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Social identities refer to the ways that people use concepts such as class, gender, ethnicity, and age to fix themselves within particular cultures and societies. These identities are not fixed but are socially constructed and subject to change through historical processes and cultural interactions.
Social class is a grouping based on occupation and work-related experiences. According to Crompton (2003), occupation serves as a good general measure that allows us to define simple class groupings such as:
Occupation also suggests ways in which class identities develop out of different work-related experiences.
Traditional working-class identities are centered around:
In these communities, cultural beliefs were continually reinforced through personal experience and socialisation. The 'working-class Self' could be contrasted with the 'middle-/upper-class Other'. Class identity was built not just around what people were or believed themselves to be, but also around what they were not.
More recently, Crompton has suggested changes to the nature of work:
This has led to the emergence of a new working class.
Goldthorpe et al. (1968) argued that this section of the working class developed new forms of identity:
Instrumentalism refers to viewing work as a means to an end (earning money for home and family) rather than an end in itself.
Despite these changes, Devine (1992) suggested that there were still important differences between the new working class and the middle classes. The former retained a strong sense of 'being working class'.
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