Social Class

A social class is a group of people that have similar social and economic status.

At various times the division of society into classes has had various levels of support in law. At one extreme we find old Indian classes - castes, which one could neither enter after birth, nor leave. (Though this applied only in relatively recent history.) On the other extreme there exist classes in modern Western societies which appear very fluid and have little support in law. When sociologistss speak of "class" they usually mean economically based classes in modern or near pre-modern society.

In Marxist terms a class is a group of people with a specific relationship to the means of production (social production). Marxists explain history in terms of a war of classes between those who control social production and those who produce social goods. In the Marxist view of capitalism this is a conflict between capitalists (bourgeoisie) and workers (proletariat).

Modern usage of the word "class" generally considers only the relative wealth of individuals or social groups, and not the ownership of the means of production.

The sociologist Max Weber formulated a three-component theory of stratification, with class, status and party (or politics) as conceptually distinct elements.

Class is based on relationship to the market (owner, rentier, employee etc.)
Status has to do with honour and prestige
Party refers to factors having to do with affiliations in the political domain.

All three dimensions have consequences for what Weber called "life chances".

See also:

proletariat, bourgeoisie, working class, middle class, intelligentsia
politics, sociology
Class warfare

The concept of "caste" differs from that of "class", and refers to rigid status groupings, the membership of which is usually inherited. Particular caste groups include:

the Burakumin of Japan
the Dalits ("untouchables") of India

For other meanings of the word class, see Class.

Domain	Title
Books	The Meaning of Difference: American Constructions of Race, Sex and Gender, Social Class, and Sexual Orientation (reference) Health and Social Class in Imperial Germany: A Social History of Mortality, Morbidity and Inequality (reference) Social Class and Stratification (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Non-Fiction Usage: Social Class

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		This requires attention not only to ethnicity and language but also to other factors including social class, age, developmental stage, and sexual orientation. (references)
		For example, perceptions of appropriate physical activity differ by gender, age, weight, marital status, family roles and responsibilities, disability, and social class. (references)
Civil Liberties	Thailand	Provincial screening committees determine eligibility to enter the refugee border camps based upon very narrow criteria, limited to those who flee actual fighting rather than on broader grounds of persecution on the basis of race, religion, ethnic group, social class, or political opinion. (references)
Discrimination	Oman	Effective government enforcement is insufficient in some areas, and societal and cultural discrimination based on gender, race, religion, social class, and disability exists. (references)
	Oman	The 1996 Basic Charter prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, ethnic origin, race, religion, language, sect, place of residence, and social class; however, decrees to implement its provisions have not been promulgated. (references)
Economic History	Turkey	These rights, including freedom of thought, expression, assembly, and travel, can be limited in times of emergency and cannot be used to violate the integrity of the state or to impose a system of government based on religion, ethnicity, or the domination of one social class. (references)
Minorities	Brazil	Approximately 60 percent of Afro-Brazilians in the lowest social class have less than 3 years of education, compared with 37 percent of whites. (references)
	Yemen	A small group of persons claiming to be the descendants of ancient Ethiopian occupiers of Yemen who later were enslaved, are considered the lowest social class. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Social Class

Modern Translation: Social Class

Language		Translations for "social class"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Chinese		同等 (having the same social class or status). (various references)

Finnish		yhteiskuntaluokka. (various references)

German		Volksschicht. (various references)

Greek		κοινωνική τάξη (caste). (various references)

Hungarian		társadalmi osztály (class, order, rank). (various references)

Pig Latin		ocialsay assclay

Spanish		clase social. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Misspellings: Social Class

Anagrams: Social Class

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-a-c-c-i-l-l-o-s-s-s"
	-2 letters: classical.
	-3 letters: classico, classics.
	-4 letters: alcaics, asocial, assails, assoils, calicos, cassias, cicalas, classic, classis, cloacal, cloacas, scillas, socials.
	-5 letters: alcaic, assail, assais, assoil, cacaos, calico, callas, cassia, cassis, cicala, ciscos, cloaca, coalas, colics, laical, lassos, lilacs, locals, salals, salols, salsas, scalls, scilla, sisals, social.
	Words containing the letters "a-a-c-c-i-l-l-o-s-s-s"
	+2 letters: postclassical.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Alternative Orthography: Social Class

Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

53 6F 63 69 61 6C 43 6C 61 73 73

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01010011 01101111 01100011 01101001 01100001 01101100 00100000 01000011 01101100 01100001 01110011 01110011

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#83 &#111 &#99 &#105 &#97 &#108 &#32 &#67 &#108 &#97 &#115 &#115

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

0053 006F 0063 0069 0061 006C 0043 006C 0061 0073 0073

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

Domain	Definition
Health	A stratum of people with similar position and prestige; includes social stratification. Social class is measured by criteria such as education, occupation, and income. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Expression	Frequency per Day
social class	100
social class in america	10
education in social class	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Misspellings
	"Social Class" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: scoial class. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Social Class

Definition: Social Class

Social Class

Noun

Specialty Definition: Social Class

Specialty Definition: Social class

Synonyms: Social Class

Crosswords: Social Class

Modern Usage: Social Class

Movie/TV Titles

Commercial Usage: Social Class

Books

Non-Fiction Usage: Social Class

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Social Class

Modern Translation: Social Class

Chinese

Finnish

German

Greek

Hungarian

Pig Latin

Spanish

Misspellings: Social Class

Misspellings

Anagrams: Social Class

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Alternative Orthography: Social Class

53 6F 63 69 61 6C 43 6C 61 73 73

01010011 01101111 01100011 01101001 01100001 01101100 00100000 01000011 01101100 01100001 01110011 01110011

&#83 &#111 &#99 &#105 &#97 &#108 &#32 &#67 &#108 &#97 &#115 &#115

0053 006F 0063 0069 0061 006C 0043 006C 0061 0073 0073

53816975677823778678585

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