Social Class Polarization

Improved Essays
Social class is a social construction, that is to say developed by society rather than a natural phenomenon, which draws distinction between people based off of economic standing (though Bourdieu suggests that it also takes into account Cultural and Social capital (i.e. the people you know and the cultures you are influenced by/take part in), within contemporary society it is apparent that individuals have different life chances, that is to say the ability to improve one’s own life, possibly to the extent of being socially mobile (i.e. moving between classes) due to hard-work and their abilities.
Karl Marx (founder of the Marxist perspective) assessed society as being based off the divisions between two classes, the Bourgeoisie (equivalent
…show more content…
dominated/controlled by

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Mccarthyism Vs Marxism

    • 1333 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In the Communist Manifesto Marx explained the historical class struggles that each society has come across since the beginning of time. Class resemblances are usually, the oppressor and the oppressed on opposite sides and classes with various orders of complicated arrangements (p.15). Marx’s believed that his society has not left the class antagonism from earlier times such as the Ancient Roman’s, however, enforced new classes with new conditions and struggles for the oppressed individuals, in place of the old policies (p.15). In Communist Manifesto Marx noted the two classes of his society were the bourgeoisie and proletariats (p.16). Quite simply, the bourgeoisie were the capitalists who were the enforcers and owners of the properties in…

    • 1333 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What are Janny Scott David Leonhardt trying to tell us about social class in “The Shadowy Lines That Still Divide”? In the article “The Shadowy Lines That Still Divide” by Janny Scott and David Leonhard, that author discuss how people feel about social class and why they has to go through to get what they want in life. That author shows how each people express them self for not having that same rights like others people have, only because they are in a higher-class level and they are not. The majority of the time and even in this day social class has been a big matter for much of the people in the United Stated or others countries.…

    • 835 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    What is a social class? Social class is a division of a society based on social and economic status. Anyone can promptly observe that there are significant fluctuations in wealth, materialistic dominion, power, influence, and stature in our American society. Our society itself is a network of various social divisions. The society may be formed by a class group.…

    • 1535 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Social classes are a group of people of a similar status that share the same factors. The United States is divided into upper, middle, lower, working class, and poverty. I do feel like your social class can affect healthcare. It affects healthcare because depending on what class you are in you may be unable to pay for insurance because it's too high. The upper class can afford insurance because they are financially better off.…

    • 231 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Coming from my position in life, I often find challenge in analyzing, interpreting, and discussing social class. It weighs on me that I likely bring unfair biases and predispositions to this topic. I am a white, American, educated, athletic male from a family with both parents still together and without many financial troubles. Aside from perhaps a degree from a prestigious University or boat loads of cash, I do not think that I could be more privileged. Although my privilege might sway my ideas on the matter of social class, I am working to remove these biases in order to truly recognize the ways in which the social construct of social class influences the individuals, communities, and institutions that I come in contact with in everyday life.…

    • 1146 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Social class still matters to America Social class refers to divisions in society based on the money you make, the economy and social status. People who in the same social class typically have the same level of wealth, education, achievement, type of job and income. The American is an open society and social class is still a matter to American today. Social class matters in almost every type of social situation today because it defines who you are in life, how other people treat you, and it also determines whom you hang out with, which school you go to, the type of health condition you are in, and the type of environment you are growing up in. Overall, social class is everything about you.…

    • 1278 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Fussell put in perspective that society needs to realize that we all have a place where we belong and for me Fussell made me realize that I am a part of the poor class which is awful, but on the bright side I agree that humans reveal their class just by the way they behave for instance, Studs Terkel interviewed a woman and in this midst of the interview he poses the question, “what are your thoughts about social classes in the country” (Fussell, pg. 16) you can tell she had angered about the topic being brought up because she mentions that they should dismiss the term “social class”. All of these terms and how they are defined in the book is how people associate the term. Max Weber actual defined class as the meaning to “the amount of money you have” and “status being the social prestige in relation to your audience” this means that depending on who you are as an individual we all hold a type of rank. The last term being defined is party and that means the measurement of the level of power you have.…

    • 1037 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Socioeconomic status is an economic and sociological combined measure of an individual’s work experience and of a person or family 's economic and social position, based on income, education, and occupation. Many people are affected because the class they are considered as, it’s a huge cultural lag between the low and high class families. The three classes we categorize people in are the low class, medium class, and high class living. To begin, I am going to start with our low class living individuals, living in this class comes with a lot of major downsides. Education in and out of school for these kids can be very bad and scary for other people.…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Some have the experience and childhood where things were given to them with a silver spoon, but there are also others who have to fight for everything they have and in most cases it’s their life. It is clear to understand that nature of class privileges, and society. According to the article, Gregory defined the phrase “social class” on how it represents people in the world. He states, “workers are most likely to identity with their to identity with their employer, industry, or occupational group than with other workers, or with the working class” (Mantsios, 26). Gregory makes us to understand that employees mostly identify themselves under certain classes that describes where they fall under that class society.…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    One of the first theorist was Karl Marx he believed that society was broke up into two types of classes, the rich and the poor. The bourgeoisie aka the rich where the ones who owned the production and the proletariat aka the poor where the ones working for them. Marx view of the economy divided into two classes still stands true today. For example when someone in the higher class commit’s a crime and they bribe the government they are considered to be good business men. But when a drug dealer sells product to his customers he’s considered a…

    • 1645 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Social theorists, writers and philosophers of almost every time period have examined the convoluted relationship between social relations and individuals including Karl Marx and Georg Simmel. While some have taken the approach that individuals are shaped by their social world, others insist that the social world itself is what shapes individuals. There are a few theories that exist with regards to the connection between individuals and society which will be discussed throughout this short essay in order to fully explain the relationship between individuals and society. Starting off with the conflict theory by Karl Marx, he was primarily focused on the structures of society. The conflict theory is one of the fundamental ideologies that explains social life as a battle between social groups for power and scarce resources.…

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    English philosopher, political economist, and liberal John Stuart Mill published one of his most famous works in 1859: On Liberty. Mill explores the innate and given liberties of people, analyzing what is the extent in which society or government has valid reasons to exercise power over its people. He argues that the individual should not be under the jurisdiction of society or government if their actions are not harming anyone but themselves. The only time society or government should involve themselves and exert power over citizens is if the actions of the individual are harming others within the society.…

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1. Karl Marx explains social inequalities through a society being stratified along economic lines and social class being defined solely on economic position. According to Marx, a person’s economic position is their relationship to means of production, which defines social class. Based on an industrial society, he defined social class by two classes; the capitalist class (Bourgeoisie) and the working class (Proletariat). Marx felt strongly against capitalism and believed that everyone should have a communistic society, which would have no surpluses so only what is needed by the people would be produced.…

    • 1248 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Marxism in The Hunger Games If there is any perfect representation of Marxism in film it is in The Hunger Games. For this case study, I will be focusing on the first movie of the trilogy. This paper will overview the way Marxism is shown in The Hunger Games using a few examples from the movie. In this paper, I argue that The Hunger Games’ plot line has Marxism theories extremely exposed and almost blatantly exposed. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels developed Marxism in the early 1900s.…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Social stratification is everywhere, even in different forms of societies, such as capitalist, communist or mixed. Social stratification can be understood as a system that a society ranks categories of people in hierarchy. A person social class in based on births and achievements in life and an individual position within class structure shows social status. Social stratification is a society that ranks people and Marx and Weber both have different ways of how they view social stratification. This essay will look at both Marx view of social stratification which is bourgeoisie and proletariat and Weber view of social stratification which is class, standë/status, and party/power.…

    • 1667 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays