Social Class

"Social class is a division of society made up of persons posessing certain common social characteristics which are taken to qualify them for intimate equal status relations with one another, and which restrict their interaction with members of other social classes" - Krech, Crutchfield & Ballachey in Dubois 2000.

An individual's social class is largely defined by factors such as:
- Personal or household per capita income or wealth/net worth including any ownership of land, property, means of production etc.
- Occupation
- Education/qualifications
- Family background.

As time has gone by an individual's social class has become harder to define as people are able to hide behind clothing brands to conceal the fact they may be of a social class considered to be negative.

There are also a lot more options of class than there were a few decades ago. In earlier generations there was purely upper, middle and lower classes but with more job opportunities and better qualified individuals there are now up to seven classes.

Certain status symbols are used to reflect one's position - for example a wardrobe full of designer clothes would indicate you fit into the higher tier of social class but a wardrobe full of Primark clothes would indicate you fit into the lower tier. However, this isn't exactly accurate as a lot of celebrities who would normally fit into the higher tier shop at Primark and a lot of people who would be considered to fit into the lower tier are able to afford designer clothes.

People would like to believe we are a classless society but it is obvious the class system is very much a large part of today's society. Your social class is used to define you a lot of the time. There is less discrimination between classes nowadays but that would seem to be down to the fact it's harder to determine where in the class system someone fits before you fully know them.