Social Divisions
Chapter 4 Summary

This chapter begins by establishing the importance of social divisions and social stratification in all societies. To begin the exploration of social divisions, we look at the substantive issues that surround the debates over wealth and poverty in industrialised societies. Other issues to do with social class are to be found in Chapter 5. Here, we present basic data on issues such as wealth, income and poverty, representing some of the basic material advantages and disadvantages that structure social life. The chapter then takes the student through a range of empirical and statistical material derived from both academic and government surveys of unearned income, occupational income groups and patterns of poverty. A key message to convey to students is the structured nature of these patterns, over time, over generations, and geographically. Limitations of space mean that we cannot do justice to the information available here, and would recommend tutors provide additional data from publications such as Social Trends in the UK, or the General Social Survey in the US. However, it is important that students recognise the local, national and global influences on this distribution.

In turning to a consideration of the poor, we explore the emergence and influence of the concept of the underclass, as a marginalised fraction of society and account for the state's response to this marginalisation. Patterns of social exclusion are described to demonstrate that it is not just the poor who might experience this marginalisation. We also employ the idea of a life course in looking at social divisions based around age, with a particular focus on the young. We do not, however, neglect older citizens in our discussion of divisions. Equally, the important issue of disability and life chances is used to demonstrate the persistence of social divisions beyond those of social class. It is the inter-connectedness of these social divisions in individual situations and life-courses that lead to complex patterns of marginalisation in contemporary societies.