How do you define social class in Britain? What social/economic/cultural factors define classes today?

I'm not sure what class I am. My mum and dad were both care workers but they both went to college when I was younger and now dad is a nurse and mum is a child speech therapist. We live in a flat in Harlesden, London and I have two siblings. Would say my parents both had working class upbringings, but are my family now middle class? In GCSE media last year we did social grade classifications (ABC1C2DE) and the teacher said that both my parents had C2 jobs. Is that lower middle or working?

Original post by Drunk Punx

No it doesn't, and anyone suggesting that it does is an idiot.

Underclass - don't work.
Working class - work
Middle class - "professions" (though I've debated the meaning of the word several times with users on here, I believe that the socially held distinction between working and middle is whether the job you have is considered a profession or a job).
Upper class - pretty much the underclass but with more money, usually inherited. Their definition of "work" is different to what a working class person would consider work, unless they're down to earth instead of living in a bubble of course.

I think lower class = underclass + working class.
I don't think the underclass = doesn't work. Having a lower class job can be considered chavvy, and a few mates of mine literally don't work and just live off their parents. I think the underclass is DDD jobs. Working Class is pretty much anything that isn't an office job. If it requires you to do something manual, then it's working class for sure.

Middle Class is basically professional and office jobs, except for maybe certain jobs like call centre workers.

Upper Class is pretty much those who never have to work. They often get by on life with social connections and they may have connections to the royal family.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 68

liberalfire

I think this is closer.
Lower Class
Underclass: Chavs. DDD jobs. Not necessarily living on benefits, but more doing nothing about it. (I can imagine there are situations where government assistance is genuinely needed).
Working Class: Labour. Manual jobs such as plumbing. Involving being actively fit for a non-sports occupation. Blue collar CDE. (East London)

Middle Class: Liberal/Conservative. Office jobs, professional jobs or housecarer. University educated or housecarer. White collar ABC. (West London)
Upper Class: Conservative. Connections to Royal Family. Often gets by on social connections. Can live off established estate. (South London)

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 69

JamesN88

Original post by cookie123456789

Want to join the TSR Bullingdon club?

No, to put it bluntly.

But thanks for the invite. :smile:

Reply 70

cookie123456789

Original post by Reeeeyah

I can't, I have a vagina.

Lol I am a girl too. This Bullingdon club is open to both males and females.
To join you have to be:
at least half posh
be a bit of a legend
have money
have a good character

You can join the club here: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4177272&p=65957446#post65957446

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 71

JamesN88

Tradesman may be viewed as working class but a lot of them are raking in a much as white collar professionals, self-employed builders especially.

Being an out of hours plumber is a license to print money.

Reply 72

JamesN88

In my view there's 3 groups of people.

Scroungers who's sole aim in life is to milk as much out of the state as possible(I don't include genuinely disabled people or genuine Jobseekers in this).

People who have to work for a living(or homemakers) or are retired from working.

People who inherit boat loads of money and/or have millionaire parents who subsidise their extravagances.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 73

cookie123456789

You can join TSR Bullingdon club here: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4177272&p=65957446#post65957446

Reply 74

Drunk Punx

Original post by liberalfire

Of course underclass = doesn't work; if you have a job, regardless of what it is, you're working class at the very least (the clue's in the title).

DDD are working class through and through, seeing as most are manual (and are therefore, by your own definition, working).

Reply 75

Magic Member

Original post by liberalfire

Loads of wealthy, educated people vote for radical leftist parties and loads of White chavs vote Tory.

Reply 76

Fullofsurprises

Original post by cookie123456789

Omg. I just realised I meet at least some of those criteria. :eek:

Must resist.... Must resist..... Must resist...

Reply 77

WhisperingTide

You don't, you move on with your life and stop caring about trivial nonsense.

Reply 78

Fenice

Original post by Esoteric-

College not uni? If college, then working class

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_structure_of_the_United_Kingdom

Yeah, Winston Churchill may have been the son of an eminent Parliamentarian and the first cousin of the Duke of Marlborough but ultimately he didn't go to university and was therefore a bit of a chav

Reply 79

Fenice

Original post by liberalfire

You are working class. To be middle class, you need to go to university, have some sort of illness, work in the arts, live recreationally, or be some-sort of houseperson.

Harlesden, London isn't chavvy as somewhere such as East London, and it's fairly middle class.
C2 is lower class. The fact that both your parents work in C2 is going to drag you down, unless you have some excuses.

I think lower class = underclass + working class.
I don't think the underclass = doesn't work. Having a lower class job can be considered chavvy, and a few mates of mine literally don't work and just live off their parents. I think the underclass is DDD jobs. Working Class is pretty much anything that isn't an office job. If it requires you to do something manual, then it's working class for sure.

Middle Class is basically professional and office jobs, except for maybe certain jobs like call centre workers.

Upper Class is pretty much those who never have to work. They often get by on life with social connections and they may have connections to the royal family.