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Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. Image File history File links Acap. ... A hierarchy (in Greek: , derived from — hieros, sacred, and — arkho, rule) is a system of ranking and organizing things or people, where each element of the system (except for the top element) is a subordinate to a single other element. ... A society is a group of people living or working together. ... The word culture comes from the Latin root colere (to inhabit, to cultivate, or to honor). ...

Most societies, particularly nation states, seem to have some definition of social class.^{[citation needed]} However, less complex societies such as Hunter-gatherers, may or may not have any notion of class.^{[citation needed]} For other uses, see State (disambiguation). ... In anthropology, the hunter-gatherer way of life is that led by certain societies of the Neolithic Era based on the exploitation of wild plants and animals. ...

Where social classes do exist, the factors that determine class vary widely from one society to another. Even within a society, different people or groups may have very different ideas about what makes one "high" or "low" in the social hierarchy. The most basic class distinction between the two groups is between the powerful and the powerless. Social classes with more power usually subordinate classes with less power, while attempting to cement their own power positions in society. Social classes with a great deal of power are usually viewed as elites, at least within their own societies. Social hierarchy, a multi-tiered pyramid-like social or functional structure having an apex as the centralization of power. ... Much of the recent sociological debate on power revolves around the issue of the constraining and/or enabling nature of power. ... A hierarchy (in Greek hieros = sacred, arkho = rule) is a system of ranking and organizing things. ... For other uses, see Elite (disambiguation). ...

In the simplest societies, power/class hierarchies may or may not exist. In societies where they do exist, power may be linked to physical strength, and therefore age, gender, and physical health are common delineators of class.^{[citation needed]} However, spiritual charisma and religious vision can be at least as important.^{[citation needed]} Also, because different livelihoods are so closely intertwined in simple societies, morality often ensures that the old, the young, the weak, and the sick maintain a relatively equal standard of living despite low class.^{[citation needed]} Gender in common usage refers to the sexual distinction between male and female. ... For other uses, see Charisma (disambiguation). ... In religion, visions comprise inspirational renderings, generally of a future state and/or of a mythical being, and are believed (by followers of the religion) to come from a deity, directly or indirectly via prophets, and serve to inspire or prod believers as part of a revelation or an epiphany. ... Morality (from the Latin manner, character, proper behaviour) has three principal meanings. ...

In so-called non-stratified societies or acephalous societies, there is no concept of social class, power, or hierarchy beyond temporary or limited social statuses. In such societies, every individual has a roughly equal social standing in most situations.^{[citation needed]} social stratification is the division of people of a particular society on the basis if occupation, income, power, prestige, authority, status, dignity, education, class, castle, gender, race and ethnicity In sociology, social stratification is the hierarchical arrangement of social classes, castes and strata within a society. ... Anthropologists use the term Acephalous (Greek for headless) society to refer to societies which lack political leaders or hierarchies. ... Social status is the honor or prestige attached to ones position in society (ones social position). ...

In societies where classes exist, one's class is determined largely by:

• occupation
• education and qualifications
• income, personal, household and per capita
• wealth or net worth, including the ownership of land, property, means of production, et cetera

Those who can attain a position of power in a society will often adopt distinctive lifestyles to emphasize their prestige and to further rank themselves within the powerful class. Often the adoption of these stylistic traits are as important as one's wealth in determining class status, at least at the higher levels: A profession is an occupation, vocation or career where specialized knowledge of a subject, field, or science is applied. ... A professional certification, trade certification, or professional designation (often called simply certification or qualification) is a designation earned by a person to assure that he/she is qualified to perform a job or task. ... Income, generally defined, is the money that is received as a result of the normal business activities of an individual or a business. ... For the business meaning, see Wealth (economics). ... Net worth (sometimes net assets) is the total assets minus total liabilities of an individual or company. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Means of production (abbreviated MoP; German: Produktionsmittel), also called means of labour are the materials, tools and other instruments used by workers to make products. ... Prestige means good reputation or high esteem. ...

• costume and grooming
• manners and cultural refinement. For example, Bourdieu suggests a notion of high and low classes with a distinction between bourgeois tastes and sensitivities and the working class tastes and sensitivities.
• political standing vis-à-vis the church, government, and/or social clubs, as well as the use of honorary titles
• reputation of honor or disgrace
• language, the distinction between elaborate code, which is seen as a criterion for "upper-class", and the restricted code, which is associated with "lower classes"

Finally, fluid notions such as race can have widely varying degrees of influence on class standing. Having characteristics of a particular ethnic group may improve one's class status in many societies. However, what is considered "racially superior" in one society can often be exactly the opposite in another. In situations where such factors are an issue, a minority ethnicity has often been hidden, or discreetly ignored if the person in question has otherwise attained the requirements to be of a higher class. Ethnicity is still often the single most overarching issue of class status in some societies (see the articles on apartheid, the Caste system in Africa, and the Japanese Burakumin ethnic minority for examples). However, a distinction should be made between causation and correlation when it comes to race and class. Some societies have a high correlation between particular classes and race, but this is not necessarily an indication that race is a factor in the determination of class. Yarkand ladies summer fashions. ... Grooming refers to removing obvious imperfections in ones appearance, or improving ones hygiene. ... // In sociology, manners are the unenforced standards of conduct which show the actor to be cultured, polite, and refined. ... Look up refinement in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Pierre Bourdieu (August 1, 1930 – January 23, 2002) was an acclaimed French sociologist whose work employed methods drawn from a wide range of disciplines: from philosophy and literary theory to sociology and anthropology. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The term working class is used to denote a social class. ... A title is a prefix or suffix added to a persons name to signify either veneration, an official position or a professional or academic qualification. ... Look up reputation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Race (disambiguation). ... A segregated beach in South Africa, 1982. ... Countries in Africa who have societies with caste systems within their borders include Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Niger, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Algeria, Nigeria, Chad, Ethiopia and Somalia. ... Burakumin (: buraku, community or hamlet + min, people), or hisabetsu buraku ( discriminated communities / discriminated hamlets) are a Japanese social minority group. ... Correlation does not imply causation is a phrase used in the sciences and statistics to emphasize that correlation between two variables does not imply there is a cause-and-effect relationship between the two. ...

