Introductory Sociology For Social Class

Social Classes and Factors of Classification

Discuss about the Introductory Sociology for Social Class?

The society has been divided into several classes according to the occupation, economic status, standard of thinking and education of the people from the very beginning. In this essay the social class system, the factors of this classification, its impact on different social aspects and health condition of the people belonging to each class has been discussed.

Social classes refer to a set of concepts in the political theories and social sciences in which people can be categorized into several hierarchical social groups. When a group of people occupy a similar position in the society in terms of status, wealth and influence, they fall under the same social class. According to the Marxist theory a class is a combination of subjective and objective similarities among a group of people that is they have a common perception, relationship and a common interest (Pintelon et al., 2013).

The social class is categorized based on some factors and they are: Income, power, health and nutrition, wealth, education, occupation, ethnicity and race. These dimensions of social class are inter-related and play important role in understanding the society (Weis & Dolby, 2012). Income is the earning of a person from investments or work and all the assets owned by an individual, such as cash, saving accounts, stocks, real estate etc. are referred as wealth. Income is dependent on the occupation, and depending on the income and wealth the style of living, health, nutrition, education etc (Kraus et al., 2011). differs between the social classes. With respect to these factors the society is mainly divided into four categories (Figure 1) that are:

1. The upper class
2. The middle class
3. The working class
4. The lower class
5. The upper class: This class is again divided into two groups, one is upper-upper class

and another is lower-upper class. The lower-upper class Re those upper class people who make money from business venture, investment etc. and the upper-upper class implies to those aristocrat high class groups of people who have maintained a status for generations and are wealthy by birth (Shaeff, 2005). Some another important examples of lower middle class people are Professional actors athletes and successful entrepreneurs.  However both of these groups have a huge amount of money that is a lot more than they could spend and that is why they have much leisure time to cultivate their interests and hobbies. This particular class of people lives a luxurious life and nourishes their culture. They hold an influence and power both nationally and universally (Pintelon et al., 2013).

1. The middle class: The middle class is the next step down in the social class system and

Impact of Social Class on Different Social Aspects

is also called “sandwich” class. They are again divided into two sub classes based on their education, prestige and wealth (Grossmann & Varnum, 2010). Lower middle class people are comparatively less educated with an income equal to the national average, such as small business owners, managers, secretaries etc. and the upper middle class includes the highly educated professional and business people with a slightly higher income than the national average, such as lawyers, CEOs, and doctors. The largest amount of upward, downward or horizontal social mobility occurs at this level (Weis & Dolby, 2012).

1. The working class: The people who belong to this class have a little education. They are

commonly engaged as manual labor with a little or no social status and have an income slightly lesser than the average national pay scale. This group includes people like plumber, carpenter, electricians, cashiers, factory workers (Bilton, 2012). They do not have much scope of the development of their career. Another difference of working class and middle class is in their behavior, values, living standard, lifestyle, culture and sometimes this people have to put themselves into risk while working. Most of the people of any society belong to this class (Wilkinson & Pickett, 2010).

1. The Lower class: The lower class is the working poor category having a minimum or no

educational qualification. They generally work at a minimum wage and are very often employed as part time workers. This group of people often suffers from poverty, unemployment, homelessness, lack of health, nutrition and hygiene. Lower class people maintain a minimum level of social or cultural status (Shah, 2010).

Figure 1: Social Class                        

(Source: Stephen et al., 2012)

Class is an important factor in understanding of any society and analyzing various factors related to it. By analyzing the social class and the people belonging in each of the classes, the socio-economic condition of the society can be understood (Stephens et al., 2014). The social classes reflect many sociological contexts such as economy, political system, style of leaving, health, education, etc (Naidoo & Wills, 2008). there are several theoretical models related to the social classes proposed by sociologists and philosopher, which gives a clear idea of social classification helps to understand and demonstrate the society and the societal factors (Pintelon et al., 2013).

According to Marx, the war between the classes that control the production and those who produce the products or serves the society that is the conflict between the capitalists and the wage-workers is the history of all the “civilized” societies. He claims that, the capitalists accumulate the wealth to such a point that they acquire enough power to dominate the other classes of society. He blames the lower class people for such discrimination as the lower class people are in a mass amount, they can easily overthrow the capitalists and bring equality to the society (Kraus et al., 2011).

Impact of Social Class on Health Condition

Another theory is formulated by Max Weber and it states that, the education and skills of a person determines his or her class or position in the society. He noted that many aristocrat families lacked economically but had enough political power however some wealthy families were deficient in power and prestige (Giddens, 2013). Observing all these factors he stated his new theory where there were three factors. The three key factors of the Weberian theory are; the economic position in society that is class, self esteem and social honor that is status and the capability to get their way in spite of other’s resistance that is power (Wilkinson & Pickett, 2010).

The social class of a person has significant effect on his or her physical health, ability of affording the medical facilities and nutrition. It has been noticed that the lower class people often experience several of issues related to health. The primary factor that leads them to this problem is their economic status (Davey, Gray & Seale, 2001). Very often they are unable to utilize the healthcare facilities that the other classes can afford easily, however generally the people of this class tend to have an increased rate of health related problems. The poor class often suffers from malnutrition and due to a lack of place for living they have to survive in a congested and unhygienic environment (Stephens et al., 2012). For the above mentioned reasons the lower class families face a higher rate of infant mortality, cardiovascular problems, infections, cancer etc. Additionally, sometimes this class of people have to work in a much more hazardous condition and yet they are provided with very less or no health insurance (Shah, 2010). The working class and a few middle class people can afford the primary healthcare facilities and have a much better health conditions compared to the poor class people. However, in the case of some critical diseases or surgical cases such as cancer, renal failure, brain surgery, heart surgery they face much difficulty to afford the services (Davey, Gray & Seale, 2001). They generally do not suffer from any problem related to health and hygiene and a number of health insurance are available to them. The healthcare services are quite easily available for the people of the middle class. And the upper class can very easily afford any healthcare services. And in their luxurious daily life they have the chance to spend money and time to take care of their health (Leinonen et al., 2011).

From this essay it can be concluded that the social class system has a profound impact on the history of the society as well as on the modern society. The different aspects of the society such as education, health, family-life, political participation religious and spiritual affiliation vary with the persons belonging with each hierarchy of social class system. The social class varies with the different regions of a country, that is, the upper class people of a society may be considered upper middle class in another society depending on the overall standard of that particular society. The overall standard and condition of a society is greatly influenced by its social class.

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