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Social class and its impacts
Social class and its impacts
Social classes and their influence on society
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In a capitalist society, money is power and the culture classes are based on financial earnings. High culture, or capital “C” culture “forces on what we usually think of as high-end creative production” (O’Brien, Szeman 4). When asked in tutorial what is the stereotype of ‘high culture’ vs. ‘low culture,’ it was established that the mind automatically goes to such activities as: going to the opera or a theatre production, holding memberships and habitually attending country clubs and the social aspects that are included, watching equestrian races, drinking wine, and watching National Geographic. On the other hand, the vision of low culture is: naïve, ‘redneck,’ close minded, working class (blue collar) citizens who find leisure in such things as watching “Family Guy,” attending pubs and bars, drinking, watching soap operas, and falling under the spell of reality television. Throughout the ages there has been a partition between the working class and the higher classes. Divisions caused by the privileged causing a blockade between lower classes in order to continue the elite groups ...
In Highbrow, Lowbrow, Levine argues that a distinction between high and low culture that did not exist in the first half of the 19th century emerged by the turn of the century and solidified during the 20th century, and that despite a move in the last few decades toward a more ecumenical interpretation of “culture,” the distinction between high art and popular entertainment and the revering of a canon of sacred, inalterable cultural works persists. In the prologue Levine states that one of his central arguments is that concepts of cultural boundaries have changed over the period he treats. Throughout Highbrow, Lowbrow, Levine defines culture as a process rather than a fixed entity, and as a product of interactions between the past and the present.
Having only recently permeated the public and political lexicon, there are few debates that evoke such passion as that of the underclass. Karl Marx tabled the idea of the lumpen proletariat, yet in the modern era, the concept did not take hold in Britain until 1989. Today, the debate focuses on whether frictional forces create a continuum of inequality, or whether a defined underclass does exist. The question asks if 'poor people' belong in a separate underclass, which is a vague definition. There will always be 'poor people', but whether or not this automatically qualifies them as a separate underclass is tenuous at best. Even the most radical proponents for the existence of the underclass stop short of declaring all those below the poverty line as 'the underclass'. This essay will analyse the arguments from either side of the debate, looking at definitional issues, the undeserving and deserving poor and structure versus agency. Overall, it will be argued that Murray’s classification does not hold for the majority and that frictional forces mean the poor are part of a continuum of inequality.
As the modern societies developed, the division of labor created a separation of powers. According to Marx, there is a division into the upper class and the lower class. The upper class, or dominate class maintains and expresses the ideals of the dominant ruling class. While the lower class, or working members are passive within society. By creating this power differential, ownership is possessed by the ruling class. However, when conflict arises, the revolutionary class which represents the majority of society will overthrow the ruling class at that time, thus taking their place and presenting their own dominate ideals. So in short there is an upper class and lower class, until the lower class realizes the ongoing conflict between classes causing a revolution and this continues on throughout history.
...for the poor into the public realm. The decline of a middle class is affecting the structure of society because cities and public venues were once designed to serve the middle class. However, without such a class, cities are now being designed to service an elite class and it is this class that has the power and control over public life. With the widening division between classes, services to the non-elite members of society will continue to diminish.
The most influential cultural practice of our time is the culture of capitalism, as it is the dominant form of economic organization across the globe (Anderson 2010). Capitalism takes and makes places throughout the globe, leaving traces that affect the commodities we buy, the livings earned, the methods and motives for travelling, and the meanings associated with them (Anderson 2010). The culture of capitalism is based upon trading products, experiences, and services, at all different scales - locally, nationally, or globally. Those who successfully trade products and services, and those who are limited to selling their labour to help other manufacture and provide the desired product often define capitalism. The process of making more money is a key defining element of the culture of capitalism (Anderson 2010).
Divisions within the social stratum is a characteristic of societies in various cultures and has been present throughout history. During the middle ages, the medieval feudal system prevailed, characterized by kings and queens reigning over the peasantry. Similarly, in today’s society, corporate feudalism, otherwise known as Capitalism, consists of wealthy elites dominating over the working poor. Class divisions became most evident during America’s Gilded Age and Progressive era, a period in time in which the rich became richer via exploitation of the fruits of labor that the poor persistently toiled to earn. As a result, many Americans grew compelled to ask the question on everyone’s mind: what do the rich owe the poor? According to wealthy
The increasing development of the division between “upper” and “lower” class will lead into a big disaster in further future. The intelligence of the human species is going to be at an unthinkable minimum. All achievements in culture, technology and knowledge will be vanished.