The Middle Class

Main article: middle class

For most of recorded human history, societies have been agricultural and have existed with essentially two classes - those who owned productive agricultural land, and those who worked for them.^{[citation needed]} The landowning class often arranged itself into a sometimes elaborate hierarchy based on the criteria listed in the previous section, without changing the essential power relationship of owner and worker. About the 1770s, when the term "social class" first entered the English lexicon, the concept of a "middle class" within that structure was also becoming very important. The Industrial Revolution was allowing a much greater portion of the population time for the kind of education and cultural refinement once restricted to the European leisure class of large landholders. Also, the far greater distribution of news and liberal arts knowledge was making workers question and rebel against the privileges and religious assumptions of the leisure class. Today, most talk of social class assumes three general categories: an upper class of powerful owners, a middle class of people who may not exert power over others but do control their own destiny to a certain extent through commerce or land ownership, and a lower class of people who own neither property nor stock in the corporate system, and who rely on wages from above for their livelihood. Since the Age of Revolution, Eurocentric governments have generally upheld the middle class as the ideal, and have at least claimed to be working toward expanding it. Especially in the United States, the ideal of a middle class reached via the American Dream is of central importance when discussing social class. The middle class (or middle classes) comprises a social group once defined by exception as an intermediate social class between the nobility and the peasantry. ... A Watt steam engine, the steam engine that propelled the Industrial Revolution in Britain and the world. ... In the history of education, the seven liberal arts comprise two groups of studies, the trivium and the quadrivium. ... The Age of Revolution was the time period (approximately 1750-1800) after most of the European countries changed their government to absolutist states or constitutionalist states. ... A monument to the working and supporting classes along Market Street in the heart of San Franciscos Financial District, home to tens-of-thousands of professional and managerial middle class workers each day. ... For other uses, see American Dream (disambiguation). ...

US middle class

Main article: American middle class

Today in the US there are multiple theories as to what constitutes the middle class. As the vast majority of Americans identify as being middle class, the term has been used to describe people from all walks of life, from janitors to attorneys.^[1][2] As a result the middle class is often sub-divided into two or three groups. While one set of theories claim that the middle class is composed of those in the middle of the social strata, other theories maintain that professionals and managers who have a college degree make up most of the middle class.^[3] In 2005 roughly 35% of Americans worked in the professional/professional support or managerial field and 27% had a college degree.^[4] Sociologists such as Dennis Gilbert or Joseph Hickey argue that the middle class is divided into two sub-groups. The upper middle class consists of white collar professionals with advanced educations and constitutes roughly 15% of the population. In 2005 the top 15% of income earners (age 25+) had incomes exceeding $62,500.^[5] The lower middle class (or middle-middle class for those who divide the middle class into three segments) consists of other mostly white collar employees with less autonomy in their work, lower educational attainment, lower personal income and less prestige than those of the upper middle class. Sociologists such as Dennis Gilbert, James Henslin, William Thompson and Joseph Hickey have brought forth class models in which the middle class is divided into two sections which combine to represent 47% to 49% of the population.^[6][7][8] Economist Michael Zweig defines class as power relationships among the members of a society, rather than as a lifestyle or by income. ^[9] Zweig says that the middle class is only about 34% of the U.S. population, typically employed as managers, supervisors, small business owners and other professional people. A monument to the working and supporting classes along Market Street in the heart of San Franciscos Financial District, home to tens-of-thousands of professional and managerial middle class workers each day. ... A monument to the working and supporting classes along Market Street in the heart of San Franciscos Financial District, home to tens-of-thousands of professional and managerial middle class workers each day. ... The contemporary United States has no legally-recognized social classes. ... This graph shows the educational attainment since 1947. ... Dennis Gilbert is professor and chair of sociology at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. ... A monument to the working and supporting classes along Market Street in the heart of San Franciscos Financial District, home to tens-of-thousands of professional and managerial middle class workers each day. ... A monument to the working and supporting classes along Market Street in the heart of San Franciscos Financial District, home to tens-of-thousands of professional and managerial middle class workers each day. ... This graph shows the educational attainment since 1947. ... For information on household income please see Household income in the United States Personal income for the populatio age 25 or older. ...

Historical models

Although class can be discerned in any society, some cultures have published specific guidelines to rank. In some cases, the ideologies presented in these rankings may not concur with the mainstream power dialectic of social class as it is understood in modern English use. Social rank or simply rank is a hierarchy based on ones perceived importance in society. ...

