Making Modern UK Social Classes in Modern Britain

SOCIAL CLASSES IN
MODERN BRITAIN
N C Gardner MA PGCE
29/03/2016SocialClassesinModernBritain
1

THE REGISTRAR GENERAL’S SCALE OF
SOCIAL CLASS
 Class 1: Professional, e.g. accountants, doctors
 Class 2: Lower managerial, professional,
technical, e.g. teachers
 Class 3 Non-Manual: Skilled non-manual, e.g.
office workers
 Class 3 Manual: Skilled manual, e.g.
electricians, plumbers
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THE REGISTRAR GENERAL’S SCALE OF
SOCIAL CLASS
 Class 4: Semi-skilled manual, e.g. agricultural
workers
 Class 5: Unskilled manual, e.g. labourers, refuse
collectors
3

LACKING MORAL SENSIBILITY
 ‘If men differ in anything they differ in the fineness
and the delicacy of their moral intuitions, however
we may suppose those feelings to have been
acquired.
 We need not go as far as savages to learn that
lesson; we need only talk to the English poor or to
our own servants and we shall be taught it very
completely. The lower classes in civilised countries,
like all classes in uncivilised countries, are clearly
wanting in the nicer part of those feelings which,
taken together, we call the sense of morality.’
(Physics and Politics, Ivan R. Dee ed., Chicago, 1999,
p.106)
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THE MORAL SENSIBILITY OF THE
WORKING-CLASSES
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THE MORAL SENSIBILITY OF
WORKING-CLASS LADIES
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SocialClassesinModernBritain

