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a) Social class:
This refers to a grouping of people with common levels of wealth, power and prestige. According to Functionalists, class refers to a number of people who have in common a specific causal component of their life chances. This component is represented exclusively by economic interests in the possession of goods and opportunities for income. For example, equal educational opportunities may lead to equal employment opportunities and earning power (Weber, 1947).) Functionalists believed that society was stratified on the basis of economic class (wealth), social status as expressed by the life style (prestige) and party (political power).
Marxist scholars assert that class is a particular individual's location at the level of production. Different modes of production produce different classes. Such classes as the bourgeoisie, petty bourgeoisie (middle class), proletariat (working class), peasantry and lumpen-proletariat (un-employed) are somehow related to the economic structure of society. One's class determines his/her life chances. According to these scholars, the role of education in a capitalist society is to produce a working force (subordinate group) and a ruling class (dominant group). If members of the working group are educated to accept their position as normal, inevitable and natural, then they will hardly question anything. Thus, education equips the working class with skills that enable them to adequately maintain the ruling class. It also propagates an ideology that legitimizes the existence of people of different statuses. It inculcates a necessary attitude of blind obedience to those in power.
Weber's view on social class, though recognizing the economic factor, includes such indices as wealth, occupation, residence, education and income, thereby departing from Marx's view of the significance of production relations.
b) Social status:
This refers to a claim to positive or negative privilege with resects to social prestige. By themselves, property and managerial positions are insufficient to lend the holder a certain social status. Propertied and property-less individuals may share the same social status (Thomas, 1995). For example, members of an influential family ma share the same social status irrespective of what they are - doctor, civil servant, student or just an idler. They may be different front an economic perspective but their social status is the same because of their family background. Throughout history, the elite have maintained their exclusive position (social status) within stratification orders through physical, behavioural, emotive and cognitive controls.
francis1897 answered the question on August 19, 2022 at 07:22
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