Indian

The Indian caste system is one of the oldest and most important systems of social class with peculiar rigidity (in the sense that it lacks upward or downward mobility between castes). It differs from Varnashrama Dharma^[10] found in Hinduism, which allowed people born into a certain Varna to move upward or downwards depending on their qualification. It divided society based on skill and qualifications. Briefly, the Brahmin varna was idealized as a leisurely priest class devoted to religious ceremonies, while the Kshatriya defended them as military princes. The modern concept of the middle class was represented by the Vaishya varna artisans, farmers, and merchants, and the lower varna were the Shudra laborers. Within this basic framework were arranged a huge number of jatis, or subcastes. Despite being notorious for its rigidity, it should be recognised not as a religious system (as Varnashrama Dharma prescribed in Hinduism), but a social system, which evolved from Varnashrama Dharma. The Indian caste system describes the social stratification and social restrictions in the Indian Subcontinent, in which social classes are defined by thousands of endogamous, hereditary groups often termed as jātis or castes. ... This article is about the city in Bulgaria. ... For other uses, see Dharma (disambiguation). ... Hinduism (known as in modern Indian languages[1]) is a religious tradition[2] that originated in the Indian subcontinent. ... Varna is a Sanskrit term derived from the root meaning to choose (from a group). ... The term Brahmin denotes both a member of the priestly class in the Hindu varna system, and a member of the highest caste in the caste system of Hindu society. ... This article is about the city in Bulgaria. ... Part of the ceremony of the Changing of the Guard in Whitehall, London. ... For the Bollywood film of the same name see Kshatriya Kshatriya (Hindi: , from Sanskrit: , ) is one of the four varnas, or castes, in Hinduism. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article is about the city in Bulgaria. ... This article is about the city in Bulgaria. ... Shudra (IAST: ) is the fourth Varna in the traditional four-section division in historic Hindu society. ... Jatis (the word literally means births) comprise the subcastes found within the four major castes, or varnas, of the Indian caste system. ... This article is about the city in Bulgaria. ... For other uses, see Dharma (disambiguation). ... Hinduism (known as in modern Indian languages[1]) is a religious tradition[2] that originated in the Indian subcontinent. ...

Chinese

Traditional Chinese society divided workers based on the perceived usefulness of their work. Scholars ranked the highest because the opportunity to conceive clear ideas in a state of leisure would lead them to wise laws (an idea that has much in common with Plato's ideal of a philosopher king). Under them were the farmers, who produced necessary food, and the artisans who produced useful objects. Merchants ranked at the bottom because they did not actually produce anything, while soldiers were sometimes ranked even lower because of the destruction they caused. The Confucian model is notably different from the modern Eurocentric view of social class, since merchants could attain great wealth without reaching the social status accorded to a poor farmer. In practice, a rich merchant might purchase land to reach farmer status, or even buy a good education for his heirs in the hopes that they would attain scholar status and go into the imperial civil service. The Chinese model was widely disseminated throughout east Asia. [1] A scholar is either a student or someone who has achieved a mastery of some academic discipline. ... PLATO was one of the first generalized Computer assisted instruction systems, originally built by the University of Illinois (U of I) and later taken over by Control Data Corporation (CDC), who provided the machines it ran on. ... Philosopher-kings are the hypothetical rulers of Platos utopian Kallipolis. ... An artisan is a skilled manual worker. ... Confucianism (儒家 Pinyin: rújiā The School of the Scholars), sometimes translated as the School of Literati, is an East Asian ethical, religious and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of Confucius. ... The Roman civil service in action. ...

Japanese

The Japanese class structure, while influenced by the Chinese, was based on a much more feudal environment. The Emperor, as a deity, was unquestionably at the pinnacle of the Japanese class structure (and still is, despite no longer being considered a god). However, for most of Japanese history the emperor was not allowed outside the palace grounds and his will was "interpreted" by a shogun, or military dictator. Beneath the shogun, daimyos or regional lords, administered the provinces through their samurai lieutenants. Perhaps through Chinese influence, and perhaps springing from a lack of arable land, the Japanese class structure also ranked farmers above merchants and other bourgeois. Feudalism comes from the Late Latin word feudum, itself borrowed from a Germanic root *fehu, a commonly used term in the Middle Ages which means fief, or land held under certain obligations by feodati. ... For the CPR ocean liner, see Empress of Japan. ... Look up deity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Minamoto no Yoritomo, the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate Shōgun )   is supreme general of the samurai,a military rank and historical title in Japan. ... Daimyo Matsudaira Katamori visits the residence of a retainer. ... For other uses, see Samurai (disambiguation). ... In geography, arable land is a form of agricultural land use, meaning land that can be (and is) used for growing crops. ... For other uses, see Farmer (disambiguation). ... Merchants function as professionals who deal with trade, dealing in commodities that they do not produce themselves, in order to produce profit. ... Bourgeois at the end of the thirteenth century. ...

See also: Four divisions of society

The four divisions of society refers to the model of Japanese society during the Edo period. ...

Iranian

Under the Qajar dynasty of Iran, the class structure was set up as follows: The Qajar dynasty was the ruling family of Persia from 1796 to 1925. ...