THE MORAL SENSIBILITIES OF
WORKING-CLASS COUPLES IN
MODERN BRITAIN
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THE PHILOSOPHER A.C. GRAYLING
 ‘But after 1945 the culture of self-improvement
declined, partly because of increased formal
schooling, partly because of television and
other distractions, and partly because
increasingly rapid changes in cultural fashion
have made self-taught classicism look
conservative.
 In any case, it was always an avocation for a
minority, and remained so even as the working
class grew in prosperity and political
confidence, taking with it a long ingrained
mistrust of high culture and a natural loyalty to
its own tastes,
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THE PHILOSOPHER A. C. GRAYLING
 ‘transfigured by the new medium of television
(itself subserved by the tabloids) into a now
familiar and characteristic demotic view of the
world.
 But although the masses do not choose to be
interested in high culture, it is not undemocratic
to promote it at the public expense.
 (Professor A C Grayling, Guardian Review, 13 July,
2002)
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DANCERS OF THE ROYAL BALLET
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BRITISH MUSEUM READING ROOM
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HAMLET AT THE NATIONAL THEATRE,
LONDON
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SIR JONATHAN MILLER ON THE DECISION TO
DROP ‘OMNIBUS’ FROM BBC TELEVISION
 ‘Unless it is a programme about how to decorate
your house or chop up vegetables, it is impossible
to get anyone in the BBC to commission your
programme. The BBC is run nowadays by people
who have done degrees in Media Studies and sit in
glass boxes poring over ratings.
 Even when they do decide to make an arts
programme, it is about Leonardo or Michelangelo,
because they are the only artists they have heard of.
There is a vast audience of intelligent people out
there who can read without moving their lips, who
they do not care about. (Sunday Telegraph, November
3, 2002)
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‘THE BIRTH OF VENUS’ BY SANDRO BOTTICELLI
(CREATED 1484 – 1486)
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‘THE NIGHT WATCH’ BY REMBRANDT (CREATED
1642)
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‘THE MARRIAGE OF THE VIRGIN’ BY
RAPHAEL (CREATED 1504)
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THE WRITER D.H. LAWRENCE ON MARRIAGE
 ‘It is marriage, perhaps, which had given
man the best of his freedom, given him his
little kingdom of his own within the big
kingdom of the State … It is a true freedom
because it is a true fulfilment, for man,
woman and children. Do we then want to
break marriage? If we do break it, it means
we all fall to a far greater extent under the
direct sway of the State.’
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SOCIAL CLASS: THE STRATIFICATION SYSTEM
OF MODERN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES
 Social classes are groups of people who
share a similar economic position in terms
of occupation, income and ownership of
wealth.
 They are likely to have similar levels of education,
status and power.
 In theory, British society in the 20th century was
based upon meritocracy – that is the idea that
people are not born into ascribed roles.
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BRITISH MERITOCRACY AT WORK. I THINK NOT: SOCIAL
MOBILITY HAS ALL BUT ENDED IN MODERN BRITAIN.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS SUCH AS ETON DOMINATE THE HIGHER
PROFESSIONS.
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THE BRITISH UPPER CLASSES THEN AND
NOW. DO THESE LADIES RIDE THE BUS, SHOP
IN POUNDLAND, OR LISTEN TO LADY GAGA?
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RIDING THE HOUNDS: A CLEAR SIGN OF
CLASS DISTINCTION IN MODERN
BRITAIN.
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MERITOCRACY
 Individuals are encouraged to better
themselves through achievement at school
and in their jobs, by working hard and
gaining promotion.
 Giddens and Diamond (2005) suggest that
modern Britain became more and more of
a meritocratic society from the 1960s
onwards and that equality of opportunity
became the norm.
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ACCOUNTANCY TRAINEES: WINNERS OF
A NATIONAL COMPETITION
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SOCIAL CHANGES IN MODERN BRITAIN,
1975 - 2005
 Decline of heavy industry: the decline of the
primary and secondary sectors of the
economy from the mid-1970s led to a
dramatic decline in the number of traditional
manual workers and the identity politics
associated with them, such as trade union
membership.
 The re-positioning of the Labour Party: The
Labour Party, traditionally seen as the party of
the working-class, moved to distance itself
from class-based politics under the leadership
of Tony Blair (1994 to 2007).
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UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF TONY BLAIR (1994 TO
2007), THE LABOUR PARTY CHANGED FROM A CLASS-
BASED PARTY TO A CATCH-ALL PARTY AND WON THREE
ELECTIONS (1997, 2001, AND 2005).
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RISE IN MERITOCRACY: THE VAST EXPANSION
OF THE SERVICE SECTOR
 The service sector of the economy – the public
sector, financial services, retail and personal
services – greatly expanded from the 1980s
onwards.
 Many of the jobs in the service sector are better
paid and more secure than manual work.
 Many workers in the service sector, especially
women who dominate these jobs in terms of
numbers, have been upwardly mobile from the
working class.
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FEMALE SERVICE SECTOR EXECUTIVES CAN
INVEST IN AFFLUENT LIFESTYLES AND
UNDERMINE TRADITIONAL PATTERNS OF
CLASS IDENTIFICATION.
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WOMEN DOMINATE SERVICE SECTOR JOBS IN
TERMS OF NUMBERS AND THEY ARE
UPWARDLY MOBILE FROM THE WORKING
CLASS.
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BRITISH MERITOCRACY: THE EXPANSION
OF EDUCATION
 Education expanded from the 1960s
onwards. At the end of the 1970s one in
eight 18 year olds were in higher
education; by 1990 it was one in five; by
1994 one in three.
 The majority of young people in Britain during
Tony Blair’s Labour governments (1997 to 2007)
(and since) experienced further education, and the
opportunities for going into higher education
increased tremendously for all social groups.
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IT WILL BE YOU: SUCCESSFUL SIXTH-FORMERS
JUMP FOR JOY AT RESULTS DAY
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THE NEW DIVISIONS IN BRITISH SOCIETY
1) Between different types of families, i.e.
single-parent families do not experience the
same opportunities as dual-career families.
2) Between homeowners and those who live in
council housing.
3) Between those living in neighbourhoods with
high levels of crime and antisocial behaviour,
and little community spirit, and those living
in ordered and well integrated communities.
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IT STARTED WITH MAGGIE: PRIME MINISTER
THATCHER WITH THE FIRST FAMILY TO BENEFIT FROM
HER ‘RIGHT TO BUY’ POLICY WHICH TRANSFORMED
COUNCIL HOUSE TENANTS INTO HOMEOWNERS,
EARLY 1980S
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THE ASPIRATION AND REALITY FOR THE
MAJORITY OF BRITONS SINCE THE 1970S
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A MAJOR SOCIAL CHANGE: SINCE THE 1970S
THE MAJORITY OF BRITONS HAVE BECOME
HOMEOWNERS
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THE OTHER SIDE OF BRITAIN: JAYWICK
SANDS, ESSEX, THE UK’S MOST DEPRIVED
AREA
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ONLY IN ESSEX: JAYWICK SANDS NEAR
CLACTON-ON-SEA, BRITAIN’S MOST
DEPRIVED AREA
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THE EXPANSION OF NON-MANUAL
EMPLOYMENT
 One of the major social changes in post-
war Britain has been the expansion of non-
manual employment which has
fundamentally changed the British
occupational structure.
 1951 Census: 36% of the occupied
population were employers or non-manual
workers.
 64% were manual workers.
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THE EXPANSION OF NON-MANUAL
EMPLOYMENT SINCE 1945
 1981 Census: 52% of the occupied population
were either employers or non-manual workers.
 Only 48% were classified as manual workers.
 Recessions in 1979 – 81; 1989 – 91; 2008 – 2013
and ‘shake-outs’ have served further to speed
these processes, as employment in
manufacturing (where manual employment is
concentrated) has declined, and employment
in the service sector has risen.
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Making Modern UK Social Classes in Modern Britain

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