Through examining the implications of popular culture and media on the structure of society, the prevalence of differing forms of social inequality becomes a pivotal issue. Barnett (1998: 58) suggests that despite theories pertaining to the influence of culture over social inequality, such as Bourdieu’s notion of cultural capital which advances that cultural forms are exclusively accessed by the higher classes in order to maintain a distinct separation between social classes, popular culture is considered neither high nor inferior culture and therefore does not discriminate between social classes but rather accommodates to the changing nature of class. While it is proposed that the notion of popular culture and media being available to all ensures that it does not contribute to the maintenance of social classes, the content that is presented through these mediums tends to encourage a less sympathetic public attitude towards those experiencing the repercussions of social inequality, in particular poverty and unemp...
Whilst in comparison the middle class, who were the indirect architects of the problem, continue to widen the gap between the two classes, a theme which is encapsulated by Marx as he writes ‘[the proletariat] are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooker, and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself.’
As time has passed by, class inequality has lost its utmost importance (Scase, 1992). Even though it may not seem vital it is still prominent in today’s society and everyone’s lives. The term Class if taken as a form of identity which is stuck onto every individual as a signpost, there is no way of getting rid of it nor escaping it. The class is not as vital anymore because there are more opportunities available so it’s much easier for social mobility to happen in the 21st century. In the past people were victims of circumstances and stood no chance to move up the class ladder; they were born into a class they would die in. Now social mobility has become easier so moving up the class system is not as difficult as it was before, which is why the importance of class is diminishing. A recent example that can be seen of Sadiq Khan, his father was a bus driver in Pakistan and now he is the Mayor of London. The concept of Class has no ‘correct’ definition but it’s known as an inequality
In this essay I intend to explore what is meant by the terms popular culture and high culture. I will also look at how the relationship between these two terms has become distorted and blurred over time. In order to reinforce what I am saying about popular and high culture I will be using a range of examples from the music industry to show how the line between high culture and popular culture has become ambiguous. I will also call upon the work of John Storey to give my work an academic foundation. Although Storey is the main academic I will be looking at, I will also include references to a number of other academics who have written about popular culture and high culture.
...etitions “unfairly privileges the rich” since the higher class holds enough power to “perpetrate an unfair system” that keeps them at an advantage (boundless 5). According to the conflict theory, the lower class has very little chance to move upward, either financially or educationally, since those that acquire positions with acquire far more power and money; therefore, they can alter fairness of the system.
The term “class” has been interpreted in many ways by sociologists. One popular interpretation comes from Karl Marx, who explained “class” in a relatively narrower economic perspective. According to Marx (1966), classes exist with “the identity of revenues and sources of revenues” (p. 5), and the differences in revenues lead to the formation of a ruling class which owns the means of production and an opposing class which do not (Bendix & Lipset, Pp.6-11). Hence, to Marx, economic factor is, and only it can be, a cause of the formation of classes. Another interpretation was made by Max Weber. Weber (1966) agreed with Marx that the ownership of property would lead to the formation of classes. Yet, apart from it, power and prestige also play vital roles in constituting a class. With property, power or prestige, one group of people enjoy higher status than the others, and this thus form different classes. Because of so many interpretations of “class”, Ossowski (1966) generalized different conceptions of social class into four characteristics: (1) the vertical order of social class; (2) distinctness of permanent class interests; (3) class consciousness; and (4) class boundaries and social intercourse barriers (P. 92). Given the four characteristics of classes, this essay will first discuss the importance of social classes in terms of its impact on life chances, and then analyze how the kind of social stratification is reinforced in different ways.
Kerbo, H. R. (2012). Social stratification and inequality: class conflict in historical, comparative, and global perspective (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Culture is one of the most difficult concepts in the human and social science (Hall, 1997). There has been a lot of controversy on the definitions of culture among cultural scholars for the past years. More traditionally, culture is said be the sum of great ideas, as represented in the classic works of literature, painting, music and philosophy – the “high culture”. In a more modern approach, culture is seen as the widely distributed forms of popular music, publishing, art, design and literature, or the activities of leisure time and entertainment describing the daily life activities of a majority of people, which is named the “mass culture” or “popular culture”. Soraya and Saeed (2012) define the term “culture” as the common system of knowledge of a group of people. It includes a variety of components such as values, beliefs, attitudes, notions of appropriate behavior, statuses, role expectations, and worldview (notions of time, space, and cosmology). It also includes material objects and knowledge about the...