Concept of Class

Definition of class:

Ogburn and Nimkoff: “A social class is one or two or more broad groups of individuals who are ranked by the members of the community in socially superior and inferior positions.”

Max Weber: “Classes are aggregates of individuals who have the same opportunities of acquiring goods, the same exhibited standard of living.”

Morris Ginsberg: “A class is a group of individuals who through common descent, the similarity of occupation, wealth and education have come to have a similar mode of life, a similar stock of ideas, feelings, attitudes, and forms of behaviour.”

Mac Iver & Page - "A social class is any portion of community marked off the from the rest by social status 'Ongburn & Nimk off. A social class is the aggregate of persons having essentially the same social status in a given society." i.e. a class consciousness.

Introduction of Class:

Most social scientists agree that society is stratified into a hierarchical arrangement of social classes. Social classes are groupings of individuals in a hierarchy, usually based on wealth, educational attainment, occupation, income, and membership in a subculture or social network. Social class in the United States is a controversial issue, having many competing definitions, models, and even disagreements over its very existence. Many Americans believe in a simple three-class model that includes the upper class, the middle class, and the lower class or working class. More complex models that have been proposed by social scientists describe as many as a dozen class levels. Class is almost a universal phenomenon. Each social class has its own status in society. Status is associated with prestige. The relative position of class in the social set up arises from the degree of prestige attached to the status. A social class is relatively a stable group. This is often referred to as the lifestyles of a particular class. It includes modes of dressing, kind of living, means of recreation, and cultural products one is able to enjoy. Life-styles reflect the specialty in preferences, tastes, and values of a class. Social classes are open-groups. They represent an open social system. An open class system is one in which vertical social mobility is possible. The basis of social classes is mostly economic but they are not mere economic groups or divisions.

Definition of class:

Ogburn and Nimkoff: “A social class is one or two or more broad groups of individuals who are ranked by the members of the community in socially superior and inferior positions.”

Max Weber: “Classes are aggregates of individuals who have the same opportunities of acquiring goods, the same exhibited standard of living.”

Morris Ginsberg: “A class is a group of individuals who through common descent, the similarity of occupation, wealth and education have come to have a similar mode of life, a similar stock of ideas, feelings, attitudes, and forms of behaviour.”

Thus, a social class is an aggregate of people who have the same status, rank, or common characteristics. This aggregate of people is identified on the basis of their relationship to the economic market who have differential access to wealth, power, and certain styles of life. Ownership of wealth and occupation are the chief criteria of class differences but education, hereditary prestige, group participation, self-identification, and recognition by others, also play an important part in class distinction.