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Marx
The idea of class first became popularized by Karl Marx, in the mid-19th century.
- Marx, believed that class divisions were formed around “relations to the means of
production,” (Clark,
398).
- Thus, he divided the population into two basic classes: those who controlled production,
the capitalists, and those who only accessed the means through others, the workers (398).
- Marx’s viewpoint is understandable, as he was viewing a society polarized by the industrial
revolution.
Weber
Max Weber, writing at the beginning of the 20th century, was
one of many people to reinterpret Marx’s ideas.
- He expanded Marx’s essentially economic definition to include status, or the prestige
a person can expect, as well as power, or influence over others (399).
Dahrendorf
Later writers, such as Baron Ralf Dahrendorf in 1959, reinterpreted
Marx’s and Weber’s ideas.
- He broke down Marx’s basic two-category theory into a many-tiered system and, like
Weber, centered this revised theory on power, as opposed to economics.
- Dahrendorf’s model included workers of different skill levels, as well as an extensive
middle class. These changes reflected the changes of society at the time, where the middle class had exploded and all classes
had begun to fraction themselves into many distinct categories (400).
Banks
Today, there
are varying views on class and its definitions.
- Banks notes that most researchers will include income, education, occupation, lifestyle,
and values, although stress of a variable varies markedly.
- He also notes that these vary somewhat by ethnic and racial groups, giving the example of
teachers seen as upper-class in some communities, but as middle-class in mainstream White society (Banks, 18).
Class
vs. SES
Some people, many educators
included, prefer the grouping of socioeconomic status, or SES.
- SES “blends both economic issues of jobs and income (or lack of work) with status
issues of role relationships, consumption patterns, and implied values,” to create an analytical tool (Campbell, 102).
- The difference, though, between SES and modern views of social class is murky, at best.
- D.E. Campbell believes that SES stresses the agency of the individual in changing status;
she has a problem with that emphasis, because it does not acknowledge the role of social forces in individuals’ lives
(102).
- Other researchers feel that the word social class is misleading because of society’s
many changes between now and Marx’s time (Clark, 401).
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