Economic Class

Class and Economic Stratification

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Essay discussion

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Introduce social divisions and the importance of class for sociology

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Discuss Marx’s analysis of class struggle and capitalism

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Examine Weber’s critique of these ideas

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Assignments are due at 3pm on November 5th – the question can be found on Blackboard

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It is 1500 words and worth 40% of your overall grade

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Essay need to be submitted to the MJ Centre and on Blackboard

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Please email me or come see me in my office hour if you have any concerns

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Explain and critically discuss the distinction between agency and structure in modern social life by reference to an event or debate discussed in the news media during October 2012.

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Display an understanding of the concepts of structure and agency Demonstrate an ability to critically analyse different perspectives on agency and structure Use this analysis to reflect on a contemporary event

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The event/debate should be recent, but I am not strict on the timing

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Find a discussion of an issue that is relevant to the debate between structure and agency

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Use this discussion as an example to demonstrate your understanding

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Provide a link to the event and a very brief introduction

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Introduction (10%) ◦ Context: Why is this debate important, what is your issue ◦ Preview: What will you discuss and what is your argument

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Structure (500 words) ◦ 3 perspectives, each using your event as an example to illustrate the point you are making

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Agency (500 words) ◦ 3 perspectives, each using your event as an example to illustrate the point you are making

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A combination –synthesis (200 words)

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Conclusion (10%) ◦ What have you argued? ◦ Why does this matter

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Remember, the assignment is about displaying a critical understanding of structure and agency

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Give basic definitions, but try to demonstrate your knowledge of a range of views

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Try to avoid only using the textbook and large quotes.

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You are encouraged to use knowledge from other parts of the course e.g. This lecture on class

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This is a three (four) year degree

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We are dealing with complex issues (and Giddens is tough)

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Don’t worry if this all feels like a struggle

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Thus far we have focused on the distinction between the capacity to act and the structural influences that pattern that capacity

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Last week we positioned this debate as a reflection of modernity and the capacity for individuals to act freely

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We also discussed the significant structural divides created within modernity that impacted upon our power to act on our intentions

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Over the next four weeks we will discuss structural influences upon modern life, in particular those that influence our agency through the production and maintenance of social divisions

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This Week: Class and economic stratification (class as structure) 2nd Nov: Class and cultural identification (class as agency?)

9th Nov: Gender and sexuality 23rd Nov: Race and ethnicity

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Essay option: Critically discuss the relevance of social class as a way of explaining the production of poverty in 21st century Britain.

Seminar Readings

Lectures - Week 4

- Week 5

• Textbook chapters • Marx

- Week 6

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Class is a foundational concept for sociology and a core of sociological explanations of social stratification

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Before gender and sexuality became significant political issues, class was regarded as the mechanism that divides individuals within society

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Class is regarded as a structure that produces social patterns and influences human behaviour

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However, there is considerable debate around class, primarily Is class an economic category, or a matter of cultural differences?

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Moreover, is class still relevant in contemporary life?

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Social differences: Characteristics that distinguish and separate some people from other people

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Social Division: Social differences with some permanence that result in some groupings being disadvantaged in relation to others

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The questions of social divisions (next year!): Why do differences become divisions, and how can we resist this process

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In discussing class we are attempting to understand stratification and inequality, for which there are numerous explanations ◦ Gender, ethnicity, culture ◦ Marx, Weber, Bourdieu

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In particular we focus on poverty and exclusion

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We ask: How are class structures created?

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How much influence do class structures have over our lives (how much does structure determine our agency)?

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The standard academic definition of class is as a form of stratification

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As a consequence of this stratification, class has a sense of inequality and perhaps injustice

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Class is a political issue

◦ Depending on our framework of explanation

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However, the common sense notion is that of a cultural identity e.g. This is a really classy pub

Employment

Education

Structure Health

Exploitation?

Fashion

Food

Consumption

Agency Work Ethic?

Language

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If class structures are created by the economy and determine our social positions and life chances, then inequality is unjust

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If class is actively created through culture, this shows a capacity for action and individuals become responsible for their circumstances

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Our response to these questions greatly influences our response to stratification

To what degree are the st unemployed in 21 century Britain responsible for their circumstances?

Is this the same across the world and at different stages of history?

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Our responses to these questions depend on how the concept of class is understood

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The two most influential classical approaches arise from Karl Marx and Max Weber

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In the communist manifesto Marx argued that: “The history of all hitherto existing human society is the history of class struggles”

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He positioned class as the central dynamic of historical developments

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This dynamic is an antagonism, a contradiction within capitalism that drives social and political practices

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Human societies have always featured unequal structures and hierarchies

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These were often thought to be natural or god-given ◦ Slavery, caste systems, feudalism

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With the industrial revolution, the enlightenment and capitalism (modernity) came a new sense of individual freedom ◦ Inequality was something that could be overcome through hard work and risk taking

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Marx argued that class is determined by the economic structures established in capitalism

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These categories are objectively determined by the mode of production within capitalism ◦ Mode of production= Forces and relations of production

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The raw materials, tools and technology used to produce commodities and materially reproduce our lives

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The social relationships constructed in order to materially reproduce our lives, structured according to the political needs of the economy

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Marx argued that the economy reflects the objective state of society

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That objective state is mediated through a superstructural apparatus that includes culture, ideology and state institutions

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There is considerable debate within Marxism around the feasibility of this model

In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness 1859 Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy 27951 and your message to +447624806527

Human Behaviour (Agency)

Politics

Family

Culture

Economic Structure (Capitalist Mode of Production)

