Social class relies on the idea that society is stratified and that people can be grouped into social categories. Class is an essential measure for sociologists, historians, political scientists and anthropologists. It is most commonly split into upper, midde and lower classes. There is little agreement on the definition of class because its meaning often depends on the context of its use. Class is often synonymous with SES. Class can broadly be defined as people having the same economic, social, and/or educational status. According to my reading class can be distinguish from SES in the following way: Class is the sociocultural rank of origin whereas SES is the current social and economic status, SES changes more over time.
The philosopher Karl Marx identified class as being a definition of relationship to production. There are proletariat who do the production but do not owe the production and the bourgeois who invest and live off the surplus generated by the proletariat. This contrasts with the view of sociologist Max Weber who argued that class is determined by economic position. Wikipedia continues:
In the late 18th century, the term "class" began to replace classifications such as estates, rank, and orders as the primary means of organizing society into hierarchical divisions. This corresponded to a general decrease in significance ascribed to hereditary characteristics, and increase in the significance of wealth and income as indicators of position in the social hierarchy.The concept of social class assumes the general population is classified in 3 general categories. The upper class consists of the rich and powerful that controls the means of production. The middle class consists of professional workers, small business owners and low level managers. The lower class consists of those who rely on low paying jobs and are often living in poverty. Wikipedia describes the social classes in the following way:
Upper class: The upper class is the social class composed of those who are rich, well-born, powerful, or a combination of those. They usually wield the greatest political power. In some countries, wealth alone is sufficient to allow entry into the upper class. In others, only people who are born or marry into certain aristocratic bloodlines are considered members of the upper class, and those who gain great wealth through commercial activity are looked down upon by the aristocracy as nouveau riche. In the United Kingdom, for example, the upper classes are the aristocracy and royalty, with wealth playing a less important role in class status. Many aristocratic peerages or titles have 'seats' attached to them, with the holder of the title (e.g. Earl of Bristol) and his family being the custodians of the house, but not the owners. Many of these require high expenditures, so wealth is typically needed. Many aristocratic peerages and their homes are parts of estates, owned and run by the title holder with moneys generated by the land, rents, or other sources of wealth. In America, however, where there is no aristocracy or royalty, the upper class status belongs to the extremely wealthy, the so-called 'super-rich', though there is some tendency even in America for those with old family wealth to look down on those who have earned their money in business, the struggle between New Money and Old Money.
The upper class is generally contained within the richest one or two percent of the population. Members of the upper class are often born into it, and are distinguished by immense wealth which is passed from generation to generation in the form of estates. Sometimes members of the upper class are called "the one percent".
Middle class: The middle class is the most contested of the three categories, the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the lower and upper classes. One example of the contest of this term is that in the United States "middle class" is applied very broadly and includes people who would elsewhere be considered working class. Middle-class workers are sometimes called "white-collar workers".
Theorists such as Ralf Dahrendorf have noted the tendency toward an enlarged middle class in modern Western societies, particularly in relation to the necessity of an educated work force in technological economies. Perspectives concerning globalization and neocolonialism, such as dependency theory, suggest this is due to the shift of low-level labour to developing nations and the Third World.
Lower class: The working class is sometimes separated into those who are employed but lacking financial security, and an underclass—those who are long-term unemployed and/or homeless, especially those receiving welfare from the state. The latter is analogous to the Marxist term "lumpenproletariat". Members of the working class are sometimes called blue-collar workers.
Like SES social class has significant effects throughout the lifetime. Social class can decide the schools people attend, the jobs they might take and how they are treated by the police and courts. Wikipedia makes the following comments:
Education: A person's social class has a significant impact on their educational opportunities. Not only are upper-class parents able to send their children to exclusive schools that are perceived to be better, but in many places state-supported schools for children of the upper class are of a much higher quality than those the state provides for children of the lower classes. This lack of good schools is one factor that perpetuates the class divide across generations.
In 1977, British cultural theorist Paul Willis published a study titled "Learning to Labour", in which he investigated the connection between social class and education. In his study, he found that a group of working-class schoolchildren had developed an antipathy towards the acquisition of knowledge as being outside their class, and therefore undesirable, perpetuating their presence in the working class.
Health and nutrition: A person's social class has a significant impact on their physical health, their ability to receive adequate medical care and nutrition, and their life expectancy.
Lower-class people experience a wide array of health problems as a result of their economic status. They are unable to use health care as often, and when they do it is of lower quality, even though they generally tend to experience a much higher rate of health issues. Lower-class families have higher rates of infant mortality, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and disabling physical injuries. Additionally, poor people tend to work in much more hazardous conditions, yet generally have much less (if any) health insurance provided for them, as compared to middle- and upper-class workers.
