The document discusses social class and social mobility in British society. It describes the traditional British social class system of an upper class, middle class, and working class. The upper class consists of inherited wealth and aristocracy, the middle class includes professionals and business owners, and the working class is made up of agricultural and factory workers. The document also examines factors that affect social mobility such as parents' socioeconomic status and education level, noting that the UK has relatively low social mobility and children's outcomes are strongly influenced by their parents' background.

1. What is social class?
A group of people within a society
that possess the same economic
status, often determined by
occupation, education, income,
manners, etc.

2. “Class Ridden Society”
•British concerned with social
differences
•Class consciousness frames British
mentality
•Class identification criteria

3. The British Social Class System
The British society has often been considered
to be divided into three main groups of
classes:
the Upper Class
Often people with inherited wealth. Includes
some of the oldest families, with many of them
being titled aristocrats.
the Middle Class
The majority of the population of Britain. They
include industrialists, professionals, business
people and shop owners.
Lower or Working Class
People who are agricultural, mine and factory
workers.

4. Origins of Class Differences
• Industrial Revolution - Urban working class
• Shared experience of struggle/class unity
• 18th Century’s Middle class : tenant farmers
and professional body of lawyers, doctors…
• Associated with the ownership of industry
• Bought their way to the aristocracy
• Gap between rich and poor widens
• End of social mobility and freezing of class
differences

5. The Under Class
• Difficulties , extreme poverty
• Intellectually and morally poor
• Unemployed single mothers, idle young
people of inner city areas
• No improvement of the self, Self-destructive
• Threat to themselves and to society
• « Useless class » living on social benefits
• Cutting government help

6. The Working Class
• Large proportion of British population
• Unskilled workers and low-ranking office
workers train and bus conductors…
• « Lower class ,the masses, the prole »
• Distinctive signs of class belonging :
Local regional or broad accent (opposed to RP)
Dress and hair styles
• Hostility towards classes above / Opposed to
social mobility

7. The Middle Class
• The bulk of British society
• Thatcher, daughter of a grocer, personifies
traditional virtues of the middle class
• White collar office workers, company
executives, journalists, teachers,
academics,etc.
• Common lifestyle

8. The Upper Class
• Represents the Establishment
• Made up of the upper middle class, the
aristocracy and the peers
• Old money, land ownership , Eton,
Oxbridge, club ties ,hunting, etc

9. Social mobility
• Definition: Social mobility is the
ability of individuals or groups to
move upward or downward in status,
based on wealth, occupation,
education, or some other social
criteria.

10. Social mobility in the UK
• Britain has the lowest social mobility
in the developed world.
• Earnings in UK reflect the parents’.
• Social mobility hasn't changed since
the 1970s

11. What Factors Affect Social
Mobility?
• Parents
• Education

12. Parents make the difference
• in UK the influence of parents is as important
as the quality of education
• A strong link between lack of social mobility
and inequality
• For the poorest fifth in society, 46% have
mothers with no qualifications at all.
• For the richest, only 3% have mothers with no
qualifications.

13. And Education
• Education is an engine of social mobility.
• But achievement is not balanced fairly
• intergenerational transmission of income
occurs through education