Social Class in the 21st Century (Pelican Books)

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Today’s households are more complex and diverse, and definitions of professions and what constitutes a ‘high-earning career’ have changed significantly so that there is no longer a direct correlation between traditional professions and income levels. Halford, Susan; Savage, Mike; Witz, Anne (eds.) (1997). Gender, Careers and Organizations: Current Developments in Banking, Nursing and Local Government. London: Macmillan. Korsnes, Olav; Heilbron, Johan; Hjellbrekke, Johs.; Bühlmann, Felix; Savage, Mike (eds.) (2017). New Directions in Elite Studies. Routledge.

Precariat(15%) – The poorest and most deprived social group. They tend to mix socially with people like them and don’t have a broad range of cultural interests. More than 80% rent their home. Savage, Mike; Naidoo, Prem (eds.) (2002). Popularisation of Science and Technology Education: Some Case Studies from South Africa. London: Commonwealth Secretariat.Cultural capital: The type and range of interests you pursue: from visiting stately homes to attending rave parties.

Established middle class (25%) – This is the most gregarious and the second wealthiest of all the class groups. They work in traditional professions and socialise with a wide variety of people, and take part in a wide variety of cultural activities. Social capital: The kinds of people, and the range of the kinds of people you know: have you an aristocrat friend, has one of your friends never worked? review: There’s a striking paradox here – as inequality has increased, as the top and bottom social classes’ pull away from each other, the actual awareness, the actual consciousness of class, of inequality, has declined. Why do you think this is?These classifications segment by income levels and occupation and are still widely used by the market research industry to define market sectors. However, you don’t get to be a member of the new elite by going to any old former poly, or even a Russell Group university. If you want to make lots of money – lots more than almost everyone else in the country – you have to go to Oxford, King’s College London or Imperial College, then get a job in London.

These top-line class definitions were taken to the next stage more than fifty years ago by the National Readership Survey, which developed the ABC1 social-economic classifications as a discriminatory tool for media consumption and purchasing power. Long-range social mobility, from bottom to top, is a feat summed up by the title of one chapter: “Climbing Mountains”. More common, argues Savage, is the short-range movement within the middle classes, enabled by the social and cultural capital accumulated through going to university.In 2011, Professor Mike Savage from the London School of Economics investigated the concept of social class and set up the Great British Class Survey. This survey was built on a perspective developed in France by the sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, which suggested that social class differentiators should be based on three different class dimensions, referred to as capital; economic capital, social capital and cultural capital. Working class’, ‘middle class’ and ‘upper class’ originally described the relationship between industrial workers, managers and owners, and have largely remained the same since the Victorian era. Savage, Mike (1987). The Dynamics of Working-Class Politics: The Labour Movement in Preston, 1880–1940. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Claire Hooker and Estelle Noonan. Medical humanities as expressive of Western culture. Med Humanities 2011 ; 37 : 2 79 – 84