The concept of "class" is the subject of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists and social historians. However, there is no single definition of this concept, and the term has a wide range of sometimes conflicting meanings. In general, the concept of "class" is usually synonymous with socioeconomic class, which is defined as "a large group of people sharing the same social, economic, cultural, political or educational status". For example: “working”, “new professional”, etc. Nevertheless, scientists separate social and socio-economic status from each other, and in the first case they refer to a relatively stable socio-cultural background, and in the second - to the current socio- an economic situation that makes this status more volatile and unstable.
Classes: a concept in history
Historically, the stratum and its social role were sometimes established by law. For example, the allowed mode in strictlyregulated places, permission for luxury only for the aristocracy, etc. The quality and variety of clothing is still a reflection of the concept of social class, because it has historically developed.
Theoretical models
Definitions of social roles reflect a number of sociological schools that are simultaneously associated with anthropology, economics, psychology and sociology. The main schools historically have been Marxism and structural functionalism - it was they who set the basic concepts of strata in sociology, philosophy and political science. The general stratigraphic model divides society into a simple hierarchy of working class, middle class, and upper class. Two broad schools of definitions are emerging in academic circles: those that correspond to 20th-century sociological stratal models, and those that correspond to historical, 19th-century materialist economic models relevant to Marxists and anarchists.
Another distinction in the interpretation of the concept of "class" can be made between analytical social concepts, such as Marxist and Weberian, as well as empirical ones, such as the approach to socioeconomic status, which notes the relationship of income, education and we alth with social results without the need to take into account the relationship to a particular social structure.
Classes according to Marx
For Marx, social position is a combination of objective and subjective factors. Objectively, it shares a common connection with the means of production. Subjectively, membersof the same stratum will necessarily have some perception ("class consciousness") and a similarity of common interests. Class consciousness is not just an awareness of one's own group interest, but also a set of common views on how society should be organized legally, culturally, socially and politically. These collective relationships are reproduced over time.
In Marxist theory, the structure of capitalist society is characterized by a growing conflict between the two main social formations: the bourgeoisie or capitalists, who have all the necessary tools of production, and the proletariat, which is forced to sell its own labor power, existing at the expense of "humiliating" (according to according to Marxists) wage labor. This fundamental economic structure of the relation between labor and property exposes an unnatural state of inequality, which is allegedly legitimized through culture and ideology. The concept of the word "class" in Marxism is closely connected with the concepts of basis and superstructure.
Marxists explain the history of "civilized" societies in terms of the struggle between those who control production and those who produce goods or services in society. In the Marxist view of capitalism, it is a conflict between capitalists (the bourgeoisie) and wage workers (the proletariat). For Marxists, the fundamental antagonism is rooted in the situation where control of social production necessarily entails control of the group of people who produce goods - in capitalism, this is the exploitation of workers by the bourgeoisie. That's whythe concept of "class" in Marxism has a rather specific political connotation.
Eternal struggle
Metahistorical conflict, often referred to as "class war" or "class struggle", is, in the view of Marxists, the eternal antagonism that exists in society due to competing socio-economic interests and desires between people of different social strata.
For Marx, the history of human society was the history of class conflict. He pointed to the successful rise of the bourgeoisie and the need for revolutionary violence to secure the rights of the bourgeoisie that supported the capitalist economy.
Marx argued that the exploitation and poverty inherent in capitalism were an already existing form of this conflict. Marx believed that wage earners would need to rebel to ensure a more equitable distribution of we alth and political power.
Weber classes
Weber derived many of his key concepts of social stratification by studying the social structure of many countries. He noted that, contrary to the theories of Marx, stratification is based not only on the ownership of capital. Weber noted that some members of the aristocracy do not have economic we alth, but may nonetheless hold political power. Similarly, in Europe, many we althy Jewish families lacked prestige and integrity because they were considered members of the "pariah" group.
At the height of Marx's historical materialism, Weber emphasizedthe importance of cultural influences invested in religion as a means of understanding the genesis of capitalism. The Protestant ethic was the earliest part of Weber's broader study of world religion - he went on to study the religions of China, India, and ancient Judaism, with particular reference to their various economic implications and conditions of social stratification. In another major work, Politics as a Vocation, Weber defined the state as an enterprise that successfully claims "a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force in a given territory." He was also the first to classify social power in various forms, which he called charismatic, traditional, and rational-legal. His analysis of bureaucracy emphasized that modern state institutions are increasingly based on rational-legal authority.
Modern three-sided design
Today it is generally accepted that society consists of three elements: a very we althy and powerful upper class that owns and controls the means of production, a middle stratum consisting of professional workers, small business owners and low-level managers, and a lower social a group that relies on low wages for their livelihood and often face poverty. This division exists today in all countries. The tripartite model has become so popular that it has long since migrated from sociology to everyday language.
When someone asks for a definition of the concept of "class", they mean exactly this model that is familiar to everyone.
Top of the pyramid
The top of the pyramid of socio-economic relations is a social class consisting of rich, noble, powerful people. They usually have the most political power. In some countries, it is enough to be rich and successful to afford to enter this category of people. In others, only people who are born or marry into certain aristocratic families are considered members of this stratum, and those who acquire great we alth through commercial activities look at the aristocracy as nouveau riche.
