The Short Guide to Sociology by Doidge Mark Saini Rima

Author:Doidge, Mark, Saini, Rima [Doidge, Mark, Saini, Rima]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9781447352402
Google: IXrRDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Policy Press
Published: 2020-02-26T04:32:15+00:00

There are subtle differences between the ‘precariat’ coined by British economist Guy Standing (2011), and the class of the same name in the Great British Class Survey. The employment difficulties are the same for both in that the types of jobs members of this class work in are low-paid, temporary and zero hours. Yet the composition of this class is different based on the cultural and social capital of the members. Many of the members of Standing’s ‘precariat’ are actually the young people found in Savage’s ‘emergent service workers’. These workers have cultural capital and social contacts that could allow them to change their class at some point in the future. A university education in the knowledge economy is still desirable, even if one is working in the precarious service sector. The members of Savage’s ‘precariat’ don’t have access to this education or social networks so will find it much harder to materially change their social status. Consequently, they also find it much harder to mobilise politically in order to challenge their social position. According to the Great British Class Survey, over a third of the British population are ‘precariat’ and ‘emergent service workers’. This is a significant number of people working in low-paid, precarious work, and highlights how the global economy has not raised everybody’s opportunities, as Ulrich Beck suggested it would.

These studies also show how income inequality has been increasing since the 1970s. It is also being concentrated in the hands of a smaller group of people. The ‘elite’ are concentrated around London where they not only have the economic capital to live in the country’s capital, but also the economic resources to use the amenities that the city provides. We will see how this links back to the analysis of Dutch sociologist Saskia Sassen in Chapter 7. Global cities concentrate economic resources for the elites, while dispersing cheap labour across the globe. This process of concentration and dispersal helps account for the small number of elites in London and the growing precariat across the country. However, Sassen may have begun to theorise the demise of the elite. The furore over the UK leaving the EU has contributed to increasing ill feeling towards the UK political elite, in particular, as reckless and self-serving. It is yet to be seen what implications this will have for the future of class relations in the UK.

KEY POINTS SUMMARY

•Karl Marx and Max Weber are seen as the pioneers of traditional class analysis, which tends to see wealth and occupation as the key determinants of social class position.

•French sociologist Bourdieu theorised the cultural dimensions of class and ushered in a new type of cultural analysis which saw cultural and social capital as key to social mobility and class reproduction.

•More recent class analysis has conceptualised classes beyond the traditional upper-, middle- and working-class categories, considering lifestyle and cultural consumption, as well as occupation and wealth.

•The elite in society tend to capitalise on and restrict access to the wealth and opportunities that have come as

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