Industrial Classes: Class was identified as one of the most significant basis of stratification in society: There is a considerable difference

in recognizing membership precisely however most sociologists agree in recognizing existence of Upper Class(owners), Middle Class(white collar), Working Class and fourth class as Peasantry in some societies Origin of Class Systems:
Classes originated in society due to number of reasons. Some of the important ones being: i) Expansion of productive forces beyond the level needed for subsistence. ii) The extension of division of labour outside the family iii) The accumulation of surplus wealth iv) The emergence of private ownership of resources Characteristics of Class Structure: There are specific characteristics of caste: They are: i) Vertical order of social classes - there is a hierarchy in terms of privileges and discrimination. They have more or less the same life chances and have similar life styles ii) There is also a permanent idea of class interest. iii) Idea of class-consciousness, awareness of class, hierarchy, identity and solidarity is present Class and Industrial Society: There are 3 features of stratification in industrial societies: 1. Differentiation: there is a tendency towards homogeneity, i.e., increase similar in population in terms
of standard of living, wealth and power. More and more people are becoming middle-class. Reason for increasing middle class is a) expansion of division of Labor b) Increased role of the state -> For welfare activities, it requires personnel/population which is often fulfilled by middle come

2. Consistency: There is a tendency for the relative position of an individual or group in one
stratification order to be same or in similar position in other orders.

3. Social Mobility: Closely associated with the idea of industrialisation is class mobility. Once societies
reach a certain level of industrialisation their overall rates of mobility will increase

Marx: Covered already Max Weber: Marx talked about polarization of 2 classes while Weber talks about the 3rd class also. According to him, as capitalism develops the middle class extends. A number of sociologists suggested that a process of embourgeoisement was occurring whereby increasing numbers of manual workers were entering the middle class. According to them, the classes in Industrial society was acquiring the Pentagon shape where the mass of population was middle class rather than working class Weber rejects polarization of 2 classes and talks of middle class or skilled workers. But he sees important differences in market situation of property less groups in society i.e., there are more classes within non-property owner classes with difference in skills, occupation, talents etc. they are:
i) ii) iii) The propertied Upper class The property less white-collar workers The petty Bourgeoisie

iv) The manual working class

Giddens, Parkin and Bergel: Giddens identifies 3 major classes in industrial society based on economic criteria: 1. 2. 3. Upper Class Middle Class Lower Class According to Frank Parkin, the power to acquire rewards is directly related to demands of the market for occupational skills. It is difficult to assess the claims that Upper classes are superior in intelligence and achievement.A closer looks shows that tests measures the performance rather than intelligence and performance depend not only ability but on specific training. In other words, it requires a highly educated worker which in turn leads to higher pay higher status occupation. Market which has high consumption requirement required and helps in the growth of middle market.

Bergel presents four views on class: 1. He views the idea of class as contest where the victors are the upper class and defeated classes are lower 2. Stratification system represents biological differences as well, e.g., white superiority over black. 3. Classes have no ideology - they are residual category. 4. Classes emerged in society as a result of breakdown of estate system in Europe
CLASS STRUCTURE IN SOCIALIST SOCIETIES

Here the system of stratification is not the result of market economy rather it is a creation of the political elite where in Capitalist society there is plurality of elite's.
In Soviet society there was only one elite that is political elite. These elites form an interest group.

Stratification is a product of the state imposed by bureaucracy. This uniform elite divides the society into ruling intellectuals Vs peasants.
Marx predicted that public ownership of the forces of production is the first step towards the

creation of an egalitarian society. All members would share the same relationship that of ownership to the forces of production. In socialist socities income inequalities are not as great in Societies.
MSO 001 Concept of Class: According to Ossowski, following three assumptions are common to all conceptions of class society 1. 2. Classes constitute groups in social structure and they are not independent of each other Membership of social class is relatively permanent -> doesnt rule out possibility of mobility but often class positions same throughout ones life 3. Each class is accorded certain privileges and discriminations that have a bearing on social status -> social status, discrimination, privileges not determined by biological criteria Against this backdrop, classes are stratified inferior/superior based on social status, privileges and discrimination.

 Awareness of place of ones class in class hierarchy is referred as class consciousness (intertwined with class solidarity) -> Marx think class solidarity/class consciousness as guiding basis of identifying a group as class People of same class exhibit similar behaviour, speech also. Perspectives of Class: There are two fundamental perspectives from which the concept of class may be understood. Nominalist perspective(American school of thought): This perspective treats class as a conglomeration of people who share common status -> social status in terms of respect that others bestow on him/her(judgement of others). Position of individual in hierarchy is a play of three elements: relation of property, occupation, and power up on which his/her position is determined in class structure -> not a single element but sum total of social considerations. Realist Perspective (European school of Thought): Treats social class as group of people that is determined by material social facts and by collective consciousness of people.

