Class II

United we stand?

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We introduced class as an economic concept through Marxist ideas about the role of economic structure in determining class positions

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We examined the Weberian expansion of class, including status and authority/power

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We considered how Weberian ideas had been a popular mechanism for official measurements

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The declining relevance of class as form of social division and resistance

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The rise of class as a form of cultural identity

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The politics of class in the 21st century and the declining relevance of class structures

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Poverty, social exclusion and chavs

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Evaluating class today

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Marx and Weber argued that class is a form of social division whereby stratification occurred because of injustices within social structures

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These injustices required forms of cultural policing to maintain social cohesion

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Cultural notions of class do not carry the same kind of antagonism, and tend to soften our sense of injustice by offering a point of identification as a point of social difference

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Conversely, these class identities can become a dividing factor

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This module considers both social divisions and responses to those divisions: resistance and cohesion

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Last week we examined class as a potentially explosive (according to Marx) division

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This week we consider ways in which class divisions are pacified, both by becoming an aspect of cultural identity and through changes in political economy

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A range of political changes have shifted political, sociological and common sense understandings of class

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Post-Industrial

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Post-Ideological

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Post-Modern

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Post-Truth?

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Towards the end of the 20th century significant changes occurred in the economies of the Western world

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‘Working class’ jobs have increasingly moved outside of the Western world ◦ Changes in employment patterns have had significant consequences for class structures

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Economies have become more service orientated

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Identities have become increasingly consumption orientated

◦ Approx. 90% of Londoners are employed in the service sector

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American Political Scientist Francis Fukuyama has argued that the collapse of communism led to the ‘end of history’

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In the 1980’s Margaret Thatcher claimed that ‘There is No Alternative’(TINA) as part of what came to be known as the ‘Washington Consensus’

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The forces of globalisation have led to an apparent convergence of culture and opportunity

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Recent events have called these notions into question

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Identities are no longer considered to be fixed

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We have the ability to pick and choose our ‘selves’, which do not have to be wholly consistent

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This applies to class: class is no longer attached to the categories designed by Marx, or Weber

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No one group or set of ideas has the exclusive right to truth

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Significantly, the distance between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture has been reduced

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It is argued that we live in very cynical times

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We all know the truth about injustice or corruption, but nothing changes

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Without singular points of authority, it is difficult to know what to believe

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Consequently, those who are exploited have less opportunity to act on those injustices

Do you think we live in a ‘post-’ world of any kind? If so, how do you think it impacts upon your life?’

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As a result of these changes, it is argued that the importance of class, both politically and in sociological understandings, has been reduced

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Post-Marxist theorist Ernesto Laclau has stated: “class struggle is just one species of identity struggle, and one which is becoming less and less important in the world in which we live” (Contingency, Hegemony, Universality, 2000, p.203)

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The decline of class, the traditional foundation of Leftist politics, has led to new forms of resistance as other points of antagonism have come to the fore

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Instead of an objective class struggle, the political left has turned to gender, racial and sexual identities, attempting to form movements based on ‘identity politics’ where class is often named but not emphasised

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This form of politics has led to a greater acceptance of economic inequalities and a strong focus on the middle class ◦ ‘The 3rd Way’

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New Labour and Tony Blair: “We’re all middle-class now”

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Realising the majority of voters identify as middleclass, politicians increasingly target these groups

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‘The squeezed middle’

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‘Alarm Clock Britain’

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‘Hard-working Americans/Britains/Other Deserving people’

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The declining importance of class can be translated as ‘the declining relevance of working class identity’ Why?

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Shifts in employment in the West as ‘traditional’ working class jobs have moved overseas

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Changing work roles have altered the assumed relationship between income and status

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Manufacturing employment in the UK has fallen from 7 million in 1979 to 2.83 in 2009 (Chavs, 2012, p.35).

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This trend has occurred across the Western world as both ‘developing’ and ‘developed’ economies restructured to take advantage of cheaper labour costs

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These shifts have had a significant impact on the working classes and our perception of them

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Rapidly decreases in traditional working class jobs has weakened identifications with ‘working-class culture’

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The security of these roles has been replaced by lower-paid and status roles in the service industry

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These roles are often more ‘feminine’ and discourage working class solidarity ◦ Retail, call centres and care roles

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These shifts in employment patterns have led some to argue that we live in a classless society

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By this it is meant that class identities have less of a role in how we understand ourselves

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Instead, class has become one possible aspect of our social identity

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Class is perceived as a social difference, although cultural divides are still apparent ◦ Celebrity culture, mocking of the lower classes

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Class still distinguishes one group from another but without the same sense of injustice.

