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Social Class Analysis Essay

Decent Essays

The neo-Weberian class analysis explains the interconnections defined by the employment relations in labour and production markets, and the processes through which individuals are placed among these social locations over time, and how their life chances result in their class position. According to Gidden (1973, 130-1) life chances can be explained as “the chances an individual has for sharing in the social created economic or cultural ‘goods’ that typically exist in any given society,’ or more simply, the chances of gaining access to scarce and valued outcomes that an individual has. Through this explanation it becomes clear of an advantage that neo-Weberian approach holds. By taking life chances into consideration it allows for a deeper understanding of how outside influences and social aspects affect your position in labour markets. However in contrast to this, given the apparently enormous diversity in labour markets, and a large scope given the …show more content…

Furthermore he says that members of the dominant class have unitary lifestyles which arise through a “sense of distinction”, expressed through for example their pursuit of luxury goods, where as the working class has a “taste for necessity”, so the working class exhibits an aspiration of the dominant class on one hand but the lack of economic or cultural capital to attain it. Due to the fact that there is constant competition between classes over the most significant objects or practices, Bourdieu’s importance of lifestyle, and choices is backed with the idea that consumption is the primary arena of social collectivities, and he argues that “different preferences and practices cluster in different sectors of social space” (2005, 93) which highlights that lifestyles are continuously caught up in social struggles, between

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