Social Class
Chapter 5 Key Themes

• Social Class is one of the most basic concepts in sociology and thus provides an important theme throughout the text. There are important links to be made between this chapter and Chapter 4 'Social Divisions', which deals with other aspects of stratification. However, the importance of social class in contemporary societies also needs to be examined in the light of gender and ethnic divisions. Therefore, the reader should be encouraged to look at Chapter 6 'Gender Relations' and Chapter 7 'Race and Ethnicity' in conjunction with the idea of social class. As might be expected, the theme of social class also runs through the substantive areas of sociology. For example, Chapter 13 'Health, Illness and Medicine' explores health inequalities between social classes.

• The concept of social status has been an enduring feature of stratification analysis since the inception of sociology. The theoretical underpinning of the idea can be traced in the account of Weber's work in Chapter 17 'The Foundations of Social Theory'. An empirical example of the use of social status can be found in Chapter 10 'Education'.

• Identity is an issue that has attained sociological importance in the last part of the twentieth century and is a continuing feature of contemporary sociological discourse. The impact of gender and ethnicity on our sense of identity is discussed in Chapters 6 and 7 respectively. The development of new social movements has also affected identity formation and can be found in Chapter 8 'Power, Politics and the State'.