SOCIAL CLASS AND IDENTITY — AQA A-Level Sociology
(Culture & Identity)
🔹 What Is Class Identity?
Class is not just about income — it’s a social identity tied to:
• Occupation
• Lifestyle
• Cultural taste
• Education
• Status and prestige
It’s socially constructed, passed through generations, and shaped by culture, consumption, and
🔹 Traditional Marxist View
power.
• Class identity rooted in your relationship to means of production.
• Bourgeoisie (owners) vs proletariat (workers).
🔸
• Class consciousness = recognising your exploitation.
AO3: Useful for explaining class conflict, but way too economically deterministic — doesn’t
🔹 Neo-Marxism: Bourdieu (1984)
explain cultural factors or middle class expansion.
Class identity is shaped by economic, social, and cultural capital.
• Cultural capital = taste in music, art, literature, language use — passed down.
• Habitus = your class-conditioned way of seeing and acting in the world.
So middle class kids succeed not just because of wealth, but because school rewards middle class
🔸
habitus.
AO3: Bang on for explaining why WC kids struggle in MC systems — but critics say habitus isn’t
🔹 Working-Class Identity
fixed, people can change.
Key features:
• Manual labour, strong community, pride in hard work, local loyalty.
🔸 Willis (1977) – Learning to Labour
• Often associated with traditional masculinity and toughness (Willis).
WC lads rejected school because they knew the system was rigged. Created a “laddish”
identity.
🔸
• Subcultures form as resistance to middle class norms.
AO3: Great insight into culture + class — but very male-focused, ignores girls.
(Culture & Identity)
🔹 What Is Class Identity?
Class is not just about income — it’s a social identity tied to:
• Occupation
• Lifestyle
• Cultural taste
• Education
• Status and prestige
It’s socially constructed, passed through generations, and shaped by culture, consumption, and
🔹 Traditional Marxist View
power.
• Class identity rooted in your relationship to means of production.
• Bourgeoisie (owners) vs proletariat (workers).
🔸
• Class consciousness = recognising your exploitation.
AO3: Useful for explaining class conflict, but way too economically deterministic — doesn’t
🔹 Neo-Marxism: Bourdieu (1984)
explain cultural factors or middle class expansion.
Class identity is shaped by economic, social, and cultural capital.
• Cultural capital = taste in music, art, literature, language use — passed down.
• Habitus = your class-conditioned way of seeing and acting in the world.
So middle class kids succeed not just because of wealth, but because school rewards middle class
🔸
habitus.
AO3: Bang on for explaining why WC kids struggle in MC systems — but critics say habitus isn’t
🔹 Working-Class Identity
fixed, people can change.
Key features:
• Manual labour, strong community, pride in hard work, local loyalty.
🔸 Willis (1977) – Learning to Labour
• Often associated with traditional masculinity and toughness (Willis).
WC lads rejected school because they knew the system was rigged. Created a “laddish”
identity.
🔸
• Subcultures form as resistance to middle class norms.
AO3: Great insight into culture + class — but very male-focused, ignores girls.
