CLASS & IDENTITY

CLASS & IDENTITY

1. FAMILY- SOCIAL IDENTITY

   • OSCAR LEWIS
     • 'CULTURE OF POVERTY'- a set of values are created for those at the margins of society to cope e.g immediate gratification as rewards are rare
   • BERNSTEIN
     • LINGUISTIC DEPRIVATION- Differences in how we learn language are based on class of the family
       • WORKING-CLASS: RESTRICTED CODE- disadvantaged in school where language is formal
         • MIDDLE-CLASS: ELABORATE CODE advantaged as they can switch between codes according to context
         • WORKING-CLASS are more likely to be linguistically deprived as parents are less likely to provide help and support with literacy and may have restricted code themselves
       • HOWEVER: LABOV
         • Black working-class boys from Harlem were able to express sophisticated ideas when using language they are comfortable with- thus only disadvantaged when forced to use the norm
   • HARALAMBOS & HOLBORN
     • Research shows that compared to working-class parents, middle-class parents emphasise high achievement and reward success

2. MASS MEDIA- SOCIAL IDENTITY

   • GRAMSCI
     • HEGEMONY- ability of the bourgeoisie impose their culture upon proletariat making them passive and accepting of capitalism
       • HOWEVER there are always pockets of resistance to ruling class hegemony- PUNK can be seen as expressing anger towards capitalism and mainstream culture
   • ADORNO- FRANKFURT SCHOOL
     • Mass media is a cultural industry created through mass economic production
   • MARXISM
     • Marxists would criticise advertising for creating false needs and aspirations in the working-class and encouraging mass consumption which increases ruling-class profits

3. SCHOOL- SOCIAL IDENTITY

   • HARKER
     • MATERIAL DEPRIVATION- links between poor-quality over-crowded housing and academic underachievement
       • >Increased amount of stress and mental illness in parents who less supportive >Disruption from moving houses >Less space to play impairing cognitive development >Less space to study so inability to meet deadlines >More days off school due to illness >Lead contamination can impair brain development
         • WORKING CLASS are more likely to be materially deprived due to lower income
   • BECKER
     • LABELLING THEORY: BIAS STEREOTYPES
       • Interviewed 60 teachers in a Chicago school and got them to describe characteristics of an ideal student: most emphasised appearance, attitude, conduct and punctuality before ability
         • Easier for MIDDLE-CLASS to match this ideal as similar values a transmitted through the family who are mor affluent
   • BOWLES AND GINTIS
     • CORRESPONDENCE PRINCIPLE- school mirrors the workplace, preparing new generations of proletariat for their future exploitation
       • Strict hierarchy with patterns of obedience and power
       • Same values, appropriate dress, punctuality and hard work
       • Extrinsic rewards- qualifications and pay rather than intrinsic satisfaction
       • Fragmentation and alienation
     • MYTH OF MERITOCRACY- illusion of social mobility, success isn't based on hard work or ability is based on absolute class
       • PREVENTS WORKING CLASS REBELLION
   • OLIVE BANKS
     • ABSOLUTE ASPIRATIONS- career aspirations based on absolute social class position (working-class)
     • RELATIVE ASPIRATIONS- career aspirations based on number of moves up the stratification system (middle-class)

4. PERSONAL IDENTITY

   • MORI POLL (2002)
     • 68% of British adults agreed with the statement 'At the end of the day I'm working class and proud' even though due to their socio-economic position they were not working-class
       • Suggests CLASS is still an important source of personal identity
   • HARRIET BRADLEY- POSTMODERN INDIVIDUALISM
     • Social class is becoming a less significant source (passive) although inequalities are recognised
     • For those who voted for LABOUR in the General Election 2015- class may be part of politicised identity as this is said to be the party for the working-class (strong class loyalty)
     • Middle-class members of the bourgeoisie will express their class identity as passive, or active if challenged by lower classes
   • LEISURE
     • PARKER
       • Working-class work for extrinsic rewards such as pay so they emphasise immediate gratification of leisure which gives them intrinsic satisfaction because this is rare e.g. visiting the pub
       • Middle-class professionals work for both extrinsic rewards and intrinsic satisfaction thus they can deter gratification of leisure
     • MASS CONSUMPTION of leisure commodities creates false needs in the working-class

5. Industrial job workforces such as mining focused on trade unions as awareness of their social identity in terms of shared class as well as to emphasise workforce needs which aren't being met, this threatened high petite-bourgeoisie management, although these are disappearing

6. SUBCULTURES

   • COHEN
     • Young working-class men formed deliquent anti-school subcultures subverting norms and values of school to gain higher status through deviant acts
       • JAMES PATRICK (NOT REAL NAME)
         • Covert participant observation of GLASWEGIAN GANG demonstrating COHEN'S ideas that delinquent subcultures perform deviant acts to gain higher status- disrupting a libary