Concept Of Class

In Australia class is divided, at a very high level, into the upper, middle and working classes. Although the boundaries of these classes are not clearly defined and can overlap, each class has characteristics which are typical of that class. These include differences in capital and material possessions, and differences in general attitudes and values. .
             I shall examine the concept of class by examining the relevance of a persons occupation to their social class classification. The structural-functionalist view of stratification argues that to keep society running smoothly, the most talented people must perform the most important occupations. To attract the talented people to the valued occupations, they must therefore hold higher rewards such as a larger amount of prestige, greater pay, and more social privleges. (Newman p.320) The value of an occupation is usually in correlation with how much education and intellectual ability is required. The difference in income between the different occupations is the basis of determining a persons social class.
             The upper class consists of the wealthiest five to ten percent of the population. The wealthiest people are generally those who own the largest companies, and the type of occupation that people within this class would have would be the high-level manager positions in these large corporations. (Haralambos p52). These people are often also on the board of directors of very large corporations. .
             The occupations of the people in the middle class are largely varied, but are basically occupations which require intellectual thought, and are therefore non-manual jobs. Marx divided capitalist society into two classes, however the middle class does not fit into his model. The middle class has considerably grown since the beginning of the capitalist society, and this has been used as a point against Marxs theory. However Marx did acknowledge a class called the "petty bourgeoisie" which included people such as shopkeepers and small businessmen, but he did not try to explain the existence of this class in his theories.