1
It is like living a nightmare. There is nothing
here. No opportunities. No optimism. Drugs are
everywhere and they are destroying us. We have
lost a whole generation, and unless we do
something drastic we will lose another.Janis
Dobbie of the Gallowgate Family Support Group
told the Observer on 2006
http//www.guardian.co.uk/society/2006/nov/26/drug
sandalcohol.politics
2
Social Class The Big Picture

• The major political parties rarely discuss social
  class. Since the demise of manufacturing and
  heavy industry, there is an assumption that we
  are all middle class now.
• But social differences exist. The political
  parties are highly aware of this and target their
  messages accordingly.
• Terms such as working-class or middle class are
  not used, these terms are subjective.

3
Traditional definitions of social class

• Karl Marx pioneered much of our thinking. He
  lived in the 19th century and analysed the new
  capitalist society as it evolved after the
  industrial revolution.
• According to Marx, the working-class or the
  proletariat were those who worked for the
  ruling class. While Marx acknowledged the
  existence of a middle class (petty
  bourgeoisie) he essentially saw Britain divided
  into two conflicting classes.
• READ Animal Farm by George Orwell

4
Where did the working-class go ?

• The 1970s saw a massive decline in traditional
  blue collar jobs which were generally highly
  unionised.
• The 1960s saw a massive expansion of higher
  education and new opportunities for working class
  children to gain degrees. The new middle class
  had arrived.
• Thatcher encouraged people to buy their council
  houses.
• The Thatcher governments were highly ideological.
  They sought to change the mindset of the working
  class away from collectivist towards
  individualist values.

5
The Underclass

• Theory put forward by the American sociologist
  Charles Murray.
• Three aspects illegitimacy, crime and absence of
  a work ethic.
• He contends that the underclass has little
  interest in paid employment because of the
  availability of state benefits which mean that
  such people have little incentive to work. As the
  second, perhaps third generation, of long-term
  unemployed, the underclass he argues has formed a
  new and growing class in Britain today.

6
The 30/30/40 Society

• The economist Will Hutton refers to the 30/30/40
  society.
• Bottom 30 are not an underclass but are
  disadvantaged. Now dominated by men of working
  age and lone parents, the disadvantaged find it
  difficult to break out of part-time, casual,
  insecure employment.
• Hutton contends that instead of speaking of the
  middle class it is more accurate to define two
  further classes who make up the 70 the Newly
  Insecure and the Advantaged

7
Newly Insecure and the Advantaged

• Newly Insecure self-employed and many
  professional workers with short term contracts..
  With the ending of pension schemes and long-term
  contracts, many workers who on the face of it
  enjoy good standards of living, have to work
  longer and longer hours.
• Advantaged workers with high income jobs, but
  also have job security, paid holidays and pension
  schemes

8
A new reality?

• The Left and Right dispute whether the underclass
  reproduces itself or not.
• BUT inequality between the classes has grown. The
  top 10 of individuals in the UK now receive 40
  of all personal income.
• The UK is becoming a more divided and fragmented
  society.

9
Social Mobility

• The ability of a child to move up the social
  class from the class he/she was born into.
• Researchers disclosed that children born in the
  1950s had a greater chance of escaping the cycle
  of deprivation than those born in recent times.
• Why?
• Children from disadvantaged homes are more likely
  to fail at school and even those who gain the
  grades to get into university they are less
  likely to go.

10
Expectations

• Members of social classes pass on their
  advantages and disadvantages, through family
  life.
• Money and property can be passed on.
• Live in areas where there are less impediments to
  education such as gang culture.
• Social class D and E simply do not live beside,
  socialise with, city financiers who earn 55 times
  as much as them.

11
The Super Rich

• The past decade of Labour government under Tony
  Blair has proved a golden age for the rich,
  rarely seen in modern British history.
• There has been a 263 jump over the past 10 years
  of the wealth of Britains richest 1000 people.