SOCIAL CLASS
Social class refers to the system of stratification of the different groups of people in a society. These different forms of classification are, in most instances, based on gender ethnicity and age. Social class makes everyone’s lives extremely different. For example: How long one can expect to live. In a wide range of ways, from success, to one’s health class, social class influences people’s lives (Grusky,2003).
Among the life chances affected as result of social class involve factors such as: How long people live (life expectancy), how healthy people are, how much and what they eat, the kind of housing they live in, the level of education they reach and the qualifications they achieve, how likely they are to be unemployed or to be made redundant, their chances of being injured or even killed at work, the money they can spend on both necessities and luxuries, how often they can take a holiday, and, their chances of being victims of crimes.
The Upper Class
The kind of social class that a person will belong to is highly determined by the level of income one gets. The higher the income one has, the higher the social class one will belong to. In a normal society the highest social class is the upper class. This consists mainly of the landowning aristocracy, the pop aristocracy, the royal family, and the entrepreneurs. Some of these members of the upper class achieve their status by virtue of birth. For example, by belonging to the royal family one automatically belongs to the upper class. Other people in this social class achieve this status by virtue of social mobility. For example, by being an artist extraordinaire and making record sales, one can be propelled from the working or middle classes to the upper class (G...
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...her “races”.
SOCIAL CHANGE
Social change refers to a change in the social order of a society. These changes could be in terms of behavior patterns and cultural values and norms. Social changes may have long-term effects. They include industrial revolution, abolition of slavery, and the feminist movement. Another form of social change refers to the progression that most people especially in America in terms of interactions with minorities.
References
Blundell , J.(2001).Active Sociology, Edinburg Gate, Pearson Education Limited.
Grusky, D. (2003).Social Stratification: Class, Race and Gender in Sociological Perspective : London,West view Press.
Helaey, J. (2006). Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class: The Sociology of Group Confict and Change; New York, Pine Forge Press.
Wharton, A. (2011).The Sociology of Gender: An Introduction to Theory and Research, New York,
In most societies there are variations in the levels of wealth, material possession, power, and authority amongst individuals. These variables are usually related to one’s occupation, race and the diversity of access to things like education and health care. All of these resources impact individual status in society, and take part in classifying people into social classes. Precise social class is difficult to identify, as it consists of two fundamental aspects. The objective aspect pertains to one’s occupation, race, age, and other solid facts; meanwhile the subjective aspect portrays one’s values, behaviorisms, and his/her way of life.
Andersen, Margaret L. and Patricia Hill Collins. 2012. Race, Class & Gender: an Anthology, 8th edition. Wadsworth Cengage.
What is social class you ask? Social class is a system created to categorize people by education, wealth and heredity. What are the different class systems you ask? There are several class classifications and they’re Upper Class–Elite, Upper Middle Class, Lower Middle Class, Working Class and poor. In the united states and being a victim of “ social class categorizing” is an issue that must be addressed and people must be made aware, because it seems as if it’s not going anywhere anytime soon so the least we can do is try and make it fair as possible. Being defined unknowingly by a class system is one thing, but having no say so or fair opportunity at being placed in the best “class system” as those more fortunate than others needs to change because it’s not like we all came out of our mothers womb starting the race of life at the same starting and advantage point, and since we as Americans pride our-self on being the land of the free and equal opportunities I feel compelled to inform you of the unfairness of the issue and state ways to make it fair. In an article read while doing research this is how the author defined Social class “Classism is similar in many ways to racism, sexism, heterosexism and other forms of oppression. Classism appears individually through attitudes and behaviors, institutionally through policies and practices, and culturally through norms and values. Like other forms of oppression and prejudice, it is the tendency to make sweeping generalizations or stereotypes about people, such as “Poor people are lazy.”(Class Action) This essay will assess the determination of social classes in the United States and will seek to provide examples to demonstrate the inequalities and provide ways to improve them.
Social rank has been a big part in a “Knight's Tale”. Without social classes we would not be able to determine who is rich and who is poor. Social class is based off of you income and the thing you own. They are three social classes low, middle, and upper.
Rothenberg, P. 1998. Race, Class, and Gender in the United States. New York: St. Martin's Press.
THESIS: Race differences in identity and social position were, and are, more important than class differences in American society.
Despite the typically imaged definition of socioeconomic class being based entirely on the wealth of the individual, there are many complex social factors at play as well. Not only does it stem from Max Weber’s concept of Socioeconomic class (wealth, status, and power), there is a mobility to it as well. Anyone can permanently or temporarily
Social class is a group of people who rank closely in property, prestige, and power. Within these social classes exist some properties of class level that are characteristic of their ranking. The first of these is property. Property consists of furniture, jewelry, bank accounts, and other materials that can be quantified into monetary value. (Henslin, 2014) Basically, they are things that can be quantified to add up in quantified value end up un a sum of monetary value. This value is termed wealth. This is different from income. Income is known as the flow of money. Prestige is the next characteristic looked at when determining social class. Prestige is the value which different groups of people are judged with. (Henslin, 2014) Different occupations within society offer varying levels of prestige. The final aspect looked at when determining class is power. Power is defined as the ability to exert your will within society. (Henslin, 2014) The reason to review this is because different classes of society all maintain these aspects at higher or lower degrees, with the upper tier having the
Social class is a subjective concept in social sciences and political theory where individuals are grouped into different classes. This set a hierarchy inside the society structure where the upper and lower class exist and contribute to the society. Understanding social classes and their effects on the people, as well as cultures and social behavior and lead sociologist closer to the development of an ideal society.
Omi, Michael and Howard Winant. “Racial Formations.” Race, Class, and Gender in the United States. Ed. Paula Rothenberg. New York, NY: Worth Publishers, 2010. 13-22. Print.
Class is often seen as the income or lifestyle that people fit into; but by creating such a vague definition for class, we lose sight of the reasons that the different classes exist. Even more than that, the general population has been led to believe that classes are a thing of the past-something that used to be important, but is now just a term economists use that has no effect our lives.
Social stratification as defined by Brinkerhoff et al. is “an institutionalized pattern of inequality in which social statuses are ranked on the basis of their access to scarce resources” (Brinkerhoff et al. 152). By scarce resources, many people have to deal with poverty and having a lack of money to buy the things they need in their lives. Social class is defined as “a category of people who share roughly the same class, status, and power and who have a sense of identification with each other” (Brinkerhoff et al. 155). Your social class has to do with your socioeconomic status along with the power and connections you have. Social mobility on the other hand is “the process of changing one’s social class” (Brinkerhoff et al. 153).
The class system places the individual in the social system based on his achieved status. This status is earned or chosen. This includes educational level, careers, and spouses.
What is social class? It is a term used to describe a large group of people who share similar social or economic positions in society based on wealth, income, job status, education, skills or power in the political sphere. Class is not just about what you own or earn but also who you know. Class affects not only how we feel about ourselves, but how others judge and consequently treat us. Those at the top of the class structure, the elite, have more power than those in the middle and even more power than those at the bottom who are of lower class. Education is a highly valued commodity in our world. In his commentary on society Freud, claimed, “ No feature, however, seems better to characterize civilization than its esteem and encouragement
Social change refers to an alteration in the social order of a society. Social change maybe defined as” the process in which significant alterations occur in the structure and functioning of a particular social system”. It involves alteration in social structures, certainly with new social norms being established, probably also with new social values and changes in nature, social institutions, social behaviour or social relations. It refers to the notion of social progress or social cultural evolution, the philosophical idea that society moves forward by dialectical or evolutionary means. It also refers to a paradigmatic change in the socio-economic structure.