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Are you top of the class?

(68 Posts)
Elegran Mon 07-Dec-15 23:43:58

Here is some light relief from the current preoccupation with bombs and finance.
A survey of more than 161,000 people reveals seven social classes in UK
Which of these seven classes are you in? [[ www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22000973 do the survey]]

The complete report of the results of the survey is at soc.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/03/12/0038038513481128.full.pdf+html

And in case you are asking, "How can the results from a web survey represent a whole society?" here is the answer

I had an interesting result - it labelled me Traditional Working Class, but when I went back and repeated the test, bumping up my attendance at opera, ballet and theatre (I am an occasional culturalist rather than a dedicated one, so I had played it down at first) I was promoted to elite.

starbird Tue 08-Dec-15 00:11:37

I am traditional working class, I redid it with all the same answers except I made myself moderately richer and became established middle class!
But I don't think class matters anymore unless you are in the top public school bracket. My father was an unskilled worker and my mother taught piano lessons. I am an office worker (part qualified accountant) but my life style choices (divorce, single parent, working abroad for a charity) have left me with a small (but adequate) income. Je regret rien.

Purpledaffodil Tue 08-Dec-15 04:58:21

Ooh! Technical middle class for me! I think on the basis of using social media. However I do live in the suburban South East too which fits the stereotype perfectly. shock

chelseababy Tue 08-Dec-15 06:41:16

Technical middle class for me too!

loopylou Tue 08-Dec-15 06:42:37

'Established middle class '
I've never viewed myself as middle class in my life!

shysal Tue 08-Dec-15 07:30:14

Apparently I am traditional working class. It says those in this class tend to be older! confused

Maggiemaybe Tue 08-Dec-15 08:19:06

I'm a new affluent worker, apparently. Rather than being old, poor and retired. grin

Marmark1 Tue 08-Dec-15 08:20:58

Apparently I'm established middle class,whatever that means.As far as I'm concerned I'm definitely working class.

annsixty Tue 08-Dec-15 08:50:30

Established middle class but more than 30 years older than the average age.

petallus Tue 08-Dec-15 08:54:23

I'm not doing it.

I visit galleries, go to the theatre etc. and our income is above average. However, I'm not giving up my working class origins for anybody! grin

M0nica Tue 08-Dec-15 08:59:31

I do not know and do not care what class I am meant to be, nor do I have any interest in other people's supposed 'class'.

What I do find fascinating is people who perceive themselves as one class but have when official definitons are applied are another, usually a class they affect to despise. Politicians and business men with multiple expensive cars, huge houses, expensive lifestyles involving luxury hotels and restaurants and children in private schools, who insist that they are still solidly working class.

Why in this modern day and age anybody should be interested in what class they are, defeats me

Anya Tue 08-Dec-15 09:01:40

Origins are just that though Petallus. My Very Traditional Working Class grandfather (a miner from a family of miners) would be very proud to know what his granddaughter has achieved as he encouraged his family of 6 girls to get a good education and get a career, and every one did just that.

Elegran Tue 08-Dec-15 09:07:17

I think that is the key to class these days, Petallus. Our concept of our class is linked to our origins, but nowadays there is much more mobility between classes than there used to be (and apparently far more than there is now in the US, which has always looked on itself as being less class conscious than the UK)

"Despite the myriad of subtle nuances, class has historically been defined by occupation as much as anything else. A builder was working-class, a teacher middle-class and the upper class waited for their inheritance.

But a key part of the two-year survey has been exploring class in broader terms, with researchers incorporating "social capital" and "cultural capital".

The concepts were developed by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. The idea is that social networks or cultural activities - whom people know and what they do - contribute to their class and prospects at least as much as income.

"Class used to be about how much you earned, how you earned your money on a Monday to Friday. Now it's about how you spend your money at the weekend," says Harry Wallop, author of Consumed: How Shopping Fed the Class System.

ninathenana Tue 08-Dec-15 09:07:23

The site might be suffering overload. When I click to start the quiz nothing happens.

annsixty Tue 08-Dec-15 09:09:47

Ok I repeated it cutting out just one thing which was watching sport which DG did but not any more and I am now Traditional Working class. Who would have "thunk"it?

Elegran Tue 08-Dec-15 09:12:45

Should have said that was from Class calculator: Can I have no job or money and still be middle class?

janeainsworth Tue 08-Dec-15 09:50:11

I am technical middle class.
Monica I agree with your observation about people staunchly maintaining they are one class when it is obvious to everyone but themselves they are something else.
But I think what is also interesting are the new definitions of class, and how the different classes evolve and decline, and how the different age groups have different values and beliefs.
I heard someone say at a lecture a few years ago, that in ten years time, 80% it the working population would be in jobs that hadn't even been invented at the time he was speaking.
An exaggeration maybe, but when you think of the sort of jobs that were available to us when we were young, compared to what young people do now, I think it's an indication of how much and how rapidly the world changes.
Documenting these changes in terms of how people perceive themselves and others does have value I think.

M0nica Tue 08-Dec-15 10:14:58

DH and I worked in occupations that barely existed when we graduated, let alone when we left school. DH, officially retired, is currently working in an industry that barely existed 10 years ago. DD's experience has been similar. She has had several jobs that didn't exist when she graduated.

But what difference does knowing your class make to you? DH and I come from divergent backgrounds but at no point in our lives has our social background affected our professional or social lives. No one has ever enquired about it before giving us a job, selling us a house or socialising with us.

DH's progress in life has been led by his affable friendly nature and obvious competence in his work. Mine has been hampered because I although I am (I think) friendly and pleasant, I am more of a loner and do not trouble with people with whom I have little in common (most of them with social backgrounds that match mine).

Luckygirl Tue 08-Dec-15 10:16:14

I come out as Traditional Working Class, even when I rig the result by ticking those things that I used to go to and would go to if I were fit enough. I find that allocation a bit odd as the wife of a GP! Not that I mind at all - I think it is because our income is so low and we have such a broad spectrum of friends. I do not think anyone I know would describe us as any sort of working class!! smile Poncy cow maybe! grin

Anniebach Tue 08-Dec-15 10:43:05

Precariet grin

Katek Tue 08-Dec-15 10:58:26

Oh dear, I've come out as elite. Wouldn't have said that.

Elegran Tue 08-Dec-15 11:01:05

I'd say there need to be new names, which don't include the word "class" because there is still an element of snobbery (or inverted snobbery, which is just a damning in the way it labels people as better or worse than the speaker) There are different "types" of people, with different interests and skills and aspirations. Upper and lower don't come into it, except in earning power - and that doesn't make any difference to the type of person, neither does the way they vote or their religion.

Elegran Tue 08-Dec-15 11:05:08

Katek That is your drama side influencing it. I appeared as elite when I ticked the opera, ballet and concert boxes - despite going to these only about once or twice a year. Well, it did say to tick the things you "often or sometimes" did!

Without that I was Traditional Working Class. Now my parents and grandparents would have out themselves down as that, though my father did get a degree and teaching certificate and thus probably moved into the middle class, but I started off at the place they had reached when I was growing up.

Elegran Tue 08-Dec-15 11:06:40

There was no box to tick "reading books" which I do a lot of.

gillybob Tue 08-Dec-15 11:09:09

I came out as technical middle class which I would disagree with. I tried it again leaving out the "visiting stately homes and art galleries" and came out totally different. Also I would say the differences within the earnings brackets were wrong likewise the savings. confused