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The Importance of Class

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The Importance of Class
The Importance of Class / History II
There are some factors that has contributed to this development:
-The increasing influence of the mass media has encouraged the creation of mass society, meaning, uniform customs and tastes. The British lifestyle has become less varied.
-A new concept of social security was created by the foundation of the Welfare state and the extension of social, medical services which eased the gap between rich and poor
-The preference of the comprehensive school over the three-school-system has led to children of all classes to be mixed at a young age.

However, in spite of more social flexibility and leveling of class distinctions, ‘’class’’ has not disappeared, but remained fundamental stratification in Britain.

The different classes
What is class?- Sociologists define social class as the grouping of people by occupations.
Officially industry and politics divide the population into groups based on their occupation.
There are different opinions on where to draw the line between classes in Britain.
But sociologists divide capitalist industrial societies into three main classes
Upper class: aristocracy(royals) and land owners about 4000 people of the population
Middle class: The majority of the population of Britain. Industrialists, professionals, shop owners
Working class: semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers, mine and factory workers, close family and community ties. Union members and lonely mentality(us-and-them)
Hardest loss trough steel, textile and coal mining industry. The class is home of the unemployed elderly, unsupported mothers and disabled

Different classes
More closely we can distinguish five or more social groups:
Upper Middle: managers, civil servants. They have partly replaced aristocracy in politics and administration
Lower Middle: small business-owners, office workers, skilled manual workers and builders
These Class forms the biggest grouping in British society.
Working class and

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