Social Class

SOCIAL CLASS

Social class refers to the system of stratification of the different groups of people in a society. These different forms of classification are, in most instances, based on gender ethnicity and age. Social class makes everyone’s lives extremely different. For example: How long one can expect to live. In a wide range of ways, from success, to one’s health class, social class influences people’s lives (Grusky,2003).

Among the life chances affected as result of social class involve factors such as: How long people live (life expectancy), how healthy people are, how much and what they eat, the kind of housing they live in, the level of education they reach and the qualifications they achieve, how likely they are to be unemployed or to be made redundant, their chances of being injured or even killed at work, the money they can spend on both necessities and luxuries, how often they can take a holiday, and, their chances of being victims of crimes.

The Upper Class

The kind of social class that a person will belong to is highly determined by the level of income one gets. The higher the income one has, the higher the social class one will belong to. In a normal society the highest social class is the upper class. This consists mainly of the landowning aristocracy, the pop aristocracy, the royal family, and the entrepreneurs. Some of these members of the upper class achieve their status by virtue of birth. For example, by belonging to the royal family one automatically belongs to the upper class. Other people in this social class achieve this status by virtue of social mobility. For example, by being an artist extraordinaire and making record sales, one can be propelled from the working or middle classes to the upper class (G...

... middle of paper ...

...her “races”.

SOCIAL CHANGE

Social change refers to a change in the social order of a society. These changes could be in terms of behavior patterns and cultural values and norms. Social changes may have long-term effects. They include industrial revolution, abolition of slavery, and the feminist movement. Another form of social change refers to the progression that most people especially in America in terms of interactions with minorities.

References

Blundell , J.(2001).Active Sociology, Edinburg Gate, Pearson Education Limited.

Grusky, D. (2003).Social Stratification: Class, Race and Gender in Sociological Perspective : London,West view Press.

Helaey, J. (2006). Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class: The Sociology of Group Confict and Change; New York, Pine Forge Press.

Wharton, A. (2011).The Sociology of Gender: An Introduction to Theory and Research, New York,