"Britain is obsessed with class"
Your class can be defined by a number of factors: occupation, background, wealth, education and social connections, so it can be hard to categorise an individual into a specific category.
Our economic system, Capitalism, which emerged in the 18th Century is a structure whereby people produce goods, or services, for a profit. The three fundamentals for production are: land, capital and labour. The upper class own the land and have the capital and the working classes are the labour force. The middle class would manage the working class on behalf of the upper class.
The Two Ronnies Class Sketch |
Group | Description | NRS equivalent |
---|---|---|
1 | Higher professional and managerial workers | A |
2 | Lower managerial and professional workers | B |
3 | Intermediate occupations | C1 and C2 |
4 | Small Employers and non professional self-employed | C1 and C2 |
5 | Lower Supervisory and technical | C1 and C2 |
6 | Semi-Routine Occupations | D |
7 | Routine Occupations | D |
8 | Long-term unemployed | E |
Often, we link social classes different from ourselves as 'others'. Edward Said, a Palestinian–American literary theoretician, describes labelling something, or someone, as 'other' is, "the act of stressing the perceived weaknesses of outsiders as a way of reinforcing the alleged strength of those in positions of power”.
Which means, we label and judge others different from ourselves to reinforce what we know as 'normal'. (But, who are we to judge what is normal?)
However, are these labels still relevant? Do we need to label people? Or should there be another way of recognising the status of an individual?
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