This document provides an overview of social class and identity in sociology. It defines social class as a way to stratify and divide the population based on income, occupation, and life chances. Two traditional scales for measuring social class are discussed: the Registrar General's Scale and the National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification. The document also examines how social class shapes identity and life chances. It explores the traditional cultures of the upper, middle, and working classes in Britain and how class influences attitudes, values, and lifestyle.

1. Culture and Identity – Social Class
AS Sociology
Unit 1- Culture and Identity
Social Class
Identity
Essential Notes and Workbook
HG Sociology AS

2. Culture and Identity – Social Class
Social Class and Identity
The identities that people adopt are formed within the cultures and
subcultures to which they belong. One of the most traditional factors that
have had a major effect on people’s identity is their social class.
Social Class – How do we define this term?
Class is method of social stratification – a way that we can divide the
population based on their income, occupation and life chances. In the past
many sociologists used the Registrar General’s Scale to measure class.
There is also a more contemporary scale known as the National Statistics
Socio-economic Classification.
Research task
 Find out how these scales measure social class
 Identify two possible disadvantages and advantages of using these
scales to allocate a person to a particular class.
HG Sociology AS

3. Culture and Identity – Social Class
Registrar General’s Scale
Advantages:
Limitations:
National Statistics Socio-economic Classification
Advantages:
Limitations:
HG Sociology AS

4. Culture and Identity – Social Class
Activity
List all the ways you can think of how a person’s occupation might affect
their self-identity and how others see them. Think about aspects of his or
her life such as family life, status in society, housing, health, leisure
activities and beliefs and values are linked to a person’s job.
HG Sociology AS

5. Culture and Identity – Social Class
Life Chances
A person’s social class can have a major influence on his or her life chances.
Definition of life chances
Differences in life chances in social classes
HG Sociology AS

6. Culture and Identity – Social Class
Objective and Subjective Dimensions
of Class
Objective Subjective
Define habitus
HG Sociology AS

7. Culture and Identity – Social Class
Pierre Bourdieu 1973 Cultural
Capital
Bourdieu – Cultural Capital
Key words
Habitus
Dominant class
Mass culture
High Culture
HG Sociology AS

8. Culture and Identity – Social Class
Social Class Cultures
Social class influences how people operate within society. Most people are
socialized into a certain class from a very early age through primary
socialization.
In this section you will learn about the traditional cultural features of the
various classes in British Society.
These are:
 The upper-class
 The middle-class
 The working-class
You will also look at some examples of research conducted by sociologists
in this area.
Upper-Class Culture and Identity
There are three main groups in this category:
1.
2.
3.
HG Sociology AS

9. Culture and Identity – Social Class
Key Words
Old rich
Nouveau riche
Summary of Upper-class Culture
HG Sociology AS

10. Culture and Identity – Social Class
What do the following Sociologists say about the Upper-classes?
Mackintosh and Mooney (2000)
Parkin (1979)
Scott (1986)
What are the differences between the old rich and the nouveau riche?
HG Sociology AS

11. Culture and Identity – Social Class
Middle-class Culture and Identity
Definition of the middle-class
Key features of the middle-class
HG Sociology AS

12. Culture and Identity – Social Class
Explain the features of the major groups within the middle-class
1.Managers
2. Professionals
3. Self –employed small business owners
4. The financially and creative middle-class
5. The lower-middle-class white collar workers
Task: Sociological research and the middle-class.
Find out what Roberts (2001) and Savage (1995) say about the middle-
classes.
HG Sociology AS

13. Culture and Identity – Social Class
Working-class Culture and Identity
The working-class is the largest social class and refers to people working in
manual jobs - work which involves physical effort and mainly working
with their hands such as factory or labouring work. There are two broad
groups within the working class – the traditional working-class and the
new working-class.
Features of the traditional working-class
Key words
Immediate gratification
Present orientation
Fatalism
HG Sociology AS

14. Culture and Identity – Social Class
Define the new working-class
Features of the new working-class
HG Sociology AS

15. Culture and Identity – Social Class
Research activity
Many sociologists have studied the attitudes and values of the working-
classes.
Summarize the work of the following sociologists
Young and Wilmott – 1957
Paul Willis – 1977
Charlesworth – 2000
Hoggart – 1969
HG Sociology AS

16. Culture and Identity – Social Class
Is social class in decline?
Arguments for… Arguments against….
Prepare for a class discussion…..Class is no longer a key factor in the
formation of a person’s cultural identity.
HG Sociology AS

17. Culture and Identity – Social Class
Activities
Task 1 - True or false?
Refer to your work in this unit and mark the following statement true or
false.
Traditional working-class people are less likely to value education that the
middle-class.
Members of the new working class are less likely to be involved in
community activities than the traditional working class.
The traditional working class is likely to have a life-style more like the
lower-middle-class.
People in the new working-class are more likely to live in a tight knit
community than the traditional working-class.
The middle-class are more likely to be concerned with planning for the
future.
Members of the middle-class are more likely to be interested in high-
culture than the working-class.
The traditional upper-class is likely to have a sense of its own superiority to
others.
The traditional upper-class sees itself as having similar identity to the
corporate rich and the stars of the media.
Task 2
Identify and briefly explain two characterises of each class
Task 3
Suggest two ways that the experience of education may reinforce class
identity
HG Sociology AS

18. Culture and Identity – Social Class
Task 4
Which class do you think you belong to? Give reasons for your answer
Task 5
Do you subjectively identify yourself as a member of a particular class?
Which one….and why?
Task 6
Explain what is meant by the subjective dimension of class and why this
might be important when considering whether class is still a source of
identity.
HG Sociology AS

19. Culture and Identity – Social Class
HG Sociology AS