In the surveys I have conducted, I have asked people what social class they identify as. This was something that both Zuleika and Georges questioned me on in the last tutorial before the end of the term. I thought that maybe I had asked the wrong question and that class is something we are given and we don’t get to choose which social class we identify as.
However, I came across an article that talks about how class is experienced first through your family and then that idea of class is affirmed by societal interactions. Lubrano (2004) describes class as a ‘script, map, and guide. It tells us how to talk, how to dress, how to hold ourselves, how to eat, and how to socialize… in short, class is nearly everything about you’. The author of the article goes on to write that ‘social class identity is both subjective and complex, which means that we cannot ascribe class identity to people; rather, individuals choose how they identify’.
I feel slightly better about my choice of words in my surveys now. However I think that I still need to delve further into class, and if people consciously identify as a particular class or if they just pick one that sounds appropriate for them.
In Chavs Owen Jones talks a lot about class and how the working class has been demonised and almost blamed for everything that is wrong with society. I really enjoyed reading this book, however I think that he was the wrong person to write it. He comes from a securely middle class background and in areas of the book his bias shone through. Whilst I think that he made some good points, I don’t think that it was a purely objective book. Being a very left wing person, Jones at times relied on blaming the Conservative party for the class issues that exist in the UK. He might be right, but I don’t believe that the class system and the inequalities it creates are purely a political issue. When politics are brought into a topic, it quickly becomes divisive and contentious. If we take the politics out of the equation (if that’s possible) then it becomes an issue that society as a whole needs to tackle, no matter their political affiliations. Another problem I had with this book was that most of the people Jones quoted were from the upper or middle classes eg Boris Johnson’s sister or Simon Heffer, a prominent right-wing journalist whose children attend Eton. This book was written about how the working classes have been demonised but most of the sources used were people who demonise the working class. There’s something about this that doesn’t make sense to me.
References:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ss.20263?saml_referrer
Jones, O. (2020). Chavs. London: Verso Books.
