Sociological approaches to analyzing social class structure and conflict

Social Class

How Sociologists Analyze Social Classes

Analyzing peoples' social class is a complex thing that many sociologists consider. The analysis won't just entail the recognition of one's living status in the society, or one's professional degree or background in the workforce. Analysis of social class needs to consider different factors and compare them in a group or collective method. Among such factors include the demography of the different classes, their psychological characteristics, their interaction, their culture, and many others. These components serve special purposes in analyzing and identifying social classes and structure.

Smesler, in his article Sociological Approaches, used five basic approaches in analyzing social classes. These basic approaches are the following.

Demography

Psychology

Collective Approach

Interaction

The Middle Class

The middle class is the group of people who are neither rich nor poor. They sometimes follow the likings of the aristocracy and sometimes lead the working class. Like the aristocratic class, some of the middle class men own businesses. Hence, the economy and industries of the states of the past depend on the aristocratic and middle classes.

The Working Class

This type of class includes people who does not own any business. Instead, they work for others to earn their living.

From this example of how history defines the social classes, sociologists view and analyze them as dividing factors of society. if, from the past, these factors are acceptable to society, it is starting to diminish nowadays especially when information technology started to emerge. If social classes are to be discussed nowadays, the composition of what really defines a particular social class would need enough reasons for it to be considered by the society. According to an online article from the University College of London,

Social class is one of the most hotly contested categories in the study of society.

The rejection of the society to social classes, as some sociologists have found from their researches and studies, has originated from the equality of rights that is stated in many nations' law. This rejection is indicated in the online article on a New Philosophy: That Poverty is the Best Policy.

IT is commonly asserted that there are in the United States no classes, and any allusion to classes is resented. On the other hand, we constantly read and hear discussions of social topics in which the existence of social classes is assumed as a simple fact. "The poor," "the weak," "the laborers," are expressions which are used as if they had exact and well- understood definition.

Karl Marx, a famous philosopher and sociologist, studied social classes as part of the human society. According to him, social classes is a form of social inequality that caused problems and differences between people of different social status. He defined social classes as a creator of gauging the living status of an individual. From International Socialist Group Online, it was indicated that Classes emerge at a distinct point in the evolution of human society on a particular economic foundation. The social inequality which leads to the formation of social classes is accompanied by social struggle and the division of society is maintained or overthrown by struggle between social classes.

Marx further suggests that social classes affect the role that an individual plays in his nation. This is apparent by how most of poor people only works in jobs that are categorized as blue and Pink collars. On the other hand, as what we can see in some area in the workforce, there are no rich people who work as blue and pink-collar employees. Most of them are holding high positions in a company, or what the workforce terms as "white-collar" job.

The emergence of social classes is a transition from capitalism to socialism, according to Marx (Bottomore, 1991). In similar view, while socialist rules a nation, they can also capitalize on anything that they want. For instance, they can rule the economy and industry of a nation. The emphasis on social classes by the society presents hindrances to the progress of the society.

Wright Mills, another sociologist who tackled a subject on social classes, as indicated in Rachael Thomas' review of his the Power Elite, studied a particular class in society - those who are in the higher level of society. Mills calls the higher class as the "Power Elite." They are those have possessions and whom people always wish to be a part of. Thomas restated Mills' view of Power Elite as the elite are in a social class all their own. Many have tried to penetrate that circle without success. You are either in or you are out..."

Another point-of-view on the higher class, as taken from the Internet World article, was indicated by Thomas, stating that members of society who, by virtue of wealth or important leadership position, exercise power in society" (1997). These are a higher circle of people that can realize much, much more than the masses. These are the ones with money, power, and prestige. These are the ones that belong to the economic, political, and military order - the three domains."

No matter how sociologists view the social classes, there is one common definition that they seem to deliver. That is, social classes divide our society. It is usually a source of unwanted undertakings that many people struggle to overcome.