• the permanent hereditary class of Qajar princes
• an upper class of "nobles and notables"
• religious leaders and students of theology
• merchants (note the difference from east Asian models)
• agricultural landowners
• master artisans and shopkeepers

As in many official class structures, the laborers who made up the majority of the population but owned no land and relied on wages were not even considered part of the structure at all. [2]

French

France was an absolute monarchy for most of its history, with the king at the pinnacle of the class structure. However, the French States-General, established in 1302, provided a sort of legislative assembly with its members ranked according to hereditary class. The First Estate consisted of the highborn sons of great families who had devoted themselves to religion (compare to the Indian Brahmins, Confucian scholars, and Qajar theology students). The Second Estate consisted of all other members of the nobility, who constituted approximately two percent of the total population. The Third Estate consisted, technically, of everyone else, but was represented only by the richest members of the bourgeoisie. In truth, the peasantry had no voice at all in the system, as contrasted with the ideologically high status of farmers in Confucian China. The rigidity of the French hereditary system has been suggested as a major cause of the French Revolution. Forms of government Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Absolute monarchy is a monarchical form of government where the monarch has the power to rule his or her land or country and its citizens freely, with no laws or legally-organized direct opposition in force. ... Kings ruled in France from the Middle Ages to 1848. ... In France under the Ancien Regime, the States-General or Estates-General (French: états généraux), was a legislative assembly (see The States) of the different classes (or estates) of French subjects. ... Events July 11 - Battle of the Golden Spurs (Guldensporenslag in Dutch), major victory of Flanders over the French occupier. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Categories: 1911 Britannica | Historical stubs | Feudalism ... The French Revolution (1789–1815) was a period of political and social upheaval in the political history of France and Europe as a whole, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on...

Hispanic American

Access to positions of power and wealth were delineated by race. Accordingly, Peninsulars (Spaniards born in Spain) held the top ranks- including titles such as Viceroy, Captain General, etc. They were followed by Criollos (Those directly descended from Spaniards but born in America), who held considerable power and class but were barred from the highest decision-making posts. After these there was a system of castes, listed in order of rank: Criollo, in the Spanish colonial Casta system (caste system) of Latin America, was a person born in the Spanish colonies deemed to have purity of blood in respect to the individuals European ancestry. ...

• Mestizo (Mixed Amerindian and Spaniard);
• Mulatto (Mixed Spaniard and African)
• Amerindian
• Zambo (Mixed Amerindian and African)
• Negro

It is to be noted that even today there is a strong correlation between class and ethnicity.

British

Main article: Social structure of Britain

The Parliament of the United Kingdom still contains a vestige of the European class structure undone in France by the Revolution. The Queen maintains her status at the top of the social class structure, with the House of Lords up until very recently still representing the hereditary upper class and the House of Commons technically representing everyone else. Due to the electoral rules, however, the House of Commons historically (until the late 19th, early 20th centuries) represented the Landed classes. In the Victorian era of the United Kingdom, social class became a national obsession, with nouveau riche industrialists in the House of Commons trying to attain the status of House of Lords landowners through attempts to dress, eat, and talk in an upper class manner, marriages arranged to achieve titles, and the purchase of grand country houses built to emulate the old aristocracy's feudal castles. It was the Victorian middle class who tried to distance themselves from the lower class with terms such as "working class", which seemed to imply that their new white collar positions couldn't really be considered "work" since they were so clean, modern, and safe. The social structure of Britain has clearly changed with the centuries and it is difficult to adequately discuss the topic in a single article. ... Type Bicameral Houses House of Commons House of Lords Speaker of the House of Commons Michael Martin MP Lord Speaker Hélène Hayman, PC Members 1377 (646 Commons, 731 Peers) Political groups Labour Party Conservative Party Liberal Democrats Scottish National Party Plaid Cymru Democratic Unionist Party Sinn Féin... The human vermiform appendix is a vestigial structure; it no longer retains its original function. ... The British monarch or Sovereign is the monarch and head of state of the United Kingdom and its overseas territories, and is the source of all executive, judicial and (as the Queen-in-Parliament) legislative power. ... This article is about the British House of Lords. ... Type Lower House Speaker of the House of Commons Leader of the House of Commons Michael Martin, (Non-affiliated) since October 23, 2000 Harriet Harman, QC, (Labour) since June 28, 2007 Shadow Leader of the House of Commons Theresa May, PC, (Conservative) since December 6, 2005 Members 646 Political groups... Queen Victoria (shown here on the morning of her accession to the Throne, 20 June 1837) gave her name to the historic era The Victorian era of the United Kingdom marked the height of the British Industrial Revolution and the apex of the British Empire. ... Nouveau riche (French for new rich), or new money refers to persons who acquire wealth within their generation. ... U and non-U English usage, with U standing for upper class, and non-U representing the rest, were part of the terminology of popular discourse of social dialects (sociolects) in 1950s Britain and the northeast United States. ... ... Forms of government Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box:      The term aristocracy refers to a form of government where power is held by a small number of individuals from an elite or from noble families. ... The term working class is used to denote a social class. ... White-collar workers perform tasks which are less laborious yet often more highly paid than blue-collar workers, who do manual work. ...

It was also in 19th century Britain that the term Fourth Estate was used to describe the press. Thomas Carlyle equated the Queen to France's First Estate of clergy, the House of Lords to France's Second Estate of hereditary aristocracy, and the House of Commons to France's Third Estate of rich bourgeoisie. But he then pointed out that the editors of newspapers in Britain's booming Industrial Revolution (similar to the pamphleteers before and during the French Revolution) held powerful sway over public opinion, making them equally important players in the political arena. The political role of the media has become ever more important as technology has blossomed in the 20th and 21st centuries, but few academic models today set aside the media as a specific class. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... In modern times, television reporters are part of the fourth estate. ... The most familiar view of Carlyle is as the bearded sage with a penetrating gaze. ... A Watt steam engine, the steam engine that propelled the Industrial Revolution in Britain and the world. ...

