Cultural Representations Of Social Class

Cultural Representations Of Social Class

Culture is made up of norms, beliefs, and values. These are things that we are born knowing and that we learn over time from our parents and later from school. Social stratification is a class concept that divides people into distinct groups based on shared socioeconomic circumstances. There are people with higher ranks than others, such as the upper class, middle class, working class, and lower class; your resources and education determine your status.

The ways in which culture influences identity and pride within specific social classes as a result of that culture’s norms. Many lower-class people who live in low-income housing will not try or strive to do better in order to get out of the projects because it is the norm for them. Many families have been raised and grown over time, and they are content with their way of life and see no reason to change.

Culture assists in keeping others outside of a specific social class by categorizing individuals based on ranking, people who have access to valuable resources, and society, which includes property, prestige, power, and status. According to society, not everyone is created equal because they created the upper class, middle class, working class, and lower class. The clothes you wear, the vacations you take, the houses you live in, and the important friends and people in your circle, among other things, all represent your social class.

I believe that the answers would make it difficult for a lower-class person to pass as an upper-class person, and vice versa, because each class has different conditions and standards for the people in each group. Someone from the lower class usually has less education and is poor, so they can’t pass themselves off as someone from the upper class, and the same goes for someone from the upper class passing themselves off as someone from the lower class. These rankings are based on wealth, education, power, prestige, and other valuable resources because they place each person in the appropriate category for their status.

I believe that most people stay in the same social class into which they were born because it’s the norm for them, and it’s whatever their mindset is in terms of being better than what they know and having the ability and determination to strive to be in a better place. Many people who were born poor have become rich or financially stable in the future; you must have the drive and motivation to want to do better in life.

Conflict theorists argue in our W6 Lecture 1, “Social Stratification,” that social class and inequality are harmful to society. Marx predicted that in a capitalist society, two classes would emerge: the bourgeoisie, those who own the means of production and can amass wealth and power because they own factories, land, banks, and other sources of income, and the proletariat, or workers who sell their labor for wages and earn barely enough to keep themselves and their families alive. There are many more homeless people in today’s society, as well as people who are struggling to make ends meet but don’t have the right resources or any resources to help them along the way.

References:

James M. Henslin – Essentials of sociology. – Boston, MA – Pearson Custom Publishing – 2008 – Seventh Ed.

W6 Lecture 1 “Social Stratification”

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Cultural Representations of Social Class

Social class can be divided in several ways. After reading Chapter 8 and discovering more about the USA’s social class divisions. 500 or more words answering the following questions. You should use the book as a reference.

Be sure to include in-text citations and include the book as a reference.

·  In what ways does culture related to social class impact identity and pride within specific social classes?

·  In what ways does culture help keep others outside of a specific social class?

·  Would the answers you gave make it more difficult for someone from a lower social class to “pass” as someone from a higher class or would it make it more difficult for someone from a higher social class to “pass” as someone from a lower class? Why?

·  Why do most people stay in the same social class into which they were born?

Textbook: SOC 6th edition Introduction to Sociology