Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Inequalities relating
to social class
- The government use National Statistics
Socio-Economic Classification (NSEC)
- An occupationally based classification that
uses households as the main unit of analysis
- Housing
- There are clear patterns of ownership, with
a big distinction between ownership (with or
without a mortgage) and renting in the UK
- Patterns of home ownership are likely to
reflect patterns of income differentials
- Managers and senior officials- £42,164 - 39 hours weekly
Process, plant and machinery operatives- 19,113 - 44.8 hours
- Large employers and higher managerial occupations=
14%- owned outright, 77%- owned with mortgage,
2%- rented from social sector, 6%-rented privatey
- Never worked/long-term unemployed- 12%- owned, 2%- owned with
mortgage, 73% rented from social sector, 13% rented privately
- Education
- 1992= 60%- students from managerial/professional
backgrounds achieved 5 or more GCSE's 2002=77%
Unskilled Manual background in 1992= 16%, 2002= 32%
- The gap between higher and lower social
classes at GCSE remains significant
- Economic, cultural and social capital are
all important markers of difference
- Health
- Evidence from the Healthcare Commission- Life
expectancy data for1997/99 show men in the highest
social class live 7.4 years longer than men in the lowest
social class, the difference for women being 5.7 years
- People in routine occupations have the worst self-reported health
among people in employment, with rates more than double those
for people in higher managerial and professional occupations
- Cancer mortality and cancer survival rates show
strong gradients by social class and deprivation
- Teenage motherhood 7x more common
from manual than professional backgrounds
- Politics
- Almost one third of current MP's
attended independent schools, which
educate only 7% of population, 72%
went to University, including 43% who
attend one of 13 leading universities and
over a quarter who went to Oxbridge
- Conservative MPs were more likely
to have attended private schools,
while Labour least likely at 18%
- Functionalism
- Social class inequality and difference are inevitable
features of healthy contemporary society
- Talent and hard work are rewarded
- View society as a meritocracy- where access
to social rewards is determined by talent and
achievement rather than social background
- Competition is considered healthy. Economic
inequalities ensure that the most qualified people will
secure the most functionally important jobs in society
- Davis and Moore suggest pay is related to talent and that there's
a general consensus that the most important jobs are secured by
the most able individuals, who are paid appropriately
- Enables the legitimisation of
the system of inequality and
these ideas lead to the
concept of the meritocracy