For example, in the United Kingdom, the upper classes are the aristocracy and members of the royal family, and we alth plays a less important role in status. Many peers and other title holders have seats attached to them, with the holder of the title (such as the Earl of Bristol) and his family being custodians of the house, but not owners. Many of them are expensive, so aristocrats usually require we alth. Many houses are part of estates owned and managed by the owner of the title, with monies derived from land trading, rent, or other sources of income. However, in the United States, where there is no aristocracy or roy alty, the highest status is held by the extremely we althy, the so-called "super rich". Although even in the United States, the old noble families have a habit of looking down on those who have made their money in business: there it is called the struggle between New Money and Old Money.
The upper class is usuallymakes up 2% of the population. Its members are often born with their own status and are distinguished by great we alth, which is passed down from generation to generation in the form of estates and capitals.
Middle of the pyramid
Any system consisting of three elements implies that there will be something intermediate between the lower and upper element, like between a hammer and an anvil. The same goes for sociology. The concept of the middle class in sociology implies a large group of people who are socially and economically located between the lower and upper classes. One example of the variability of this term is that in the United States the word "middle class" is applied to people who would otherwise be considered members of the proletariat. These workers are sometimes referred to as “employees.”
So many theorists, such as Ralf Dahrendorf, have noticed a trend towards an increase in the number and influence of the middle class in modern developed societies, especially in connection with the need for an educated workforce (in other words, specialists) in a high-tech economy.
Lower part of the pyramid
The underclass are people working in low paying jobs with very little economic security. This term also applies to low-income individuals.
The proletariat is sometimes divided into those who are employed but lack financial security (the "working poor") and the non-working poor - those who are unemployed in the long run and/orhomeless, especially those who receive subsidies from the state. The latter is analogous to the Marxist term "lumpen-proletariat". Members of the working class in America are sometimes referred to as "blue collar".
The role of social strata
A person's socioeconomic class has wide-ranging implications for their lives. This may affect the school he attends, his he alth, the availability of jobs, the possibility of marriage, the availability of social services.
Angus Deaton and Ann Case analyzed the mortality rate associated with a group of white Americans aged 45 to 54 and their relationship to a particular class. Suicide and substance abuse deaths are on the rise in this particular group of Americans. This group has also been documented with an increase in reports of chronic pain and poor general he alth. Deaton and Case concluded from these observations that not only the mind, but also the body suffers because of the constant tension these Americans feel because of the fight against poverty and the constant fluctuation between the lower class and the working class.
Social stratifications can also determine sporting events in which representatives of certain classes participate. It is assumed that those from the upper classes of society are more likely to participate in sporting events, while people of low social status are less likely to participate in them.
Popular utopia
"Classless society" describes a system in which no one is born within a particular social group. Differences in we alth, income, education, culture, or social connections can only arise and be determined by individual experiences and achievements in such a society.
Because these differences are hard to avoid, the proponents of this social order (such as anarchists and communists) offer various means to achieve and maintain it, and attach varying degrees of importance to it as the logical conclusion of their political goals. Often they reject the need for the concept of social class as such.
Classless society and the evolution of Marxism
Marx noted back in the 19th century that there must be some kind of transitional form between the society of capitalism and the society of communism. This transitional link, which he called socialism, would still be class, but instead of capitalists, workers would rule in it. As the ruling power, the workers would then develop productive capacity to the stage where there could be an all-round development of each person and the principle of "to each according to his needs" could be realized.
In the United States, the forces of production are already developed to the point where a classless society could theoretically exist. Although, according to Marx, it can only be realized under communism. But since the Russian Revolution, all modern kinds of socialists have separated themselves from the communists in terms of political organization, but have never doubted thatsocialism is only a transitional society on the road to communism and that only under communism can there be a classless society.
How did revolutionary socialists come to stop at just socialism while still claiming the right to call themselves Marxists? The turning point was the Russian Revolution. If the Bolsheviks never made a revolution, socialism and communism as the ultimate goal would remain part of the Marxist ideology, and Marxist organizations around the world could continue their struggle against capitalism alone.
The concept of "class" in mathematics
This word has many special meanings in mathematics. In this area, it refers to a group of objects with some common property.
In statistics, the definition of "class" means a group of values by which data is tied to calculate the frequency distribution. The range of such values is called the interval, the boundaries of the interval are called the limits, and the middle of the interval is called the label.
Outside of theory, the word "class" is sometimes used as an analogue of the word "set". This habit dates back to a special period in the history of mathematics, when they were not distinguished from the concept of sets, as in modern set-theoretic terminology. Much of the discussion about them in the 19th century and earlier actually refers to sets, or perhaps a more ambiguous concept. The concept of verb classes has undergone a similar transformation.
Another approach is taken by the von Neumann-Bernays-Gödel (NBG) axioms - classes are basicobjects in this theory. However, the existence axioms of the NBG class are limited, so that they only quantify over the set. This results in NBG being a conservative extension of ZF. Whatever the concept of a class, set is always its attribute.
Morse-Kelly set theory allows proper classes as base objects like NBG, but also allows them to be quantified in its axioms. This causes MK to be strictly stronger than NBG and ZF.
In other set theories, such as "new foundations" or "semi-network theory", the concept of "proper class" still makes sense (not all of them are sets). For example, any set theory with a universal set has its own sets, which are subclasses of sets.
Each such element is a set - everyone who is familiar with mathematics knows this. Classes are the basic concept in these mathematical theories.
