Civilisation Britannique, Peter John & Pierre Lurbe

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During the last 90 years several important changes have influenced the broad class structure in Britain. Traditional class distinctions have been blurred by the gradual erosion of was differentials between the skilled and other sections of the working class and also by the expansion of the minor professions for instance, clerical and administrative jobs, nursing and teaching. In addition, changing employment patterns –the move away from heavy to light industry and the rise of the service sector- have helped transform Britain’s class structure.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Britain experienced sustained economic growth which speeded up the decline of the old smokestack industries. The result was a new economy with a changed workforce and heralded what sociologists have called a period of “social mobility”. In Britain many commentators began to speak of the “new working class” which through a process of embourgeoisement was becoming increasingly “middle class” in cultural and political behaviour.

The “embourgeoisement” thesis has come under attack from a number of sociologists who claimed that the resulting social mobility often resulted in greater inequality. […] Clearly, class is still an important issue in modern Britain and even a brief look at some of the statistical data available shows the social implications of class differences. In terms of health, the sickness rate of men working in unskilled and semi-skilled occupations is three times higher than those in the professions. Similarly, infant mortality rates show a much higher correlation with unskilled workers’ families. In terms of diet, lower income groups eat less healthy food and also smoke more cigarettes thus affecting long- and short-term health. Educationally, class is also an important indicator of ability. IN terms of reading ability, over 90% of children of professional and executive families are average or above average readers at sever years old; under half of the children in unskilled families reach a similar level at the same age.

Child poverty continues to blight British society and is a problem. […] Children are 50% more likely to die in infancy if they are born into an unskilled family compared to a middle-class professional one. Furthermore, children in the top social strata are ten times more likely to go to university. Social class also appears to influence the age people marry at, who they marry, how they vote, the age of death and levels of criminality.

This continuing divide between rich and poor as experienced by children has increased dramatically over the last thirty years. In 1968 one child in ten was living in relative poverty. Today that figure stands at one child in three. Such a statistic indicates the marked rise in the differential between rich and poor since 1979, bringing an end to social mobility and leading to the freezing of class differences.

- PERCEPTIONS OF CLASS

We have seen that class divisions in Britain have been shaped by its particular history. However, class as a concept also embodies a strong subjective element and people’s perceptions or images of class are as important as their sociological division. Such images are often stereotypical pictures or snapshots of perception that mould commonly held notions. Of course such images are often unrepresentative but they do demonstrate the power of images to create a whole range of cultural and social patterns.

Of central importance to these perceptions is the use of language. George Bernard Shaw once observed that “an Englishman’s way of speaking absolutely classifies him. The moment he talks he makes another Englishman despise him”. Basil Bernstein in his Class, Codes and Control summarized this by stating that “the class system acts upon the deep structures of communication” and he went on to show that there was a fundamental difference between the working class and the middle class in their use of the grammatical system and vocabulary. In Britain, language still plays an important role in defining regional and social distinctions. These demarcations are linked both to accent (forms and pronunciation) and dialect (the more generic use of particular language forms including accent and pronunciation).

One of the peculiarities of Britain’s social structure is that social class usually takes precedence over geography as the main determinant of speech. This often means that there is far more geographical variation in accent and dialect among people occupying the lower social classes than there is amongst people higher up the social scale. For example, people passing through the public (private) school system typically have no regional traits in their language. This is in many respects peculiar to Britain and is not to be found to any great extent in say the USA or Germany. Not only is accent and language important in people’s perception of class but the more subtle forms of dress and manners also play a part.

People’s own perception of their class is also important for the broad understanding of the concept. It is probably much more accurate to talk of the middle classes than of one single middle class, for there is an enormous difference between the Surrey stockbroker and the Essex typist.

The rise of Mrs Thatcher, herself the daughter of a grocer, often personified the traditional virtues of the middle class. In 1975 she said, “If middle class values include the encouragement of variety and individual choice, the provision of fair incentives and rewards for skill and hard work […] then they are certainly what I am trying to defend.”

There have been many accounts of working-class culture this century, ranging from the novels of D.H. Lawrence and Walter Greenwood to the essays of George Orwell. Similarly, modern creations like the television series East Enders and Coronation Street and the long running radio serial The Archers, have further created a particular picture of working-class life. A brief glance at the General Household Survey tells us much about the habits of this class. Manual workers are for instance more likely to go to football matches and read the Daily Mirror or The Sun.

This apparent reinforcement of social class through economic re-structuring is only one side of the story. The other aspect is a loosening of class allegiances linked to a more meritocratic and lifestyle conscious Britain. So, despite these statistics, there is currently much talk of the “decline of class” in Britain. Substantial and enduring changes in employment patterns over the last three decades, combined with new lifestyle definitions, appear to have made the traditional concept of class almost redundant. The rise in service sector jobs, the