Employment: The conditions at a person's job vary greatly depending on class. Those in the upper-middle class and middle class enjoy greater freedoms in their occupations. They are usually more respected, enjoy more diversity, and are able to exhibit some authority. Those in lower classes tend to feel more alienated and have lower work satisfaction overall. The physical conditions of the workplace differ greatly between classes. While middle-class workers may "suffer alienating conditions" or "lack of job satisfaction", blue-collar workers are more apt to suffer alienating, often routine, work with obvious physical health hazards, injury, and even death.
A recent UK government study has suggested that a 'glass floor' exists in British society which prevents those who are less able, but whom come from wealthier backgrounds, from slipping down the social ladder. This is due to the fact that those from wealthier backgrounds have more opportunities available to them. In fact, the article shows that less able, better-off kids are 35% more likely to become high earners than bright poor kids.
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| Kyebando beggars under the Lisa Care Foundation pose for a group photo with their Danish rescuer, Lisa |
"The first global report on disability reveals how the exclusion of 1 billion people – invisible in official statistics and absent from aid budgets – is holding back development progress".
The UN millennium development goals (MDGs) may not be met by 2015 unless urgent action is taken to address the needs of people with disabilities, according to the first world report on disability.
More than 1 billion people live with a disability, says the world report on disability, published by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Bank on Thursday. It covers all forms of disability, from blindness to mental health issues.
It updates global disability estimates for the first time in 40 years and finds that 20% of the world's poorest people have disabilities and nearly 80% of people with disabilities live in low-income countries.
"Addressing the health, education, employment and other development needs of people living with disabilities is fundamental to achieving the millennium development goals," said the World Bank president, Robert Zoellick.
Children with disabilities are less likely to attend and complete school, says the report, putting at risk international targets for universal primary education. Disabled women are more likely to be victims of discrimination and sexual violence, pushing back progress on global goals for gender equality. People with disabilities are at greater risk of HIV and Aids than "classic risk groups" such as drug users. And children with disabilities have higher mortality rates – because of medical conditions and because of challenges accessing public services.
The higher living costs faced by people with disabilities also mean that they have a 50% greater risk of incurring "catastrophic health costs" – those so high that they push them under the poverty line.
But despite being pivotal in global efforts to reach the MDGs by 2015, people with disabilities are largely invisible in development statistics and absent from aid budgets. Disability is not mentioned once in any of the eight MDGs, or the 21 targets, or the 60 indicators for achieving the goals. A key challenge is how complex and diverse disabilities are, argues the report. While policies are usually written with thresholds and targets in mind, "disability is a matter of more or less, not yes or no", says the report.
However, aid donors cannot afford to plan and fund development programmes that neglect the needs of people living with disabilities, says Tom Shakespeare, one of the report's authors.
One of the report's key messages is that disability is less about health conditions and more about social and economic barriers to inclusion. This is a bold stance for the WHO to take, says Shakespeare, and one that points the way to cost-effective strategies to overcome the disadvantages associated with disability."Aid donors should not be funding projects that are not inclusive to people with disabilities," says Shakespeare, a technical officer at the WHO. "They should not, for example, be building schools that are not accessible." Donors must include people with disabilities in all mainstream development projects and make specific investments to enable people with disabilities to participate in broader society, he says. "You are simply not going to meet the MDGs unless you include them."
"Making a building accessible, for example, adds just 1% to the total cost of construction," he says. Training teachers to consider the special needs of children with disabilities is another low-cost but highly effective strategy to help tackle discrimination and keep children in school, he adds.
But while disability has been largely absent from the international agenda, many developing countries have already been making significant – though partial – progress on including people with disabilities in development projects.
"Lots of countries have done good things," says Shakespeare. Uganda, for example, has enshrined disability rights in its constitution, and people with disabilities participate at every level of the political process. Vietnam and Laos get top marks for a project to make schools inclusive. And Yemen gets Shakespeare's applause for its support services. "Even somewhere in crisis has a good story to tell. But no country has got it completely right."
Disability must be seen as a development issue, says the report, but like obesity and ageing, it is an issue that transcends the traditional north-south distinctions. "Disability is part of the human condition," says the WHO director general, Margaret Chan. "Almost every one of us will be permanently or temporarily disabled at some point in life." But even in high-income countries, up to 40% of people with disabilities do not have access to the services they need.
A stronger focus on disability will only become more important as the world's population ages and chronic diseases – such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease – spread, the report says.
Understanding both social class and SES is vital in considering the issues faced by PWDs. Social class is another valuable tool for understanding the problems faced by PWDs. The report highlighted above clearly shows that the majority PWDs occupy the lowest social strata of society. This has significant effects throughout the lifetime of individuals. Being in the lowest social class will determine access to education, health and employment.
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