It remains important in any analysis of social class in the UK to allow for regional variations. What may be true of England may be untrue or at least less true of Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales. Attempts to assume a 'British' class system rarely produce useful or reliable results. Scotland's population's inter-class relations are (from an English point of view) confused by the vestiges of the clan system. Wales had most of its nobility killed off in a series of conflicts between different families and different centres of power, and of course with England. The upshot of this has been, according to historian Gwyn Alf Williams, a country which thinks of itself as being of a single class; he compared it, in his book When Was Wales with the then Czechoslovakia.

United States

Class in the US, featuring occupational descriptions by Thompson & Hickey as well as US Census Bureau data pertaining to personal income and educational attainment for those age 25 or older.^[6][11][4]

Main article: Social class in the United States

The social structure of the United States is a vaguely defined concept which includes several commonly used terms that use educational attainment, income and occupational prestige as the main determinants of class. While it is possible to create dozens of social classes within the confines of American society, most Americans employ a six or five class system. The most commonly applied class concepts used in regards to contemporary American society are:^[6] Image File history File links Class_US.png‎ I created the graph myself, using percentages and occupation descriptions feature in the 2005 sociology book, Society in Focus by William Thompson and Joseph Hickey. ... Image File history File links Class_US.png‎ I created the graph myself, using percentages and occupation descriptions feature in the 2005 sociology book, Society in Focus by William Thompson and Joseph Hickey. ... For information on household income please see Household income in the United States Personal income for the populatio age 25 or older. ... This graph shows the educational attainment since 1947. ... A monument to the working and supporting classes along Market Street in the heart of San Franciscos Financial District, home to tens of thousands of professional and managerial middle class workers each day. ... This graph shows the educational attainment since 1947. ... For information on the income of individuals, see Personal income in the United States. ... The contemporary United States has no legally-recognized social classes. ...

• Upper class; Those with great influence, wealth and prestige. Members of this group tend to act as the grand-conceptualizers and have tremendous influence of the nation's institutions.
• Upper middle class; The upper middle class consists of white collar professionals with advanced post-secondary educational degrees and comfortable personal incomes. Upper middle class professionals have large amounts of autonomy in the workplace and therefore enjoy high job satisfaction. In terms of income and considering the 15% figure used by Thompson, Hickey and Gilber, upper middle class professionals earn roughly $62,500 or more and tend to reside in households with six figure incomes.^[3][6][12]
• (Lower) middle class; Semi-professionals, non-retail salespersons and craftsmen who have some college education. Out-sourcing tends to be a prominent problem among those in this class who often suffer from a lack of job security.^[6][13] Households in this class may need two income earners to make ends meet and therefore may have household incomes rivaling the personal incomes of upper middle class professionals such as attorneys.^[13]
• Working class; According to some experts such Michael Zweig, this class may constitute the majority of Americans and include those otherwise referred to as lower middle.^[14] It includes blue as well as white collar workers who have relatively low personal incomes and lack college degrees with many being among the 45% of Americans who have never attended college.^[6]
• Lower class; This class includes the poor, alienated and marginalized members of society. While most individuals in this class work, they commonly drift in and out of poverty throughout the year.^[6]

The American upper class described the sociological ideology concerning the status of the top layer of society in the United States. ... A monument to the working and supporting classes along Market Street in the heart of San Franciscos Financial District, home to tens-of-thousands of professional and managerial middle class workers each day. ... The percentage of households and individuals over the age of 25 with incomes exceeding $100,000 in the US.[1][2] Affluence in the United States refers to an individuals or households state of being in an economically favorable position in contrast to a given reference group. ... For information on household income please see Household income in the United States Personal income for the populatio age 25 or older. ... A monument to the working and supporting classes along Market Street in the heart of San Franciscos Financial District, home to tens-of-thousands of professional and managerial middle class workers each day. ... A monument to the working and supporting classes along Market Street in the heart of San Franciscos Financial District, home to tens-of-thousands of professional and managerial middle class workers each day. ... For information on household income please see Household income in the United States Personal income for the populatio age 25 or older. ... A social class is, at its most basic, a group of people that have similar social status. ...

Marxist

An Industrial Worker capitalist class critique

It was in Victorian Britain that Karl Marx became the first person to critically attack the privileges not just of a hereditary upper class, but of anyone whose labor output could not begin to cover their consumption of luxury. The majority proletariat which had previously been relegated to an unimportant compartment at the bottom of most hierarchies, or ignored completely, became Marx's focal point. He recognized the traditional European ruling class ("We rule you"), supported by the religious ("We fool you") and military ("We shoot at you") élites, but the French Revolution had already shown that these classes could be removed. Marx looked forward to a time when the new capitalist upper class could also be removed and everyone could work as they were able, and receive as they needed. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (700x866, 418 KB) A 1911 Industrial Worker publication advocating industrial unionism. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (700x866, 418 KB) A 1911 Industrial Worker publication advocating industrial unionism. ... The Industrial Worker, the voice of revolutionary labor, is the newspaper of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), a radical syndicalist labor union. ... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 – March 14, 1883) was a 19th century philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary. ... In economics, consumption refers to the final use of goods and services to provide utility. ... The proletariat (from Latin proles, offspring) is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. ... The term ruling class refers to the social class of a given society that decides upon and sets that societys political policy. ... In economics, a capitalist is someone who owns capital, presumably within the economic system of capitalism. ...

