How Class Impacts on Education and Social Mobility

The concept of social class is now more fragmented in contemporary Britain. It remains a contested concept, one which is difficult to define as definitions have changed over time. It is more complicated than was previously the case with the three-tiered system of upper, middle and lower classes as Savage et al. (2013) purport. The BBCs 2011 Great British Class Survey was the largest survey of social class ever conducted in the UK, with 161,400 web respondents as well as a nationally representative sample survey, which included questions, which measured social, cultural and economic capital. Analysis of the data resulted in a new breakdown of class structure. Whilst the traditional elite, middle-class and working-class categories still exist, the latter can be further divided into four subcategories, new affluent workers, traditional working class, emergent service workers and the precariat (ibid.). At these lower levels of the class structure, alongside an ageing traditional working class, ‘precariats’ are characterised by very low levels of capital whilst emergent service workers are relatively young, with a mean age of 34, who tend not to be graduates or come from middle-class families. This is significant because students are allocated the class of their parents, argue Savage et al. (2013). Goldthorpe (2013) concurs acknowledging middle-class parents protect their children from downward mobility. The Boston Consulting Group and Sutton Trust call this building a “glass floor” (2017, p. 15). This suggests those from working-class backgrounds, who are studying for professional careers more associated with the middle classes, are likely to experience the discomfiture of being what Bourdieu considered “a fish out of water”. Caught between worlds, in limbo whilst they aspire to better futures but not having yet arrived at them.