Classical View of Class by Aristotle: Aristotle maintained that people are differentiated into three elements; one class is very rich (Upper Class); other class is very poor (Poor Class) and the third class occupies between the two (Middle class). The upper class wants to earn profit and maintain its position. The poor class is too poor, their ambition being to improve their position. Thus, between the two ambitious classes, the Middle class is the best. Ralf. Dahrendorf Critique on Marx: Capitalism and Industrial Society: The two elements of capitalism for Marx are private property (in means of production) and regulation of productive processes by private contract -> If it can be shown that there are no more operative, then his theory is of little value today Decomposition of Capital Stock: Marx was concerned about ownership and control of industrial enterprises -> Emergence of joint stock companies raise serious questions about this. Roles of owner and manager(originally combined in a capitalist) have been separated-> owner doesnt have a role in authority structure and those who have the role doesnt have capital The effect of this development of class conflict includes a change in the decomposition of groups participating in conflict, a change in the issues that cause conflict and also in the patterns of conflict -> capitalism gave way to different groups that bear a relationship with each other Decomposition of Labor: Marx believed that workers will become unskilled, homogenized and will act against unified capitalist class -> on contrary there is a sharp distinction of skilled and unskilled labor now and emergence of middle class (no middle class possible in Marxs theory) Social Mobility: There has been considerable social mobility both intergenerational as well as Intragenerational. What this means for class composition is that the classes will be unstable. Hence the intensity of class conflict diminishes

Contemporary Classes in Developed World:

Upper Class: Although Goldthorpe recognizes that a small elite upper class does exist, this is seen as so small
that it becomes difficult to build into representative social surveys.

One way of approaching these issues is to look at how far wealth and income are concentrated in the Top 1% hold 21% of wealth and top 10% hold 50% of wealth and bottom 50% have less than 10% of
wealth in Britain A recent study by the Helsinki-based World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU -WIDER 2007) covers all the countries of the world and takes in household wealth, shares and other financial assets, as well as land and buildings, making it the most comprehensive global survey of personal wealth ever undertaken. The Helsinki survey found that the richest 2 per cent of the global population own more than half of global household wealth. It also found that while the richest 10 per cent of adults owned 85 per cent of global wealth, the bottom 50 per cent owned just 1 per cent -> global inequality worse than Britain Some are self-made(Entrepreneur drive supported by Banks) and some lose old money and continue with old money. hands of a few-> difficult to get reliable information

Upper class consist of small minority who have both wealth and power and transmit to their children and constitute 1% of population and below them is service class made up of Goldthorpe says, of professionals, managers and top administrators and simply called middle class. Middle Class: Covers a broad spectrum of people working in many different occupations (diversity of occupations, class and status situations and life chances) -> difficult to define boundaries of middle class Unlike working class, middle class can sell their mental and physical labor -> relatively secured jobs than working class No cohesion between members of middle class because of diversified jobs. Often white collar professionals join together to maximize their own interests and to secure high prestige-> like doctors in USA Working Class: Unlike Marx predicted, this class become smaller and smaller. Income of manual workers and standards of living increased and now they own many consumer goods. Blue collar workers grow prosperous and become middle class. This idea came to be known as the embourgeoisement thesis - simply, the process through which more people become 'bourgeois' or middle class -> changing lifestyles of working class towards middle class Goldthorpe tested embourgeoisement thesis and found it false (not found similar consumptions, work outlook, home outlook, workers and middle class didnt socialize together or socialization is different). Workers are not in process of becoming middle class but there is a divergence of lower middle class and upper working class -> they share similar patterns of consumptions, home outlook and collectivism. Under Class: the segment of the population located at the very bottom of the class structure. Members of the
underclass have living standards that are significantly lower than the majority of people in society -> multiple disadvantages like long term unemployment, education, bad housing

Death of Class? Vigorous debate in sociology about usefulness of class. Jan Pakulski and Malcolrn Waters argue that class is no longer key to understanding contemporary societies.

They argue that industrial societies undergoing rapid change -> changed from organized class societies to new stage called status conventionalism -> inequalities are a result of difference in status and in lifestyle and consumption patterns favored by such groups Change in property ownership-> competition among firms and less opportunity for dominant/managerial classes to pass on privileges to next generations Contemporary societies are stratified by cultural consumption, not by class position -> It is a matter of style, taste and status(same as point1) Very less manual jobs in advanced societies -> global divison of labor-> inequalities between nations now instead of in one society Evaluation: This does not mean that status and the cultural aspects of stratification are now so dominant that the economic aspects of class are of no significance: indeed, mobility studies and inequalities of wealth indicate the opposite. Class is not dead - it is just becoming that bit more complex!