Download Identity, Inequality and Social Class

Identity, Inequality and Social Class
1- Introduction:
Work, incomes and identity: paid work is a source of collective identity through
relationships with colleagues at work.
2- What it is to be poor:
One group whose identities are greatly constrained by income are the poor. How does
poverty shape identity?
2.1- Making ends meet:
To be poor means to struggle to feed and clothe a family on very little money, to keep
them warm, dry, clean and safe and to do this without getting into debt or getting into
trouble. Low income families in the UK live on social security benefits. The UK
benefit rates in the early 1990's generally gave people insufficient money to cover
even basic needs. The extent of very low paid work increased in 80's and 90's.
2.2- Necessities and luxuries:
Most people's list of basic needs would include adequate food, clean water, clothing,
shelter, heating and paying bills. Physiological and social necessities are added (e.g.
T.V). Necessities are a matter of social and political judgment.
40's: the radio was a necessity.
20th. Century: the T.V was a necessity.
In the future: the computer might be a necessity.
Poverty is more than a lack of money. It carries a stigma because it is defined relation
to what people think is needed for a decent life.
2.3- How others see us:
Adam smith put it this way: "by necessaries I understand not only the commodities
that are indispensably necessary for the support of life, but whatever the custom of the
country renders it indecent for creditable people, even the lowest orders, to be
without".
The idea of being poor carries "a stigma": it is a label that many people living on low
incomes resist.
Men are more likely than women to deny poverty. Poverty is a relative matter.
Moreover representations of the poor in British culture are often demeaning. Thus,
poverty does not easily provide a basic for collective identity.
3- Working, incomes and inequality:
* Using the "income parade" to describe the distribution of incomes in the UK.
3.1- Describing inequality:
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3.2- Increasing inequality:
Inequality in incomes got worse during the 80's and 90's. Figures 3.5 and 3.6 show us
that the gap between poor and rich widened dramatically. There was a signification
rise in the numbers in poverty, as measured by income.
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The UK income distribution is highly unequal and has been becoming more
so.
Well over half the UK population lives below average incomes.
A few wealthy people have extraordinarily high incomes relative to everyone
else.
The numbers in poverty rose sharply in the 80's and 90's.
Important determinants of where you are in the income distribution are
occupation and household structure, including the number of children within
the household.
4- Wealth, power and class:
Income is a structural constraint. The wealthier you are, the more you may be aware
of income and wealth as sources of opportunity and of power over others.
4.1- Wealth and class identity:
Income is unequal in the UK. Wealth holding is more dramatically unequal. Wealth
and privilege are not visible. The wealthy live in a private world (fee paying
schooling, private transport, private health care, social networks).This upper class
relationships and activities are represented in the popular media. The less wealthy half
of the population still only own 10 percent of the UK's wealth.
4.2- wealth, capital and power:
Wealth brings some security and control. Wealth confers power over the lives of
others. The very rich in the UK are either landowners or fortune owners
(manufacturing and service industries). Most of the very wealthy are employers
(shareholders or company directors).
"Capital" operates as the key link between wealth and power. Wealthy business
people invest their own capital and the capital of others in equipping businesses in
employing people and in producing goods and services. They respond to market
opportunities in ways that shape our working lives >>> this economic system is called
"capitalism". Capitalism drove vast economic and social transformation.
 Financial wealth is concentrated in few hands.
 Housing and pension wealth is more dispersed.
 Management of financial wealth as capital confers power.
 Wealth and power are sources of class distribution.
5- Social class:
5.1- Seeing ourselves in class terms:
There are two keys elements of popular notion of social class: those at the top, who
own capital and the oppositional class, those who they employ.
Social class provides us with a sense of belonging, tells us how to relate to the world
around us. Identifying oneself as a member of a social class is shaped by:
 Personal history.
 Family background.
 Occupation.
 Personal experiences of struggle and conflict.
Many sociologists argue that class has lost much of its significance for identity. The
evidence offered for these claims:
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Changing social and economic structures.
The rise of other sources of identity and belonging.
o Post-ware era:
 Large-scale manufacturing and mining employed many people.
 Working class identification was reflected in mass membership organizations
such as labor, party, trade unions, work-based social and political clubs.
 Organized sources of identity were dominated by men.
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In the 70's, 80's:
Shift to service industries.
Increase in number of women working.
Fragmentation in institutions.
Drop in membership.
A decline in identification with work based community cultures.
Erosion of identities based on work.
National collective bargaining declined.
Fragmentation in trade unionism >>> more sectional identities.
The labor party worked hard seeking the "middle" social ground to shed any
identification of the party with the working class.
 Working-based identities have been cross-cut with other sources of identity.
 The rising importance of gender and ethnic identities, the emphasis in mass
media on the diverse consumption-based lifestyle >>> individuals play active
role in constructing their own identity.
 Social class is dominated by two traditions of thought: Marxism and
Weberianism.
5.2- The Marxist theory of class:
This theory has both intellectual and political influence. For Marx class is rooted in
the economic organization of production. The organization and ownership of the
means of production (tools, machines, workplaces and raw materials) shape the social
relationships between individuals and groups within a society. The owners of capital
are the new ruling class. For Marx in the capitalist society there are two main classes:
 A capital owing class "the bourgeoisie" the ruling class.
 A property less class "the proletariat" the working class.
