Stratification (AQA A-Level Sociology): Revision Notes
Stratification
Stratification refers to how societies organise themselves into distinct layers or levels, creating a hierarchy where some groups hold more power and resources than others. This system of social organisation is found in virtually all complex societies and shapes people's life chances and opportunities.
Understanding basic concepts
Differentiation describes how society divides people into various groups based on characteristics like age, gender, social class, ethnicity or religion. While differentiation simply recognises differences between groups, stratification goes further by arranging these groups into a ranked hierarchy.
In a stratified society, the most powerful groups occupy the top positions whilst the least powerful find themselves at the bottom. Between these extremes lie multiple strata (layers), similar to geological rock formations. This creates what sociologists call a hierarchy - an ordered system of social positions.
The term "strata" comes from geology, where different rock layers form over time. Similarly, social strata represent different levels of society that have developed through historical processes of power distribution and resource allocation.
Social class represents the primary form of stratification in modern Western capitalist societies such as the UK. Unlike historical systems like the caste system in India or the feudal system in mediaeval Britain, social class allows for some degree of social mobility between different levels.
The four social classes in the UK
Sociologists commonly identify four main social classes in British society, though defining these categories precisely can prove challenging:
Upper class members possess substantial wealth and power, often inherited across generations. This includes those who have accumulated wealth through business ventures or entertainment industries. The upper class typically owns significant property and assets rather than relying on employment income.
Middle class individuals earn their living through non-manual work in professional, managerial or administrative roles. Teachers, doctors, managers and office workers typically fall into this category. The middle class generally enjoys better working conditions and career prospects than manual workers.
Working class people primarily engage in manual labour, including farm workers and factory employees. Despite often working in demanding physical jobs, the working class typically faces more limited life chances and fewer opportunities for advancement compared to the middle class.
Underclass refers to those who depend on state benefits for their income, including long-term unemployed individuals and homeless people. This group experiences the poorest life chances and most restricted opportunities within the social hierarchy.
Challenges in measuring social class
Using occupation as the primary measure of social class creates several problems. Firstly, occupation brings both status and prestige, leading people to make judgements about others based on their jobs. However, individuals within the same occupational category can experience vastly different income levels and working conditions.
Worked Example: Occupational Variation
Consider two doctors working in the same hospital:
- A highly paid consultant neurologist earning £150,000+ annually
- A poorly paid junior doctor earning £28,000 annually
Despite both being classified as "medical professionals," their class experiences differ dramatically due to income, job security, and working conditions.
Additionally, basing class entirely on occupation overlooks most upper class individuals who may not have traditional jobs but instead derive income from property ownership and investments. This approach also fails to account for younger generations who haven't yet entered the workforce, making education level a more appropriate measure for studying social mobility patterns among young people.
Traditional occupation-based classifications can be misleading because they fail to capture the full complexity of modern class relationships, particularly for the wealthy elite and young people still in education.
Government classification systems
The RG scale (until 2000)
The Registrar General's Scale classified the British population into five main classes based on occupational skill levels:
- Professional occupations (lawyers, accountants, doctors)
- Intermediate occupations (teachers, nurses, managers)
- Skilled non-manual occupations (office workers, sales assistants)
- Skilled manual occupations (electricians, plumbers)
- Unskilled occupations (labourers, refuse collectors, cleaners)
This system excluded never-employed and unemployed individuals, classifying them according to their most recent job. The RG scale also classified married women based on their husband's occupation, reflecting the social attitudes of that era. Households were categorised according to the occupation of the 'head of household', typically the highest male earner.
The NS-SEC system (from 2000)
The National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification replaced the RG scale with eight classes based on employment type rather than skill level alone.
The NS-SEC considers three key areas: employment relations (employer, self-employed, or employee status and payment structure), labour market situation (income, job security, and promotion prospects), and work situation (workplace hierarchy and level of control).
This change occurred because employment patterns shifted significantly, with fewer manual workers and many more people working in service industries. Skill level alone no longer provided an accurate way to classify workers, and the social status of various occupations had changed considerably.
The NS-SEC classifies individual workers rather than entire households and doesn't account for wealthy upper class individuals who don't require employment.
Objective versus subjective definitions
Objective definitions of social class rely on measurable, clearly defined criteria such as income levels or occupation types. The NS-SEC represents an objective approach to classification, providing concrete categories that can be applied consistently across the population.
Subjective definitions focus on how individuals perceive their own social class position. A wealthy self-made entrepreneur might consider themselves middle class based on their values and lifestyle, despite having the income and assets associated with upper class status. Similarly, someone might identify as working class due to their background, friends, and cultural preferences, even if their current income suggests middle class status.
Both approaches offer valuable insights, but each has limitations. Objective measures provide consistency and allow for statistical analysis, but they may miss important aspects of how class actually operates in people's daily lives. Subjective measures capture personal experience and identity, but they can vary significantly between individuals in similar economic circumstances.
Gender and class analysis
Traditional class analysis often overlooked women's experiences by classifying families according to the male head of household's occupation. Michelle Stanworth highlighted this issue in 1984, arguing that women within the same household frequently experience different social class realities compared to men.
Research by Abbott and Payne supported this critique, demonstrating that women were far less likely than their male partners to experience upward social mobility. Very few women who were upwardly mobile progressed beyond social class 3, suggesting that gender significantly affects class experiences and opportunities.
This analysis reveals how gender intersects with class stratification, creating different patterns of opportunity and constraint for men and women even within the same household or social class category.
Key Points to Remember:
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Stratification organises society into hierarchical layers where power, wealth and opportunities are distributed unequally between groups
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Social class serves as the primary stratification system in modern Western societies, typically divided into upper, middle, working and underclass categories
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Occupation-based classification systems have evolved from the 5-class RG scale to the 8-class NS-SEC system to better reflect changing employment patterns
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Class can be defined objectively through measurable criteria or subjectively through personal perception and identity
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Gender significantly affects class experiences with traditional analysis often overlooking women's different social mobility patterns and class positions