Karl Marx defined class in terms of the extent to which an individual or social group has control over the means of production. In Marxist terms a class is a group of people defined by their relationship to the means of production. The prerequisite for classes is existence of sufficient surplus product. Marxists explain the history of "civilized" societies in terms of a war of classes between those who control production and those who produce the goods or services in society. In the Marxist view of capitalism, this is a conflict between capitalists (bourgeoisie) and wage-workers (the proletariat). For Marxists, class antagonism is rooted in the situation that control over social production necessarily entails control over the class which produces goods -- in capitalism this is the exploitation of workers by the bourgeosie. As commonly used, individual refers to a person or to any specific object in a collection. ... There is no agreed-upon definition of power in economics. ... Means of production (abbreviated MoP; German: Produktionsmittel), also called means of labour are the materials, tools and other instruments used by workers to make products. ... Means of production (abbreviated MoP; German: Produktionsmittel), also called means of labour are the materials, tools and other instruments used by workers to make products. ... Surplus product (German: Mehrprodukt) is a concept explicitly theorised by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy. ... Marxism is both the theory and the political practice (that is, the praxis) derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ... Class conflict is both the friction that accompanies social relationships between members or groups of different social classes and the underlying tensions or antagonisms which exist in society. ... For other uses, see Capitalism (disambiguation). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The term working class is used to denote a social class. ... The proletariat (from Latin proles, offspring) is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. ... Exploitation means many different things. ... Bourgeois at the end of the thirteenth century. ...

Marx himself argued that it was the goal of the proletariat itself to displace the capitalist system with socialism, changing the social relationships underpinning the class system and then developing into a future communist society in which: "..the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all." (Communist Manifesto). Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines or political movements that envisage a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to control by the community[1] for the purposes of increasing social and economic equality and cooperation. ... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... Malayalam editon of the Manifesto The Communist Manifesto, also known as The Manifesto of the Communist Party, first published on February 21, 1848 by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, is one of the worlds most historically influential political tracts. ...

Vladimir Lenin has defined classes as "large groups of people differing from each other by the place they occupy in a historically determined system of social production, by their relation (in most cases fixed and formulated in law) to the means of production, by their role in the social organisation of labour, and, consequently, by the dimensions of the share of social wealth of which they dispose and the mode of acquiring it." A Great Beginning Lenin redirects here. ...

Proletarianisation

The most important transformation of society for Marxists has been the massive and rapid growth of the proletariat in the world population during the last two hundred and fifty years. Starting with agricultural and domestic textile labourers in England and Flanders, more and more occupations only provide a living through wages or salaries.^{[citation needed]} Private enterprise or self-employment in a variety of occupations is no longer as viable as it once was, and so many people who once controlled their own labour-time are converted into proletarians.^{[citation needed]} Today groups which in the past subsisted on stipends or private wealth -- like doctors, academics or lawyers -- are now increasingly working as wage labourers.^{[citation needed]} Marxists call this process proletarianisation, and point to it as the major factor in the proletariat being the largest class in current societies in the rich countries of the "first world." However, only in the strongly social-democratic societies such as Sweden is there much long-term evidence of the weakening of the consequences of social class. Proletarianization is a concept in Marxism and Marxist sociology. ...

The increasing dissolution of the peasant-lord relationship (see pre-capitalist societies), initially in the commercially active and industrialising countries, and then in the unindustrialised countries as well, has virtually eliminated the class of peasants. Poor rural labourers still exist, but their current relationship with production is predominantly as landless wage labourers or rural proletarians. The destruction of the peasantry, and its conversion into a rural proletariat, is largely a result of the general proletarianisation of all work. This process is today largely complete, although it was arguably incomplete in the 1960s and 1970s. Pre-industrial society refers to specific social attributes and forms of political and cultural organization that were prevalent before the advent of the Industrial Revolution and the rise of Capitalism. ... In a detail of Brueghels Land of Cockaigne (1567) a soft-boiled egg has little feet to rush to the luxuriating peasant who catches drops of honey on his tongue, while roast pigs roam wild: in fact, hunger and harsh winters were realities for the average European in the...

Dialectics, or historical materialism, in Marxist class

Marx saw class categories as defined by continuing historical processes. Classes, in Marxism, are not static entities, but are regenerated daily through the productive process. Marxism views classes as human social relationships which change over time, with historical commonality created through shared productive processes. A 17th century farm labourer who worked for day wages shares a similar relationship to production as an average office worker of the 21st century. In this example, it is the shared structure of wage labour that makes both of these individuals "working class."

