Working class or Middle class

[Mallaig]

What is considered to differentiate between Working class and Middle class.

[nicola_red]

There are loads of ways that people differentiate between the classes.  A common distinction is that if you've been to university you're middle class.  I don't know if that still holds these days though.

[landie]

People with businesses employing others were considered middle class. Those working for a living, working class. I guess people like I would be upper class.

[smudge]

Ah, now that would all depend on whether your name is: Fagin!

[Octavius]

Two British sociologists, D. Goldthorpe and J. Lockwood claimed that there are definite specific "working class" and "middle class" perspectives e.g. "working class" people live in a world of "us" and "them", that money is to be spent and enjoyed, schooling is of limited importance etc., whilst "middle class" people see society as a wider grouping of opportunity, they think that money should be saved, they value schooling highly etc.

Goldthorpe and Lockwood also argue that Britain is not becoming "middle class" i.e. that we are all becoming "the same". They studied a Luton car factory and found that the manual (i.e. "working class") workers still ate in a separate canteen, drank in public bars, went to Spanish resorts for their holidays, tended to read tabloid newspapers, and their children left school at 16. The office (i.e. "middle class") workers ate their lunch in the waitress canteen at work, drank in Saloon bars, holidayed in rather more "up-market" resorts, read "quality" newspapers, and urged their children to continue education after 16. Also the manual workers tended to vote Labour, and the white-collar workers tended to vote Conservative.

Clearly, in most modern industrial societies, including Britain, our system of social stratification is much more fluid - that is, we experience a good deal of "social mobility" - people, through generations or perhaps in their own life time, moving up or down the social scale.

[LordyGeordie]

A comedian (I can't remember who) once said if your name's on the building where you work you're upper class, if your name's on your desk you're middle class and if your name's on your uniform you're working class.

[purplefish]

if you have a local accent, you're working class, if not you're middle class (apparently)

[natalie_1982]

I did sociology A'level and as well as the Goldthorpe and Lockwood theory Octavius posted, there was another but I can't remember by whom and it was based upon the job of the bread winner in your house hold and where that fitted it on a pyramid that had been made.  I am going to look for it......

[beale]

After studying a number of 1950s war films I can reveal that working class people say "wotcha" and "cor blimey" a lot. They are usually batmen or drivers and are happy with their lot. They speak in implausible cockney or northern accents and are a bit comedy. They look odd and smell of chips.

The middle classes say "I say" all the time. They are usually pilots and are very brave. They speak in implausible posh accents and are a bit comedy. They look like Kenneth Moore and sometimes give their dogs racially offensive names.

 

I hope that clears everything up.

[natalie_1982]

Have you ever used the phrase 'Jolly Hockeysticks'?  Do you know anyone called Tarquin? 

[josieann]

Some very interesting answers to this question.  Mine is basically   if you have a job  your working class  if you have a career your middle class!!!

[Dom Tuk]

If you said tea instead of dinner and had pie and chips for all your main meals you were working class. however if you now sprinkle some basil/parsley on the aforementioned delicacies you could be classed as middleclass (if you kept away from burberry ie) 

[landie]

If you get paid, wages or salary or work to earn a living you're working class. If it were a question of attendance at university everyman and his dog would be middle class. To be middle class you have got to be of independent means.