CULTURE AND SOCIAL CLASS INAS BARSOUM 30 MARCH

CULTURE AND SOCIAL CLASS INAS BARSOUM 30 MARCH 2011

QUOTE “It is impossible to understand people's behavior. . . without the concept of social stratification, because class position has a pervasive influence on almost everything. . . the clothes we wear. . . the television shows we watch. . . the colors we paint our homes in and the names we give our pets. . . Our position in the social hierarchy affects our health, happiness, and even how long we will live. ”

SOCIAL CLASSES • Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. • In the modern Western context, the division consists of three layers: upper class, middle class, and lower class. • The most basic class distinction is between the powerful and the powerless

THE UPPER CLASS • The Upper Class in the United Kingdom consists of only the traditional aristocracy of noble families with hereditary titles which, since World War 2, the Upper middle class has echoed the upper class, • The Upper Middle Class consists of the rich and powerful members of the managerial and professional class usually socially economically graded as class A or class 1

• In the United States the upper class, also referred to simply as the rich, is often considered to consist of those with great influence and wealth. • In this respect the US differs from countries such as the UK where membership of the 'upper class' is also dependent on other factors. • The American upper class is estimated to constitute less than 29% of the population, while the remaining 71% of the population lies either within middle or working class.

• The main distinguishing feature of upper class is its ability to derive enormous incomes from wealth through techniques such as investment and money management, rather than simply engaging in wage-labor or salaried employment • Successful entrepreneurs, CEOs, politicians, investment bankers, some lawyers and top physicians, heirs to fortunes, stockbrokers as well as celebrities are considered members of this class

THE MIDDLE CLASS • The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. • The middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class.

• From an economic perspective, for example, members of the middle class do not necessarily fall in the middle of a society's income distribution. • Instead, middle class salaries tend to be determined by middle class occupations, which in turn are attained by means of middle class values. • Values ---- certain occupations ----- salaries ----- class • What are those values?

• In February 2009, The Economist announced that over half the world's population now belongs to the middle class, as a result of rapid growth in emerging countries. • It characterized the middle class as having a reasonable amount of income, so that they do not live from hand to mouth as the poor do, • and defined it as beginning at the point where people have roughly a third of their income left for other ways of spending after paying for basic food and shelter. • This allows people to buy consumer goods, improve their health care, and provide for their children's education. • Most of the emerging middle class consists of people who are middle-class by the standards of the developing world but not the rich one, since their money incomes do not match developed country levels. • By this definition, the number of middle class people in Asia exceeded that in the West sometime around 2007 or 2008

UPPER MIDDLE CLASS • The upper middle class is a sociological concept referring to the social group constituted by higher-status members of the middle class. • This is in contrast to the term lower middle class which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle class stratum and the regular middle class. • There is considerable debate as to how the upper middle class might be defined. • The upper middle class consists of well-educated professionals with graduate degrees and comfortable incomes.

• The American upper middle class is defined similarly using income, education and occupation as the predominant indicators. • In the United States, the upper middle class is defined as consisting mostly of white collar professionals who not only have above-average personal incomes and advanced educational degrees but also a higher degree of autonomy in their work

VALUES AND CLASS • Those encompassing the Upper Middle Class statistically espouse high regard for higher education, striving for themselves and their children to obtain undergraduate and graduate degrees.

NOUVEAU RICHE • Nouveau riche (French for "new rich"), or new money, refers to a person who has acquired considerable wealth within his or her generation. • This term is generally to emphasize that the individual was previously part of a lower socioeconomic rank, and that such wealth has provided the means for the acquisition of goods or luxuries that were previously unobtainable. • The term can also be used in a derogatory fashion, for the purposes of social class distinction, to describe persons with newfound wealth as vulgar—lacking the experience or finesse to use wealth in the same manner as old money—persons from families who have been wealthy for multiple generations.

SOCIAL STATUS • Social status = the position or rank of a person or group within the society, • Social Status can be determined two ways. • One can earn their social status by their own achievements, which is known as achieved status. • Alternatively, one can be placed in the stratification system by their inherited position, which is called ascribed status.

ASCRIBED STATUSES • Ascribed statuses can also be defined as those that are fixed for an individual at birth. • Ascribed statuses that exist in all societies include those based upon sex, age, race ethnic group and family background. • For example, a person born into a wealthy family characterized by traits such as popularity, talents and high values will have many expectations growing up. • Therefore, they are given and taught many social roles as they are socially positioned into a family becoming equipped with all these traits and characteristics.

ACHIEVED STATUSES • Achieved status is a sociological term denoting a social position that a person can acquire on the basis of merit; it is a position that is earned or chosen. It is the opposite of ascribed status. • It reflects personal skills, abilities, and efforts. • Examples of achieved status are being an Olympic athlete, being a criminal (low status), or being a college professor.

STATUS • Status is important sociologically because it comes with a set of rights, obligations, behaviors, and duties that people occupying a certain position are expected or encouraged to perform. These expectations are referred to as roles. • For instance, the role of a "professor" includes teaching students, answering their questions, being impartial, and dressing appropriately!!!

OVERCLASS • Overclass is a recent term = the most powerful group in a social hierarchy. • The term generally implies excessive and unjust privilege and exploitation of the rest of society. • Perhaps the most commonly agreed-upon "overclass" consists of leaders in international business, finance and the defense industry!

UNDERCLASS • The underclass is not simply the poor as defined by their income. • Underclass are permanently Poor!!! • But they must have the behavior of a deviant or antisocial outlook on life. • This group is classified into the following categories: • the passive poor, usually long term welfare recipients; • the hostile street criminal, drop-outs and drug addicts; • the traumatized drunks, homeless, and released mental patients.