Social Class: Key Concepts in Modern Western Society and How to Measure Them

Abstract

Background: Social class tends to be downplayed in modern societies and is now rarely studied, but the argument can be made that social class is still strongly present and sociologically and psychologically important. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the nature of social class in modern western society and to distinguish it from the concept of socio-economic status, or SES, and also to distinguish subjectively perceived social class. Method: The method consists of a broad literature review encompassing academic writings in sociology, economics, and social psychology as well as national survey evidence from the U.S.A., the U.K., and the author’s home country, Australia. Results: Social class is shown to be dependent these days mostly on the occupational prestige of the head of household and much less on income as measured in SES. The present paper offers an updated measure of occupational prestige for assigning social class membership, and argues that instead of SES we should be using a purely economic measure of income and assets. Lastly, perceived social class is what mainly affects social behavior, and this paper identifies the main cues that people use to signal social class to others. Conclusions: Social class remains a very important determinant of behavior in modern western society but its key concepts and their measures need to be updated.