Themes in the Marx's analysis of class:
 The link between individual economic position within system of production
and class position.
 Class is a structure rooted in the economic organization of production.
 Social polarization and associated class conflict.
 Class consciousness which is particularly relevant to our understanding of
identity.
Marxism sees social relationships and human action as being constrained by the
economic structures of society, but those structures generate the conditions for
collective consciousness and identity. The development of a new type of society
necessitates collective, not individual, action.
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5.3- Max Weber's theory of social class stratification:
Max Weber offers an alternative vision of social class to Marx's. Weber draws
attention to forms of stratification other than class, to divisions of status and what the
he calls (party).
Party: any organization or voluntary association that brings people together with
common backgrounds aims or interests, in pursuit of particular policies or control of a
particular organization.
Weber sees class, status and party as the production of goods and status with their
consumption.
Similarities between Marx and Weber:
 Recognizing the existence of economically defined social classes.
 Identifying a division between propertied and property less classes.
Differences:
Marx
Weber
Class is structured by ownership and
Class is structured by market position.
organization of production. Class is more
central.
Class consciousness emerges through
Weber identifies non-class elements of
collective actions.
social stratification, notably status and
party that are independent of social class.
Identity and collective action focus more Identity and collective action focus more
on class.
on status.
The key point: class relationships are
The key point: class divisions and
founded in exploitative production
inequalities reflect different life chances
relations.
in the market.
5.4- Class and identity in the two traditions:
Marx and Weber would analyze the class position of call center workers in different
ways:
a- Marxist tradition:
Call center employment would be analyzed in terms of the relationship between the
employer and the employee. To increase rates of work, new technology brings the
pressures of the production line into "white collar" work. Marxists would point to
rising discontent, resistance and unionization as evidence of growing class
consciousness and a sense of collective work-place identity.
b- Weberian tradition:
Identities elements of class:
 A group of individuals sharing a similar position in the labor force.
 Highlighting the use of mostly young women workers.
 Stressing gender as a dimension of inequality of status affecting market
position.
 Emphasizing on individual skill (internal competition between workers) and
performance related pay as fragmenting the workface.
 Seeing unionization as the pursuit of sectional interests rather than evidence of
collective identity.
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6- An Erosion of class identity:
Two claims recur:
 A move from collective to individual identities.
 A move from occupation to consumption patterns as sources of social
distinction.
In the 60's there were signs that working-class identity was fragmenting and a
growing differentiation among a "new" working class was developing. The new
working class was distinguished by "instrumentalism", working for money. Work
played a smaller role in their sense of identity than it did for the "traditional" working
class. Family and home play a more important role than work.
6.1- Class and consumption:
Consumption processes and differences in lifestyle are more important than
occupation-based class in constructing identities.
A major process of "social rest ratification" took place of the second world war, a
growing division between a (middle mass) who could satisfy their consumption needs
(cars, housing, education, health care) and those who remained insecurely dependent
on state provision of ( housing, public, transport, education, health care). Prosperity
and insecurity led to individualization and a move away from work place-based
identities.
 Consumption both establishes and expresses social difference.
 Consumption tastes are one way we distinguish ourselves from others.
 Low in comes limit consumption choices very sharply.
 Class as a source of collective identity is eroded by a more individualistic and
consumerist culture.
 Consumption has replaced class in structuring social division and identities.
 Consumption has a major influence on identity, but it is an expression of
differentiation within and between classes.
7- Social polarization and social exclusion:
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7.1- A polarizing society:
There are two camps in understanding inequality:
 One camp sees inequality as gradations in a hierarchy. Many people live
below average incomes, few and wealthy are the rich. There are no sharp
breaks. (Weber, Bourdieu).
 Another camp that spot fault lines and cleavages and emphasize conflict. They
emphasize consumption cleavages. (Marx, Saunders)
There is a social exclusion: some groups are marginalized and excluded from full
participation and from taking advantage of all that is available to the more affluent in
society.
There is a growing social polarization: divide between a relatively affluent majority
and a large excluded minority.
Unemployment remains high in the UK, and wages and insecurity of employment at
the lower end have worsened.
Fluctuations and insecurity of incomes are far more prevalent among low income
groups than among the better off. The deterioration of public services and
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infrastructures in 80's and 90's reinforced social polarization. High charges, declining
standards in public transport, education, housing and health services have a worse
impact on those who rely on them most. Such communities generate a distinct culture
of resistance, characterized by criminality and avoidance of employment.
7.2-Uncertainty and identity:
Do people have distinct identities, shaped by different attitudes to income and paid
work, in "exclude" communities?
The poor did not see themselves as exclude or as members of an "underclass".
They feel insecure. All men were unemployed. They talked about needing to work.
Idleness was poring and destructive of identity and self-respect. All men saw the
proper role of a man as a breadwinner.
Men: the difficult of finding work, insecurity, emphasizing the importance of net
works and knowledge in trying to find work.
Women: responsibility for child care and house hold work. Female kin and friends
help seeking employment.
The poor apply familiar norms and source of identity to cope with a very difficult
economic context.
 Images of inequality differ between those that focus on gradations and those
that focus on divides.
 Increase in social polarization in UK in terms of incomes and employment
experience.
 Economic insecurity is worst for those on low incomes.
 Income-related and work-related identities do not greatly differ between poor
and better-off people.
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Typed by Quds