Introduction to Stratification
Introduction to Stratification
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Class and Culture and Identity: Introduction
Class and Culture and Identity Introduction/18/3/98/P.Covington/
While there are exceptions, it is possible to relate culture and taste to social class. Gans, 1974
No doubt that many of the old barriers of class should be broken down. However, at present the older, narrower but also more genuine class culture is being eroded
in favour of mass opinion. Hoggart, 1958
I started there in 1947 that is when I shared the platform with Arthur Horner…. The Durham’s Miner’s Gala is a fine occasion today, taking place as it does in that
beautiful city; but in those days it was absolutely sensational. There were so many lodges, you see, and they had to start bringing them in at half past eight in the
morning. The whole city absolutely throbbed with the thing from early in the morning, right through until you left. And you left ab solutely drunk with it…the music, the
banners, and all in that beautiful city. It overwhelmed you really. In those days it was, far and away, the best working class festival that there was in this country. Far
and away the best. It was just marvellous. Michael Foot, 1992
Presumably most groups gain some of their strength from their exclusiveness, from a sense of people outside, who are not ‘us’. How does this express itself in
working class people? I have emphasised the strength of home and neighbourhood, an d have suggested that this strength arises partly from a feeling that the world
outside is strange and often unhelpful, that it has the most of the counters stacked on its side, that to meet it on its own terms is difficult. One may call this, making
use of a word commonly used by the working class the world of ‘them’.
They are the people at the top, the ‘higher ups’, the people who give you dole, tell you to go to war, fine you, made this split the family in the thirties to avoid a
reduction in the Means Test Allowance, ‘get yer in the end’, ‘aren’t really to be trusted’, talk ‘posh’, are all twisters really. Hoggart,
Introduction: Class and Culture
Twenty years ago, the American sociologist Herbert Gans argued that while there were always exceptions it was
possible to relate culture and taste to social class. He pointed out (rather stereotypically) that most people from the
upper socio-economic groups liked classical music and most people from lower socio-economic groups did not.
Drawing the same kind of distinction between the culture of social classes today is more problematic. First the mass
media have now created the ‘high culture’ of cultural elites much more accessible to a wider audience, so it is no
longer an intellectual minority who enjoy opera. Secondly, the relationship between culture and social class appears
to vary widely around the world. Samba for example, is regarded as music of the young working class within Brazil,
while heavy rock is popular amongst the young, wealthy, and privileged strata of Brazilian society. Yet in Europe and
North America, samba music is considered as an exotic form of world music popular with the educated elite’s. Thirdly,
and perhaps more significantly for sociology the debates over the changing nature of the class structure make the very
concept of a ‘class culture’ problematic.
There are several ways of defining the differences between social classes in sociology. However, even here there is
disagreement amongst sociologists. What do we mean by ‘working class’ or ‘middle-class culture’? Yet, in our daily
lives we do still recognise cultural signals - in terms of language, fashion, shopping, and even TV viewing - which tell us
about the class background of the people we meet.
Most people would agree that few societies are equal. The study of social stratification is of central concern to
sociologists because modern societies display such a wide range of inequalities. These inequalities between rich and
poor, between social classes, between men and women, and black and white. Inequalities exist in a wide range of
areas of social life, such as job security, leisure opportunities, health, housing, income, and the power to influence
events in society.
What is Stratification?
The word stratification comes from strata or (layers), as in the way different rock are piled on top of one another to
form rock strata. Social Stratification refers to the divisions of society into a pattern of layers or strata made up of a
hierarchy of social groups. Beteille notes social inequalities have existed even among small tribes.
These stand in relation to advantage and disadvantage to one another in terms of features such as income, wealth
occupation, race or sex, depending upon the stratification system. Those at the top of the stratification hierarchy will
generally have more power than those at the bottom.
Sociologists argue that some form of social stratification occurs in every society in the world, despite the fact that
people have always dreamt of a society where everyone is equal. All societies appear to distinguish between people and
become more or less important that others.
Exercise One
