Question:What class were you according to the Great British Class Survey? Did you agree with the result? Why/why not? connect sociological ideas and concepts.
Use the reading in the attach file and another book
The great British class survey was about the social stratification and establishing a de facto rule for understanding the class configuration. The term stratification is basically a borrowed term taken from geological science but in geology it refers to the various layers or strata of layers of rock whereas in sociology it refers to layers of social groups.
The purpose of social stratification is to make sure the surveys are related however different the social groups are. It’s a relative study of different social strata and to understand how inequalities come up for study in the first place and these are carried out over a period of time and also how these stratification effects various aspects of life (Israel, 1971).
According to great British class survey there are seven classes in Britain. They are
- Elites which comprise of people who have very high amount of all three capitals and these sets them apart from the rest.
- The established class comes next which has again three high capital sets relatively lower than elite but are engaging in cultural activities.
- The technical middle class comes next which has high capital but less cultural and even lesser social engagement.
- Affluent new workers have medium capital asset but have high cultural engagement and comprise of mostly young and active members
- Emerging service workers comes next who are young dwelling in urban areas and have low economic capital but have high social engagements
- Traditional working class comes next who scores less in all forms of capitals and although they are not amongst the poorest but logically they comprise the most of older people
- The last of the social class is precariat who are most deprived with precarious live scale and have very low levels of economic social and cultural assets.
Disagree with data
As far the survey classification is concerned I agree with the terms given and how they are assessed but I still believe there is lot more than what the survey projects (Merton, 1973).
Most of the time it takes time and effort to get a correct picture of one’s lifestyle and habits and hence when the survey is just a sampling of the majority staying in England, very less from Scotland and yet even less from Wales and Northern Ireland.
The survey is not a true picture of what the actual engagements are. Out of the total 161,458 people surveyed most of the sample comprised of whites which again gives a false idea of what happens to rest of coloured people database.
Error in sampling method
The error lies in the fact that the survey is random and based on simple random samplingwhereas to find proper data one has to involve stratified sampling where samples are taken from sub groups which reduce error or systematic sampling where practical approach is taken for simple random and stratified sampling. Even complex designs like multistage sampling are involved where selected clusters are taken into consideration.
I believe I belong to emerging social worker strata as I have high social engagements, not very effluent and young as well.
References:
- Merton, R. K. (1973). The sociology of science: Theoretical and empirical investigations. University of Chicago press.
- Burt, R. S. (2001). Structural holes versus network closure as social capital.Social capital: Theory and research, 31-56.
- Smith, D. E. (1990). The conceptual practices of power: A feminist sociology of knowledge. University of Toronto Press.
- Israel, J. (1971). Alienation: from Marx to modern sociology: a macrosociological analysis. Allyn and Bacon.