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Instead class is something that is constructed and chosen

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This ‘choice’ is represented by our cultural expressions

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These cultural expressions distinguish one group from another and provide a sense of identity and unity for cultural groupings

Fashion

Food

Consumption

Choice Work Ethic?

Language

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Number your post-it note 1,2,3

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Write down a specific aspect of class (low income, cleaner, culture)

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Pass these notes around the class, each time you receive one, write down the same characteristic until the three spaces are full

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What class are you in?

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Why - What makes you define it that way?

◦ In particular, what kind of theoretical perspective?

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Class becomes relative to society, rather than having an objective status

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However, whilst class is more subjective, it is still patterned – class remains a social structure

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Different regions and groupings often have a different sense of class

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Class is expressed differently outside of Britain

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Outside of the West class is often expressed in different terms and considered to be more economically and culturally stable

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Having often migrated to avoid economic deprivation, British colonies have traditionally had fewer class distinctions, even if there are similar economic disparities

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Within Australia and New Zealand being ‘working class’, or at least not ‘upper class’, is a point of pride

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The cultures often celebrate working class heroes without the same reservations that exist in more ‘traditional’ societies ◦ The ‘working-class battler’

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Consequently, different cultural practices and jobs are celebrated in national culture

Yard of ale = 11 seconds

Prime Minister

Australia-UK= 52 cans

Sportsman

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Economic inequality is stronger in the US than in other Western areas

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Yet class is much less of a political focus, nor a strong aspect of cultural/national identity

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There is a stronger focus on race and social mobility, under the code word of ‘freedom’

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There is extreme political sensitivity to ‘class war’ in the US

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Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor suggested that Barack Obama is “anti-business, hyper-regulatory [and] pro-tax” and “fueled by efforts to incite class warfare.” http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/61812.html#ixzz29MAwaEo7

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Obama ‘This is not class warfare, its maths’

Source: http://touchstoneblog.org.uk/2011/12/can-inequality-be-tackled-withoutspending-more-on-benefits/oecd-inequality-1/

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Despite politicians celebrating the end of class stratification and division, they are still readily apparent

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However, the ideological frameworks through which class is considered have changed

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Principally, the focus of class analysis is the development of an ‘underclass’, a term which, along with social exclusion, came to prominence under New Labour

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The central assumption of the ‘we’re all middle class now’ argument is that those who have not achieved this status are at fault

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The key concept of this understanding of class is social mobility

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If economic inequality exists, it is justified as long as there is social mobility between class groupings ◦ A functionalist and neo-liberal perspective

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Class is not fixed, but is chosen

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As a consequence, those who are excluded from social mobility are at fault

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The use of ‘exclusion’ implies that those ‘included’ within the system have an equal chance to succeed

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Journalist Simon Heffer: “You don’t have families any more that live in sort of respectable, humble circumstances for generation after generation, they either become clients of the welfare state and the underclass, or they become middle class” (cited in Jones, p.7)

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This group is thought to have failed on the basis of their shared characteristics

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Consequently, they do not deserve the support of the state or sympathy of the community

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A common name that has emerged for the ‘undeserving poor’ is ‘Chav’

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Owen Jones has argued that Chav has become a point of hatred for the upper and middle class

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Moreover, he argues that class is the only cultural characteristic that can be openly mocked

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Jones suggests that this resentment is a continuation of the traditional mocking of the poor by the upper class

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Why might ‘Chavs’ attract such hatred, mocking or resentment, and what does this say about our understanding of class divisions?

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The principal reason identified for reactions to the underclass is that they do not deserve our support

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We work hard whilst they only want to live off the state and our toil

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Moreover, they don’t seem to recognise their status ◦ Apparent rejection of cultural norms ◦ Wearing high fashion brands “it’s tacky”

“It's not PC to say it but there are 'undeserving poor'. There are people who abuse the system, sub-let their Council houses, claim benefits they are not entitled to, won't work because they are too lazy, have plenty money to cover all their needs or are plain criminals. They get the 'deserving' poor a bad name. But they are protected as much as the deserving poor - because nobody has called them out. They skew the statistics; they make the budgets bigger; they are having a laugh frankly, at all our expense, but mostly at the expense of those who can least afford it.�

Mary Roche, 2009, Councillor, Waterford Council

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Last week we considered class as a structural factor: our class position was largely determined by social factors

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The notion of undeserving poor embodied by Chavs suggests a stronger sense of ‘agency’, that people are responsible for their own fate

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But is this changing emphasised related to structural shifts?

