Chan Hoi Ching Stephanie

Business Studies Group H

Some commentators claim that Britain is becoming a classless

society, one where the stamp of class leaves only a faint
impression on people's lives". Discuss.
Moore (2002: 287) states that social class is a group of people who share analogous
economic position, for instance, occupation, income and the ownership of wealth. After
many years of discussion on social class, Britain now seems becoming a classless
society in some analysts eyes. In 1997, the Prime Minister Tony Blair promised to
create a classless society. However, the Britain marketable wealth in 2005 has shown
that the poorest 50% of the population owned just 6% of the national assets, with such
inequalities, some scholars argued that class is very much alive. Therefore, the purpose
of this essay is to analyse if Britain is becoming a classless society. After first explaining
how the theories of Functionalism, Marxism and Weber related to social classes, it will
look at the changes in Britain over the past decades. Next, it will examine the idea of
class is dead and alive. Finally, it will evaluate whether classes still exist in the Britains
society today.
Sociologists hold different views on classes and stratifications. In functionalists points
of view, they believed that order, stability and cooperation in society are based on
value consensus a general agreement by members of society concerning what is a
good and worthwhile (Haralambos, 2004:3). Put it another way, classes is divided by
the societys common value, the one who does better in terms of the society consensus
will achieve a higher ranking. Parsons suggested that stratification and classes are
inevitable because they derive from value consensus, which are an essential part in all
societies. They are also functional in his view as they help merging different groups in
society. Although, other sociologists have criticized that stratification and classes are
unsettling instead of integrating the society.
For Marxism, social class is characterized by economic factor, which means the ways
that they gain livelihood. Marx claimed that there were two social classes: the
bourgeoisies whom own the means of production and the proletariats whom need to
work for and exploited by the bourgeoisies for the source of income as they own no
means of production (Crompton, 1998:27). Due to the exploitation by the bourgeoisies,
Marx predicted the wealth gap between the two classes would become greater, which
has known as pauperization. As a result of this, polarization would happen, the contrast
between the two classes would become more obvious. By then, class consciousness, an
awareness by realizing the nature of exploitation and their position, would be
developed. The poverty-stricken proletariat would antagonize the bourgeoisies through
different forms of protest, the bourgeoisies would be abolished in the socialist
revolution made by the proletariat. After the revolution, the means of production would
be nationalized, a type of society would be formed without exploitation, classes and
conflicts, namely Communism (Browne, 1998:18). However, there is criticisms of Marx
that what he predicted has not occurred yet. Britain is still a capitalism country and has
not yet been overthrown by the working class.
Based on the analysis developed by Marx, Weber further modified it by agreeing that
society is characterized by disagreements over power and resources. Yet, Weber
disputed Marxist idea on polarization. He argued that middle class expands rather than

Chan Hoi Ching Stephanie

Business Studies Group H
shrinks as capitalism develops (Haralambos, 2004:13). Unlike Marx, Weber saw noneconomic factors are as important as economic factor, he divided classes not only by
the ownership of means of production, but from the differences in peoples economic
situation such as skills and qualifications which determine the occupation of an
individual. In other words, there were many social classes comprised by people in
different occupations (Kirby, 2000:641). This view has been widely agreed by many
sociologists and defining class by occupation has been broadly used.
In the past decades, there are several changes in Britain that are related to the issue of
classes. First, one of the most dramatic changes is the occupational transition. Ken
Roberts comments that there was more than half of the manufacturing work which
existed in 1970s have disappeared (Roberts, 2001:65). One of the reasons for such
decline is because the new technology has increased the productivity, thus, less
workers is needed in order to produce the same quantity of output. Apart from the
decay of manufacturing industry, there was a notable growth in the tertiary sector,
mainly comes from the development of consumer services in leisure industry. With such
changes, it has led a decline in manual jobs, which is the core of proletarian working
class. Fulcher (2007:801) suggested that there would be an increase in middle class by
stating the remaining manual workers are able to enjoy the income and job security
that brings them closer to the middle class. The merging of middle class and the
manual working class is known as Embourgeoisement.
Secondly, the change in education is also a factor related to class. Britain started to
provide free education in 1970, and only by 1980, it has made compulsory. However,
before 1944, the education system was still divided by social class. Browne (1998:293)
explains that the free and compulsory schools provided by the state were only
elementary and only with a basic curriculum for the working-class children, leading to
working-class jobs in future. On the other hand, with a fee-paying secondary education
for middle-class children, this would lead them to a middle-class job later. After 1944,
the introduction of tripartite system, all children can receive secondary education to
develop their abilities equally, leading them all to enter the middle class after graduate.
As a result, there would have an expansion in middle class, making middle class
becomes the largest population in class structure while the upper and working class
only takes up a small proportion.
In todays Britain, there are two main opinions over the debate of whether class still
exists. Postmodernists, Pakulski and Waters (1996) hold the idea of class is dead, they
believe that classes are dissolving and it has been obsolete to consider classes as an
important matter. They do not insist that inequalities are disappearing, but do argue
that there are new division that are arising which can surpass the class differences.
According to them, we are now living in a status-conventional society where
stratification is on the basis of cultural differences and status rather than economic
inequality, the symbolic value becomes an important factor in shaping stratification. For
example, people emphasis more on the style of their house in order to show their
personalities and status rather than the value of the house.
Pakulski suggested that the idea of stratification is now based on the lifestyle,
aesthetics and information flows, people are more independent in their values and
behaviour, they can change their preferences and identification freely, their behaviours
2

