From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
A social class is a group of people that have similar social and economic status.
The most common class division has either been bi-partite or tri-partite: a ruling class or "nobility" as the Upper Class and one or two lower strata. Ancient England and other European countries had a nobility and a peasantry, but gradually a Middle Class arose.
With the material prosperity stemming from the Industrial Revolution, most Western countries settled into three strata:
- an Upper Class of the immensely wealthy and/or powerful
- a Middle Class of professional and other workers
- a Lower Class
In Marxist terms a class is a group of people with a specific relationship to the means of production (social production). Marxists explain history in terms of a war of classes between those who control social production and those who produce social goods. In the Marxist view of capitalism this is a conflict between capitalists (bourgeoisie) and workers (proletariat). Classes are seen as antagonist.
When sociologistss speak of "class" they usually mean economically based classes in modern or near pre-modern society. Modern usage of the word "class" generally considers only the relative wealth of individuals or social groups, and not the ownership of the means of production.
The sociologist Max Weber formulated a three-component theory of stratification, with class, status and party (or politics) as conceptually distinct elements.
Class can be used to describe the stratification of a society. This leads to schemes like the following, relating class to income:
Newer sociological theory often sees class as category that isn't very helpful for describing societies. Other approaches include using strata instead of classes, changing the view from objective -- income-based -- classes to subjective classes, having a look at lifestyle based milieux or discussing different kinds of capital (Bourdieu).
At various times the division of society into classes has had various levels of support in law.
At one extreme we find old Indian classes - castes, which one could neither enter after birth, nor leave (Though this applied only in relatively recent history.) On the other extreme there exist classes in modern Western societies which appear very fluid and have little support in law. The extent to which classes are important differs also in western societies, e.g. between Great Britain and Scandinavia.
The concept of "caste" differs from that of "class", and refers to rigid status groupings, the membership of which is usually inherited. Particular caste groups include:
Marxist usage of class
Usage of class following Max Weber
All three dimensions have consequences for what Weber called "life chances".
Modern western societies tend to generate a large middle class. Often, class schemes are extend to include sub-classes like "Upper middle class" and "Lower middle class". Relevance of Class
See also
For other meanings of the word class, see Class.