“I come here to apologise for the destruction of industry under Thatcher’s rule in the 1980’s…We talk about people being at risk of poverty, or social exclusion: it’s as if these things – obesity, alcohol abuse, drug addiction – are purely external events, like the plague, or bad weather. Of course, circumstances, where you’re born, your neighbourhood, your school and the choices your parents make – have a huge impact. But social problems are often the consequence of choices people make”

If the existence of an excluded grouping appears to be directly related to changing employment patterns, specifically the loss of traditional working class jobs, why would there be a sense of resentment and individualisation of these groupings?

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A large focus of resentment of the underclass has been the identification of ‘racist’ tendencies amongst white working class populations

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This has been represented in the rise of anti-immigrant political parties

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Right-wing parties across the Western world now often enjoy the support of the working class, despite acting against their apparent economic interests

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Jones argues that this is because of the failure of the Left to represent the working class, which then turns against itself

◦ The working class attacking immigrants, who are their fellow workers

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If there is class struggle today, Jones argues that it is the wealthy who are fighting it, and winning

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Since the latter half of the 20th century, real working wages have barely changed, while economic growth has accumulated to the hands of the wealthiest

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This has amounted to significant changes in economic power

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A large part of this redistribution of wealth has been the institution of neo-liberal ‘free-market’ economic policies

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These policies have reduced government spending, particularly on the poor

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As welfare recipients have become the target for spending cuts, identification of who ‘deserves’ these cuts has become strongly politicised

Source: http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/richer-rich-in-united-states.html

If the demonisation of the poorest appears to work in favour of the wealthiest, how is this resentment or hatred generated? What does this say about the operation of power in the UK?

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Poverty is measured in ‘relative’ and ‘absolute’ terms ◦ Relative poverty is taken to be less than 60% of the median wage

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Approximately 20% of people in Britain live in relative poverty

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If absolute poverty is almost entirely absent in the Western world, should we be concerned with relative poverty in Britain?

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This analysis, one common in Western politics and sociology, ignores global class issues

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The exportation of manufacturing has produced more ‘working class’ jobs than ever before

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Moreover, the massive availability of workers has greater even greater exploitation than before

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In particular, a substantial population of ‘surplus-humanity’ has developed in the urban slums of the developing world

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Without union protection, pressure upon the manufacturing practices of Western multi-national corporations tends to be consumer driven

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This has led to an ‘ethical consumption’ that fits in with the identity based politics discussed earlier

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The support (when convenient) of the global poor is often at odds with feelings about the local poor

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Whilst class groupings and identities have become more complex, economic inequalities remain strong.

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Have the causes of these divisions changed?

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If these haven’t changed, why has resistance altered?

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Why have our attitudes to welfare and criminal justice changed at the same time? (or have they not?)

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Despite the critiques presented last week, Marxist analysis of class and inequality remains a strong force in sociology

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Much of this work is a response to ‘economic determinism’

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Instead, neo-Marxist have considered cultural factors that mediate our sense of exploitation

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Neo-Marxists, or critical theorists, have examined the cultural factors that change our perceptions of ‘economic reality’

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These factors include cultural unity and expressions such as art and sport

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As well as the ideological manipulation of our perceptions of the poor

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However, there is nothing like the strong sense of class struggle that once existed in Marxism

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If working-class culture has disappeared from the Western world…

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…and classes cannot be simply identified by their position in production

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Can we still identify the working class today?

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Jones: The working class are those who must work for a living and have little autonomy over their working lives

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As a university student, how do you feel that class impacts upon your student experience and the university system? What kind of ideas are you using to make your explanations?

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Class structures are at the core of sociological understandings of society

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As the politics of class have altered, sociological ideas have shifted towards cultural explanations

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However, as class divides remain, these cultural explanations can be used to explain the continuing presence of economic class divisions

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Formative essay option: ‘Are Marxist ideas of social class still relevant today?’

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Lecture: Race and Ethnicity

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Reading: Chapter Four