Some cultural differences between social classes.
Objective and Subjective definitions of class.
Social class refers to a group of people with similar levels of wealth, influence, and status. .
The person responsible for devising the social class scheme was T H C Stevenson, a medical statistician in the General Register Office. His 1913 classification mixed occupational and industrial groups. Stevenson conceived society as divided into three basic social classes - the upper, middle and working classes.
1. The Working Class.
There were two historical processes that led to the emergence of the traditional working class were industrialization and urbanization, which resulted in masses of individuals living in cities and doing manual work. Traditional working class jobs included heavy labouring and factory based work.
In traditional working class jobs, the majority of manual workers who actually 'did the real manual work' were controlled, or managed by a much smaller number of supervisors, who did not 'get their hands dirty', spent most of their time in offices, not on the factory floor, and were visually distinct, wearing suits rather than work clothes, and yet were paid more. The primary aim of the supervisors was to manage the workers on behalf of the Bourgeoisie; all of this created the conditions for an 'us and them mentality'. Workers tended to be organized into Trades Unions which represented workers' interests, which were seen as being threatened by management. .
Part of this shared identity was Political alignment - Many workers saw the Labour party as representing their interests. At general elections until the 1970s, the Labour party could rely on the support of 80% the traditional working classes. Trade Union support also reinforced the relationship between the traditional working classes and Labour. Nowadays, the working class includes those people who engage in "manual labor" with little or no prestige.