Social Class And Cultures: A Comparative Analysis

The example of President Bill Clinton, who moved up from working class to a higher class through education, to Bill Gates who succeed without no degree. In the past decades, Americans assumed that people can move up to higher class if they have the willingness to be successful and if work hard because everyone gets the same opportunities. While, in current era, there are 5 classes which are upper, upper middle, lower middle, working, and lower classes, but people are divided in countless micro classes based on lifestyle, connections, occupations, etc. Moreover, the socio-economic status of an individual determine if their kids are going to college or not, or if they would be able to attend specific college. These evidences strongly support the thesis of the authors because it suggests that with the passage of time, the class lines became blurred and complex but these lines still divide people based on different factors.

This essay will aim to outline and evaluate the explanations of working class underachievement. This will be through examining the home and school factors that affect these individuals and then reaching a conclusion that highlights the most influential factors while finding connections between them. A person is considered working class if they are typically employed in manual or industrial work in order to achieve a wage.

Power, class and status are all interlinked to social and cultural capital in reinforcing inequality. People who have a low income and status, and belong to the working class tend to not have as many social networks and support as well as the cultural ‘taste’ and values as those who are able to afford much more than them. Skeggs (as cited in Watt 2008) points out how people with the working-class identity do not receive the social support like other ‘ordinary people’ in the

According to Bynner and Joshi (1999) class differences have persisted since the late 1950’s. It can be seen that all studies carried out by various theorist came to the same conclusion that middle class pupils tend to do a lot better than working class in terms of educational achievement. Pupils from middle class backgrounds tend to pass more exams, stay on at school for longer and are five times more likely to go to university. This gap in achievement widens with age as right from nursery school to university, processes like labelling or the self fulfilling prophecy take

The axis of inequality that will be focused throughout this paper is the social class. Social class is defined as a group of individuals who are categorized according to class (i.e. poor, middle, and upper) due to their income, wealth, power, and occupation. Social class is socially constructed by the way we view how much income and wealth a person possess (Ore, 20011a, 10). In reality it is much more than that. According to the text, poverty is not only the shortage of income, but it is the rejection of opportunities and choices that leads a person to a standard way of living (Ore, 2011a, 10). Stereotyping also contributes to it being socially constructed. These stereotypes influence us by defining who is who based on their principles in each class category. This can cause some to feel worthless.

In the article “From Social Class to the Hidden Curriculum of Work,” written by Jean Anyon, he argues that the working-class and affluent communities both receive a learning-based education, the working-class lacks the fundamentals. Supporting this claim is Diane Ravitch in “The Essentials of a Good education” stating affluent communities provide classes beyond the essentials, including extra-curricular classes and activities with well-equipped material for their children to obtain. Contrastively, the working class community only receives the “basic” courses that consist of mathematics and English for their children. It has become evident that working-class communities in comparison to affluent communities cannot afford an open-handed and

There is no agreement or consensus reached on the proper definition of the term underclass. Furthermore, most researches have not determined the size of the underclass population, much less, on how the underclass population has changed over time. Most people assume that the term underclass implies a group of people who live in isolation, or are isolated from the rest of the society. Secondly, these kinds of persons (underclass) have low paying jobs and are not economically relevant, therefore, living in poverty conditions. Thirdly, these individuals (underclass) are characterised by social nonconformity, which has increased because of outmigration of the middle class people, who served as their mentors. There have been issues with the clear description of the underclass, as research done on the underclass comprises all individuals living in poverty or residing in poverty areas. Arguably, not all people living within a poverty residence are poor (Belina 20).

Between the years of 1945-1970 social class dominantly shaped the voting behaviour of individuals. Whilst there has been a decline in prominence of class voting: Labour remains the most popular working class party and Conservatives perform best among middle-class voters. Social classes are defined by economic and social

This week’s reading assignment was intriguing and looked at two different tones when discussing issues on social class. Swift’s essay, A Modest Proposal used a high degree of sarcasm. Conversely, Thiong’o used a direct approach to address class in his essay, Decolonizing the Mind. While both authors addressed a singular problem with a solution, only one detailed a clear answer.

“A New Model of Social Class? Findings from the BBC’s Great British Class Survey Experiment” is an article written by Savage et. Al (2013), shows analysis of two surveys which results in a new way of mapping the social class in the UK. Savage et. Al. explains in his article the five steps of analysis that led to the division of the seven classes, and the explains the seven classes, and the economic, social, and cultural capital.

British society is split into hierarchical categories with “higher” “middle” and “lower working” class. The British class structure is shaped like a pyramid cut into three

They have their ups and downs, struggling to define who they are, in an often cruel society (Davis, 2009). The two main themes found within the documentary focus on strife in their current lives, and the potential for a better future, both of which relate to our class

Education in Britain had a limited impact of social mobility, until the second world war, the education system did not provide a ladder of mobility but was, rather, ‘the stamp put on the social character of individuals whose

The socialist working class has been the core structure that got Britain through every economic and social challenge that they were involved in. During George Orwell’s time in Britain, he wrote that the “overwhelming strength of patriotism, national loyalty” the English had was more powerful even if it was compared to any religion or political theory and more likely seen in class divided areas like cheap public schools with more power than the hate for class separation. He recalled a working man’s ability “to keep his brain intact and alert, and so nothing could make him succumb to poverty.” They seemed to have applied principles, endurance, and did not let political disagreement

Social stratification is the hierarchical arrangement of individuals into divisions of power and wealth within a society. Social stratification relates to the socio-economic concept of class, consisting of the upper class, middle class, and lower class. Each class may be further subdivided into smaller classes through the main indicator is occupation. This is the most practical and most effective means of encompassing the wide variety of economic and social elements that go to make up a person’s class through their education, status, income and power. Evidence shows that wealth is distributed unequally and that incomes vary from small to huge. The old idea of Britain’s class structure was comprised as a triangular shape; with increasing