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Business Studies Group H
can no longer be predicted from their class background. More importantly, people can
have many statuses because of their membership in different consumption patterns
and groups, this feature is identified as fragmentation. As lifestyles can be formed by
different identity, belief, taste, or consumption, they can choose their own lifestyle and
value without any restriction that bound with their class. For example, people can buy
branded goods to have a better lifestyle no matter which class they are in. By then,
people are being classified by sharing the similar lifestyle, instead of their economic
situation. As people do not act as members of classes and do not see the importance of
class-based anymore, to Pakulski and Waters, class is dead. The issues of ethnicity,
gender, religion and cultural differences and preferences are more important.
Unlike Pakulski and Waters, Beck (1992) sees the death of class in a different way. He
comments that the societies changed from wealth-distributing societies to riskdistributing societies, the major concern in the society is no longer poverty, lack of job
security and inequality but how to handle the risks that were created by science and
technology, for instance, the radioactivity and global warming. As those risks are
beyond the control of individual and are not only confined to a particular group but in
fact, all classes, risks are no longer related to class membership, people do not feel a
sense of class identity anymore, social inequality has been individualized, people
experience and worry about risk as individual rather than as a members of a specific
class (Haralambos, 2004:88).
Nevertheless, Westegaard (1996) holds a different stand with Pakulski and Waters and
Beck. Followed by the way Weberian and Marxist to class, he comments class structure
is first of all a matter of peoples circumstances in life as set by their unequal places in
the economic order. Although he agrees that there are other important divisions other
than class, he disputes that these divisions have replaced class. Instead of claiming
class is dead, he argues that class differences became even stronger in the late 20 th
century, that is, class is still alive in Britain nowadays. The major reason for his
argument is the government policies. In his eyes, the government promoted the growth
of inequalities, by reducing progressive elements in taxation, as it is indispensable in a
competitive market.
To summarize, it is difficult to have a strict answer on the question whether Britain is
becoming a classless society, it depends very much on peoples interpretation on class
just like different sociologists can have different definitions on class. However, todays
Britain is prone to the idea of postmodernism. We can see that despite the fact that the
income inequalities are growing in the country, individuals lives have not been affected
by it. People started to judge others base on their lifestyle and consumption pattern.
Apart from that, middle class is the largest proportion in the class structure, people that
come across in their daily life mostly are in the same class with them, the awareness of
their social difference would then becomes weaker. Therefore, we can say that even
though classes still exist nowadays, they are no longer as important as before in the
Britains society.

Chan Hoi Ching Stephanie

Business Studies Group H

Reference List

1. Beck U. 1992. Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London: Sage Publication
Ltd
2. Browne, K. 1998. An Introduction to Sociology. 2nd edn. Cambridge: Polity Press
3. Crompton, R. 1998. Class and Stratification. 2nd edn. Cambridge: Polity Press
4. Fulcher, J. 2007. Sociology. 3rd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. Haralambos, M. et al. 2004. Sociology Themes and Perspectives. 6th edn. London:
Collins Educational
6. Kirby, M. et al. 2000. Sociology in Perspective. Oxford: Heinemann Educational
7. Moore, S. et al. 2002. Sociology for A2. London: Collins Educational
8. Pakulski, J. et al. 1995. The Death of Class. London: Sage Publication Ltd

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Business Studies Group H
9. Roberts, K. 2001. Class in Modern Britain. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan