Important Changes in the Political, Social and Economic Life in the UK

Important Changes in the Political, Social and Economic Life in the UK

There have been significant changes in political social and economic

life in the UK over the last 50 years with particular reference to

identity and the resulting ordering of our lives in terms of family,

work and welfare together with the resulting impact on our health.

Within the themes of structure and agency, uncertainty and diversity

together with knowledge and knowing, this essay explores the

consequences of some of these changes and how they may be beneficial

for some and deletarious for others, depending upon which social

category a person falls into.

One of the consequences of these changes is that we now have greater

agency over what kind of quality of life and life chances we have. To

understand what is happening in the world around us today, Kath

Woodward sites two social scientists, Goldthorpe and Saunders to

illustrate the idea of “instrumentalism”, i.e., working solely for

financial reward. Instrumentalism demonstrates how occupation plays a

much smaller role in the “new” working class sense of identity.

Therefore, this “consumerism” gives us the ability to “label”

ourselves and buy our identity. (Woodward, 2004)

Identity is a social construction; it’s not something we are born

with, it’s something that forms and changes shape over time. Identity

is “something we do” as opposed to “something we are”.

Negotiation, by aligning ourselves with a particular status or party,

is the key to class membership. Action is taken to achieve this, for

example, by studying. The consumerist approach suggests we can buy

identity because we can ...

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who are finding it increasingly difficult to receive benefits they are

perhaps entitled to. (Hughes, Fergusson, 2004)

This review has shown that the changes in social, political and

economic life since the 1950s have had a significant impact on the

social life of the citizens of this country.

References

Woodward, K. (2004) (ed.2) Questioning Identity: gender, class,

ethnicity, London, Routledge/The Open University

Hinchliffe, S. and Woodward, K. (2004) (Ed.2) The Natural and the

Social: Uncertainty, Risk, Change, London, Routledge/The Open

University

Goldblatt, D. (2004) Knowledge and the Social Sciences: Theory,

Method, Practice, London, Routledge/The Open University

Hughes, G. and Fergusson, R. (2004) (ed. 2) Ordering Lives: Family,

Work and Welfare, London, Routledge/The Open University