Classifying Social Class and the Growth of an Underclass
Sociologists sort people into social classes so that patterns of inequality can be studied and compared, and since 2001 the UK government has used the National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC), which classifies people by occupation and employment relations rather than the older Registrar General's scale.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- Learn the name and basic logic of the current UK classification system, NS-SEC, and know it classifies by occupation and employment relations, employer, self-employed or employee, authority, autonomy, not just job title or income alone.
- Learn that the older Registrar General's scale also classified mainly by occupation, and note NS-SEC replaced it because it captures employment relations more fully.
- Learn the distinction between objective class, measured by a scale like NS-SEC, and subjective class, a person's own sense of which class they belong to, and be ready to explain why the two can differ.
- Learn the New Right underclass argument (Murray): a generous welfare state can create a dependency culture, where reliance on benefits becomes normalised across generations and discourages people from seeking work.
- Learn the structural counter-argument, e.g. Westergaard: what looks like an underclass is really the poorest layer of the working class, produced by unemployment, insecure work and inequality in the labour market rather than by a 'culture' of dependency.
- For an evaluation question on the underclass, set the New Right/cultural explanation against the structural explanation, cite each sociologist by name, and reach a supported conclusion.
Worked example
A person works as a self-employed plumber with several employees working for them. Explain why NS-SEC would classify this person differently from an employee plumber working for someone else, even though both do similar day-to-day work.
- Identify what NS-SEC actually measures: not just the type of job, plumbing, but the person's employment relations, including whether they are an employer, self-employed or an employee.
- Apply this to the self-employed plumber with employees: they are an employer, meaning they have authority over others' work and bear business risk and reward themselves.
- Apply this to the employee plumber: they are an employee, working under someone else's authority and direction, without that same business risk or reward.
- Conclude: NS-SEC would place the self-employed employer plumber into a higher class category than the employee plumber, because it classifies by employment relations, authority, autonomy, employment status, not simply by the trade or day-to-day tasks involved.
Practice questions
Try each question, then tap to reveal the answer.
Q1What does NS-SEC stand for?Show answer
Answer: The National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification.
Q2What does NS-SEC classify people by?Show answer
Answer: Their occupation, taking account of employment relations such as whether they are an employer, self-employed, or an employee, and the authority and autonomy their job involves.
Q3What is the difference between objective and subjective social class?Show answer
Answer: Objective class is a person's class as measured by an external scale such as NS-SEC; subjective class is the class a person believes they themselves belong to, and the two do not always match.
Q4What is meant by the 'underclass'?Show answer
Answer: A group said to exist below the traditional working class, largely cut off from mainstream society and the labour market.
Q5According to Charles Murray, what causes the growth of an underclass?Show answer
Answer: A 'dependency culture' created by a generous welfare state, in which relying on benefits becomes a normalised, intergenerational way of life that discourages people from seeking paid work.
Q6How would a structural sociologist such as Westergaard criticise Murray's underclass theory?Show answer
Answer: By arguing that what looks like an underclass is really the poorest section of the working class, produced by structural unemployment, insecure work and labour-market inequality, not by a culture of welfare dependency, so the solution lies in creating jobs and reducing inequality rather than cutting benefits.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a GCSE Sociology exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Explain two reasons why NS-SEC replaced the Registrar General's scale as the UK's official measure of social class.
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Discuss the view that the growth of an 'underclass' in the UK is mainly caused by a culture of welfare dependency, rather than by structural unemployment and inequality. Use sociological evidence in your answer.
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See real GCSE Sociology past-paper questions, with official mark schemes →
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