Objective and subjective factors in class in Marxism

Marxism has a rather heavily defined dialectic between objective factors (i.e., material conditions, the social structure) and subjective factors (i.e. the conscious organization of class members). While most Marxism analyses people's class based on objective factors (class structure), major Marxist trends have made greater use of subjective factors in understanding the history of the working class. E.P. Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class is a definitive example of this "subjective" Marxist trend. Thompson analyses the English working class as a group of people with shared material conditions coming to a positive self-consciousness of their social position. This feature of social class is commonly termed class consciousness in Marxism, a concept which became famous with Georg Lukacs's History and Class Consciousness (1923). It is seen as the process of a "class in itself" moving in the direction of a "class for itself," a collective agent that changes history rather than simply being a victim of the historical process. In Lukacs' words, the proletariat was the "subject-object of history", and the first class which could separate false consciousness (inherent to the bourgeois's consciousness), which reified economic laws as universal (whereas they are only a consequence of historic capitalism). Objectivity has various meanings in philosophy, and is surely one of the most important philosophical problems, since it concerns the epistemological status of knowledge, the problem of an objective reality and the question of our subjective relationship to other objects in the world. ... In philosophy, a subject is a being which has subjective experiences or a relationship with another entity (or object). A subject is an observer and an object is a thing observed. ... Edward Palmer Thompson (1924-1993) was a historian probably best known for his work The Making of the English Working Class, which included his reassessment of the Luddite movement. ... The Making of the English Working Class is an influential work of English social history, written by E. P. Thompson a notable a New Left historian; it was published in 1963 (revised 1968) by Victor Gollancz Ltd, and later republished at Pelican, becoming an early Open University Set Book. ... Class consciousness is a category of Marxist theory, referring to the self-awareness of a social class, its capacity to act in its own rational interests, or measuring the extent to which an individual is conscious of the historical tasks their class (or class allegiance) sets for them. ... Georg Lukács (April 13, 1885 - June 4, 1971) was a Hegelian and Marxist philosopher and literary critic. ... Subject (philosophy) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... In philosophy, an object is a thing, an entity, or a being. ... For the existentialist treatment of the same concept, see bad faith False consciousness is the Marxist thesis that material and institutional processes in capitalist society mislead the proletariat — and other classes — about the real relations of forces between those classes and of the actual states of affairs with respect to... Bourgeois at the end of the thirteenth century. ... Reification, also called hypostatization, is treating a concept, an abstraction, as if it were a real, concrete thing. ... For law within legal systems see law. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...

Max Weber

The seminal sociological interpretation of class was advanced by Max Weber. Weber formulated a three-component theory of stratification, with class, status and party (or politics) as subordinate to the ownership of the means of production, but for Weber how they interact is a contingent question and one that will vary from society to society. Weber is also known for his six "American Dream" Values which are: 1) Hard work, 2) Universalism, 3) Individualism, 4) Wealth, 5) Activism, and 6) Rationality. For the politician, see Max Weber (politician). ... Max Weber formulated a three-component theory of stratification, with social class, status class and party class (or politics) as conceptually distinct elements. ...

Corporate

Modern corporations have established a fairly regular hierarchy, which economists in capitalist nations may extend to delineate social class in the broader society. In direct opposition to the Marxist ideology outlined above, the capitalist ideal is not that the class structure will disappear into an egalitarian utopia. Capitalism holds as an ideal that the smartest and hardest working individuals will rise to the highest levels of the class structure and then use their exceptional skills to raise the standard of living for all classes. A corporation (usually known in the United Kingdom and Ireland as a company) is a legal entity (distinct from a natural person) that often has similar rights in law to those of a Civil law systems may refer to corporations as moral persons; they may also go by the name... For other uses, see Capitalism (disambiguation). ...

• At the top of the corporate structure are the shareholders, people who have either purchased or inherited a share of the corporation in the form of stocks. This group may be as small as a single owner or as large as the millions of stockholders in blue chip corporations. To the extent that directors and executives are answerable to shareholders, the corporate structure is sometimes compared to democracy. Obviously actual influence within the corporation is relative to the amount of stock owned. Those who can live off stock dividends without working for a wage themselves make up what Marx called the "capitalist class".
• The boards of directors are elected by shareholders, and are often members of high prestige in the corporation's sphere of influence. Chairman of the board has become a stock character in American art, symbolizing someone of the highest prestige who is uninvolved in day to day administration, similar to a head of state. In theory, directors are responsible for hiring, firing and overseeing the company executives, setting big picture goals and long range direction for the corporation, but are not active in daily work. In practice, executive officers often appoint directors of their choosing, undermining the boards interest in monitoring executive abuse. Moreover, the main function of the board, hiring and firing of the executive, is often undermined by golden parachute agreements, designed to make firing executives cost prohibitive for the corporation and shareholders, thus undermining the ability of the board to exercise its main function. Directors of a corporation may also be known as officers, holding titles such as president and vice-president.
• Executives are the highest ranking day-to-day leaders in a corporation, similar to a national head of government and ministers. In the typical model, executives are decision makers, and do not directly oversee routine activity. They correspond to the haute bourgeoisie of the Marxist model.
• Managers oversee workers directly and control operations "on the ground". They are typically salaried employees.
• Workers do the manual and service labor of a corporation. They are typically paid an hourly wage. These are the "proletariat" of Marx's model.
• In the capitalist view, where production and consumption are the levers of society, the lowest class are the unemployed. This term is usually used in an economic sense to mean those are not productive in the economy as workers but would like to be given the opportunity. The leisure class of major stockholders is not considered "unemployed" and is at the opposite end of the class spectrum. The unemployed may overlap with Marx's lumpenproletariat.

