Social according to the Oxford Dictionary is “of society or its organization; of the relations of people or classes of people. It also states that Class is “any set of persons or things grouped together, or graded or differentiated from others. From this I would say social class is a group of individuals who have similar status in a society. I would also like to share with you a definition of social class which I saw on the internet, it states that social class is “a collection of people with similar position; social class is usually measured by education, occupation, and income”. Social Class is one of the main ways in which society is stratified.

I will now look at how Max Weber and Karl Marx, two of the first sociologists to analyze social class, differ and agree in what they think social class is.

Karl Marx believed that Social Class is determined by the ownership or non-ownership of the means of economic production (raw materials, the capital and technol

Max Weber agreed that social classes exist. However, unlike Marx, who believed that “means of economic production” determines which social group you belong; Weber thought that “Status” or “Social Prestige” was the deciding factor for which group an individual belong to. In essence, Weber’s deciding factors for one’s social class were: where we live, our manner of speech, our schooling, etc.

Marx believed that the proletariat would overthrow the bourgeoisie and then seize the forces of power. Property would be equally owned and since all members of the society would share the same relationship to the forces of production a classless society would result.

From a Marxian perspective, the relationship between major social classes (ruling and subject class) is one of mutual dependence and conflict. The subject class which is the labourer must sell his labour power in order to survive and the ruling class are dependent on the subject class for production. However, the mutual dependency of the two classes is not a relationship of equality. It is however a relationship of exploiter and exploited, oppressor and oppressed.

lowest social or economic class of a capitalist society.

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