School of Education Social Science Resources

Introduction to Social Class

Social class is a very important topic to understand, as it is very important to the lives of most people in society. It is often difficult to tell which class a person is in, as this can be measured in a number of different ways.

There are two major definitions of class, these are called objective and subjective definitions.

-Objective definitions of class focus on things that can be measured about a person's life, such as their occupation (job).

-Subjective definitions of class focus on things that can not be measured, such as the social class that a person thinks they are in. For example, a person with a lot of money may still consider themselves working class. They may live in a working class area and have working class friends. In other words the class that a person thinks they are in, is likely to affect the way they act.

The most commonly used system for measuring social class is the Registrar General's classification. The Registrar General's system groups all jobs into five different categories, these are:-

Class I-

Including lawyers, architects and doctors

Class II-

Including shopkeepers, farmers and teachers

Class III-

i) non-manual, including shop assistants and clerical workers in offices
ii) manual, including electricians and miners

Class IV-

Including bus conductors and farm workers

Class V-

Including labourers on building sites

There are serious drawbacks to this system. Firstly, it ignores the class a person may think they belong to. While secondly, it does not take into account the fact that some people who are in class five due to their job, may actually have a lot of money e.g. They may have won the lottery or inherited money from their relatives.

This worksheet was posted by Beth Hulme, PGCE Social Science group 1999 - 2000.

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