Class+in+Australia-Briana

Summary: **__ Class in Australia __** Bases his ideas of class on ownership. Conflict between bourgeois (owners) and proletariats (workers). Proletariats were exploited by the bourgeois due to economic forces within the capitalist society. Power was in the hands of the owners who employed the workers. Marx believed that the proletariats should rise up and take responsibility of the working conditions. The rise of trade organisations was the response to the exploitation of the proletariat. Wanted the proletariats to overturn the bourgeois through the revolutionary transition to socialism. Defined class according to a person’s market capacity (ownership of property and economic resources as well as the skills and expertise that might be used to help enhance a person’s life chances). Social differentiation:  1. Status- collective evaluations of differentiation drawn on the basis of social rather than economic criteria-thus religious, ethnic or racial differences may generate interests and alliances independently of a person’s market capacity  2. Formation of parties of interest groups- organised rationally to pursue particular goals, typically associated with the exercise of power within government and the political process “What often isn’t recognised is that class is the chief organising principle of modern capitalist societies, the mechanism by which power, privilege and inequality are distributed and institutionalised...class is also an immense force for social control. It is the key to who has power over who in Australian society, the way in which small and extraordinary powerful elite runs the nation, and its institutions, and the great mass of Australians for its own benefit.” It is important when analysing theories of class to also examine the determinants of class in order to analyse the effects of class on its members, especially within the context of equality of opportunity and outcome. Determinants of class:  ·  Relationship to the means of production That all Australians who sell their labour to employers are obligated to them in some way since their employers determine their wages, salaries etc. In modern society, problems arise for people who identify with middle class with this when referring to Marxism as it does not consider other factors such as education, income etc.  ·  Occupation According to McGregor, the class groups in Australia are: UPPER CLASS- owners, employer groups, large landholders, financier, entrepreneurs, self-employed people, managers and professionals MIDDLE CLASS- white collar workers, clerks, sales people, teachers, bank tellers, affluent tradespeople WORKING CLASS- blue collar workers, labourers, bush workers, factory hands, manual workers  ·  Power Marxist: those who wield the power are the ones who tell others what to do and what to produce with their capital. Post modern society other factors need to be looked at in determining power which in turn might characterise class membership-decision making and influence over decision making, control and authority over others within a job. Corporate Australia is seeing many changes in the possible formation of new classes, due to middle management and involvement in power despite lack of ownership of capital, information control, technology knowledge etc. Amount of power that one has being linked to the class of which a person is a member has not changed over time- e.g. it is safe to say that someone in the working class has less power in their job, power over others, power to control their life choices is less than someone in the upper class.  ·  Money/ Family Background Wealth as a social determinant of class: a person’s achievement or ascribed wealth in determining social class. Inherited wealth: ascribed to upper class as with generations before and after them. McGregor: “Money doesn’t make someone better than anyone else, it merely makes them better off...a very small minority 10% of the population owns most (60%) of the wealth”-reference to achieved wealth. Money does not denote class alone. Many other factors contribute also. Family background generally decides class position merely through inheritance.  ·  Education Opportunity and outcome. Education is regarded as a tool for social mobility. Generally seen that someone who attends a selective or private school will certainly have equality of opportunity to succeed, enter a good university and then an upper class occupation: //Equality of outcome//. Educational expectations attached to various classes: Middle class values espouse higher expectations of educational goals in their children than lower classes. These expectations help children to seize the opportunities to achieve the outcome that are expected of them. The cycle of poverty might lock a child into lower expectations and therefore act as a barrier contributing to social inequality.  ·  Culture Linked to people’s class identity more than actually being a boundary of class. McGregor- “lifestyle is very much associated with class and it is important to take account of the social reality which is perceived by the people...comprise the membership of different class groups and are forced to deal with the experience of living in a class society. Class has to do with lived experience of people, their encounters with hostility and deference and snobbery ad exploitation. People often react more strongly and directly to the images of class distinction, as expressed in, for example a terrible affected accent, or a propensity for swearing, or of behaving...then they react to the solid and measurable indices of inequality between the classes. There is a world of indifference between a snob and a slob, a yuppie and a yobbo. These are basically class terms.”  ·  Gender/ Ethnicity McGregor- “There are some distinctive patterns to be discerned in women’s class placement.” –even though women should be treated as individuals when ascertaining social class. “Most women share the same class position as their partners- though more and more women attain position based on their own individual skills, income”. “Women are more subject to downward pressure than men in the class hierarchy because of their historic subordination in a patriarchal society and the sexism which they encounter. Women may not form a separate class, but they suffer invidious and not so hidden penalties of class within the general class system” First generation migrants have predominantly occupied the working and middle class. Ethnicity and gender are definitely linked to disadvantage in terms of social class. QUESTIONS:::::::::::  1. What argument is being made regarding inequality?
 * Marx: **
 * Weber: **
 * Craig McGregor: **

That equality is based on class and thus heirachies evident within society, which, according to McGregor, is based on a person's market capacity.

 2. What evidence is presented to support the argument?

Theories by Karl Marx and Weber and also of McGregor and many quotes by him.

 3. Of what use is this article for a society and culture student?

This article is useful for a society and culture student as: 1. it includes theories by Marx and Weber and also by McGregor. 2. It can be used to back up arguments made about class division, and also used to argue against-thus a more in depth insight.

 4. What criticisms would I make of this article? E.g. bias of author, what is left out, language used, strength of argument.

A criticism can be made that it is very generalised and steroetyped, although many theorists have been incorporated throughout.