrace. Now the first one is a bigger house.(Wilson, 2008, 52)

Discussion

Two of the major social theorists, namely Marx and Weber both agreed on many ideas of class however they differed on what defined someone as a particular class. Marx claimed class is defined by the ownership of the means of production. Whereas for Weber it was the individuals sharing the same causal component of life chances resulting from ownership of capital or generated by training and education. These distinctions will be seen as important later in the essay.

Firstly for the purposes of this essay class identity will be defined as such: identifiable sociological markers such as economic power, political inclinations, ideology and social and financial status relating to employment (or lack of it) that typify a social class. (Giddens, A. 2006. pp:227-229)

Next the idea of 'class consciousness': Marx used this term to describe the development of conscious awareness among classes that arises due to antagonism between classes during the rise of modern capitalism. In becoming subjectively aware of objective conditions alters the class from a 'class in itself' to a 'class for itself. This leads me onto the notion of social closure as an indicator that class conscious has arisen. Social closure is the idea that a class may act to prevent migration into itself. The rationale for this is that in order for a class to act to prevent migration into itself it must first have an idea of self, i.e. class consciousness.

To define the upper and under classes I can do little better than quote from p557 of Abercrombie & Ward et al. (2000). The upper class:

"A superordinate social class whose power and privilege derive from ownership of property and control of key economic, social and political institutions."

The underclass:

"A disputed concept implying that there is a class of the population with distinct cultural traits who are dependent ...