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Capitalism is a system for the material reproduction of our lives in which private owners of the forces of production establish relations of production that allow commodities to be sold for more than they cost to make

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Marx argued that these relations are exploitative because of unequal access to productive resources

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Marx argued that the relations of production were objectively divided into two ‘great classes’

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The bourgeoisie are those who control of production and thus have the ability to reproduce themselves outside of their own labour

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By contrast, the proletariat are those with nothing to sell but their labour (and bodies)

Image: '-8' http://www.flickr.com/photos/11043981@N00/2910149650

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For Marx owners were able to exploit workers because they have the power to pay less than the value that the worker produces

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They are able to do so because of the vulnerability of labour

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Workers are often born without the land or technology to reproduce their lives, and are thus forced the sell their bodies to work for those who are able to control these resources

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Workers can also be dispossessed through what Marx called ‘primitive accumulation’

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Primitive accumulation is vital to establishing class stratification

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Feudal societies were often categorised by extreme inequality of land ownership that continue today

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Imperial adventures often produced ‘accumulation by dispossession’ as local land and resources came under the control of empires

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Neo-liberal restructuring in the West and globally has produced wide scale transfer of assets from the public to private sector

Thinking about some part-time work you have done, do you feel that you were exploited?

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Capitalism and modern societies rely on the idea of individual reward for working hard

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Marxists’ argue that economic wealth is more accurately predicted by starting position

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This starting position is historically determined

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As a consequence of this ‘injustice’, it is in workers interests to rise up against the system that exploits them

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This is a question of structure: The operation of capitalism creates a dynamic (class struggle) in which the wealthiest exploit the poorest

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This exploitation is not isolated, but is reproduced through structural institutions (the base) and cultural practices (the superstructure)

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Consequently, individuals have little capacity to resist

“[People] make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past.�

The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon (1852)

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Marx argued that the goals of the classes are in direct conflict: profit vs. wages.

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As a consequence capitalism is structured around the contradiction between these goals

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Thus capitalism is not totally determining, but allows a certain group – the proletariat – the capacity to ‘truly’ resist capitalism

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However, workers may not be aware of their capacity to act in this way

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Marx argued that the working classes must become conscious of their position as a class

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Once they became aware of this position they could overthrow their masters and live in a classless society

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Class is always class struggle, a point of resistance to power

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Capitalism presents itself as providing opportunities for action and choice

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Capitalism and liberal democracy are based around the right to choose, suggesting that we have equal capacity for action

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Marxist’s suggests that this overt capacity for small choices masks the structural determinism of capitalism

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Marx had predicted that capitalism would collapse under the weight of its own contradictions as the working classes became conscious of their position

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Why has this not occurred?

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The rise of the middle classes Progressive social reforms Complexity of class structures The loss of identity of the working class Marx was wrong about capitalism?

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There have been numerous attempts to supplement Marx’s work

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These often rejected ‘historical materialism’ and ‘economic determinism’ to focus more on agency than structure

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They have responded to the increasing complexity of capitalism and class positions

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Focused on the functional appeals of capitalism

How convinced are you about the value of Marxist explanations of class and inequality?

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Max Weber, writing after Marx, argued for a more multi-dimensional understanding of class than allowed for greater cultural construction and agency

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Weber posited a three-way interactive structure of class ◦ Economic inequality

◦ Power or authority ◦ Status 

This has resonated strongly with governments, inspiring the concept of socio-economic status (SES)

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Power is the ability of an individual to express their will, particularly against others – an expression of agency ◦ Do you have the capacity to act on your intentions and influence the capacity of others to do so?

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The ability to command resources is a vital element of power - power can be an economic factor

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This power includes charisma and domination

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Possession of property and resources – structurally determined

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Income and labour skills – an expression of ‘effort’ and agency

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Weber challenged the idea that classes possess a single consciousness and thus rejected Marx’s revolutionary theory

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Economic position is important, but it interacts with other factors

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By contrast to class groups, status is relative to communities

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Status is derived from relative prestige within a community and shifting structural value

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What is valued as status may change depending on community

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Status is not always an economic concept

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Class is still defined by work, this time by the notion of occupation

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Occupation takes into account income, ability to command authority and social conceptions of status

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The Weberian model of Socio-Economic Status (SES) has become popular because it is able to reflect increased stratification and changing work patterns in the West

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Higher managerial and professional occupations Lower managerial and professional occupations Intermediate occupations (clerical, sales, service) Small employers and own account workers Lower supervisory and technical occupations Semi-routine occupations Routine occupations Never worked and long-term unemployed

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/classifications/current-standard classifications/soc2010/soc2010-volume-3-ns-sec--rebased-on-soc2010-user-manual/index.html

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Class is becoming harder to represent as traditional categories merge

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Class is becoming less important as a form of identity

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Does this mean that we live in a classless society? ◦ What is the motivation for this kind of statement?

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Why would governments seek to map class in this way?

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How would you describe your class position?

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Is it an important part of how you think about yourself?

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How much do you think class will influence your future life chances?

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Class is one of the primary modes of social stratification and division

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Marxist notions of class struggle are some of the most influential…

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…but have come under strong critique

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Weberian ideas around status and authority have more official appeal

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The way we conceptualise class very important for directing responses to poverty and inequality

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Class as culture

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Read ◦ Fulcher and Scott (2011) Sociology, Chapter 20. ◦ Giddens (2009) Sociology, Chapter 12. ◦ Macionis, & Plummer (2012) Sociology, Chapter 8.

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Email me or attend office hours (Monday, 3pm GB152) if you have any concerns about your essay ◦ chris.mcmillan@brunel.ac.uk