The above model apply in general to large corporations. In a small corporation, the major stockholder may officially be the company's president and may in fact function as both a chief executive officer and general manager, as well as assisting as a worker in daily duties. Also, there may be a wide range of subclasses within a corporate structure. "Supervisors" may regulate daily activity similar to the role of a manager, but without the ability to hire and fire or the access to company money given to a manager. For other uses, see stock (disambiguation). ... A blue chip stock is the stock of a well-established company having stable earnings and no extensive liabilities. ... A board of directors is a group of individuals chosen by the stockholders of a company to promote their interests through the goverance of the company. ... For the astrodynamics term, see sphere of influence (astrodynamics). ... The phrase Chairman of the Board has several meanings: Chairman of the Board is the term used to denote the leader of a corporations board of directors. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... For the comedy film of the same name, see Head of State (film). ... A golden parachute is a clause (or several) in an executives employment contract specifying that they will receive certain large benefits if their employment is terminated. ... Militaries are composed of two main types of personnel: enlisted men and women and officers. ... President is a title held by many leaders of organizations, companies, trade unions, universities, and countries. ... A vice president is an officer in government or business who is next in rank below a president. ... The head of government is the chief officer of the executive branch of a government, often presiding over a cabinet. ... A minister or a secretary is a politician who holds significant public office in a national or regional government. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Management (from Old French ménagement the art of conducting, directing, from Latin manu agere to lead by the hand) characterises the process of leading and directing all or part of an organization, often a business, through the deployment and manipulation of resources (human, financial, material, intellectual or intangible). ... In classical economics and all micro-economics labour is one of three factors of production, the others being land and capital. ... Unemployment rates in the United States. ... The lumpenproletariat (German Lumpenproletariat, rabble-proletariat; raggedy proletariat) is a term originally defined by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in The German Ideology (1845), their famous second joint work, and later expounded upon in future works by Marx. ... “Chief executive” redirects here. ... The term general manager is a descriptive term for certain executives in a business operation. ...

The relevance of social class today

There have been fierce debates in the area of sociology about whether or not social class has become relevant in terms of shaping identity. The arguments suggesting that it is no longer relevant are brought forward by supporters of postmodernism. One argument for class being unimportant follows: Postmodernism is a term applied to a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture, which are generally characterized as either emerging from, in reaction to, or superseding, modernism. ...

Arguments against relevance of class today

• Mode of consumption is much more important than actually earning the means of income (Clarke and Saunders, 1991).
• French sociologist Mattei Dogan has argued in his "From Social Class and Religious Identity to Status Incongruence in Post-Industrial Societies" (Comparative Sociology, 2004) that the relevance of social class has declined, giving way to a different form of social identification that is largely cultural and religious, and which raises identity conflicts called status incongruence. This can be observed in particular in the developing countries, but even in many post-industrial societies.

Arguments for relevance of class today

However, there has been a lot of criticism from other sociologists who claim that class still develops the individual's identity. Although a lot of arguments come from Marxism, there is still a lot of evidence that suggests that class still affects almost everyone. Some ideas from different sociologists follow: Marxism is both the theory and the political practice (that is, the praxis) derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

• Jordan suggested that those in poverty had the same attitudes on work and family as those in other classes, this being backed up with surveys expressing that the poor/working class/lower class feel almost shame about their position in society.
• MacIntosh and Mooney noted that there was still an upper-class which seems to isolate itself from other classes. It is almost impossible to get into the upper-class. They (upper-class) kept their activities (marriage, education, peer groups) as a closed system.
• Marshall et al noted that many manual class workers are still aware of many class issues. They believed in a possible conflict of interest, and saw themselves as working class. This counters the postmodern claims that it is consumption which defines an individual.
• Andrew Adonis and Stephen Pollard (1998) discovered a new super class, which consisted of elite professionals and managers, which held high salaries and share ownership.
• Chapman noted there was still an existence of a self-recruiting upper-class identity.
• Dennis Gilbert argues that class is bound to exist in any complex society as not all occupations are equal and that households do form pattern of interaction that give rise to social classes.

Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis (born c. ...

Academic models

Schools of sociology differ in how they conceptualise class. A distinction can be drawn between analytical concepts of social class, such as the Marxian and Weberian traditions, and the more empirical traditions such as socio-economic status approach, which notes the correlation of income, education and wealth with social outcomes without necessarily implying a particular theory of social structure. The Warnerian approach can be considered empirical in the sense that it is more descriptive than analytical. Sociology (from Latin: socius, companion; and the suffix -ology, the study of, from Greek λόγος, lógos, knowledge) is an academic and applied discipline that studies society and human social interaction. ... Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. ... Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. ... Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. ...

The traditional `pigeon-holing' mainstay of much of the advertising industry used to be that of social class. Recently, however, as affluence has become more widespread, the process has become much less clear. It is now argued that the new `opinion leaders' come from within the same social class. The class groupings that were traditionally used by advertising agencies (for example in the NRS social grade schema were: AB - Managerial and professional, C1 -Supervisory and clerical, C2- Skilled manual, DE-Unskilled manual and unemployed.) have been reported to be of decreasing value in recent decades, especially in the distinction between clerical workers and manual workers in education and disposable income. Whereas some four decades ago, when these groupings were first widely used, the numbers in each of the main categories (C, D and E) were reasonably well balanced, today the C group in total (although now usually split to give C1 and C2) forms such a large sector that it dominates the whole classification system and offers less in terms of usable concentration of marketing effort. [3] The NRS social grades are a system of demographic classification used in the United Kingdom. ...