Читать книгу An Introduction to Intercultural Communication - Fred E. Jandt - Страница 15

Marx and Engels (1850) claimed that identities were created not by religions or countries, but in the relationship to the means of production—that is, the capitalists who own the means of production and the proletariat, or “working class,” who must sell their own labor. The opening sentence of The Communist Manifesto is “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle” (Marx & Engels, 1850). In this understanding of class, conflict is inevitable. The collapse of Communism, though, has demonstrated that this understanding of class is not pervasive or an all-encompassing source of identity (Cannadine, 2013). Max Weber believed that Social class was determined by wealth, status, and power rather than by one’s relationship to the means of production (Appiah, 2018). Following this, class refers to one’s economic position in a society. Basically, this is the basis of today’s use of the terms upper, middle, and lower class.

The drama television series Downton Abbey depicted aristocratic and domestic servant life in the post-Edwardian era. British society was characterized by marriage within one's class and hereditary transmission of occupation, social status, and political influence. Today, social status in the United Kingdom is still influenced by social class, with other factors such as education also being significant.

PBS/Photofest

While classes may exist in any society, how clearly defined they are and how much they are a source of identity varies. When asked to identify an example of social classes, some think of British television drama series such as Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey, two of the most widely watched television dramas in the world, which depict the lives of servants and masters. Others identify the Indian Hindu caste system as one of the oldest and most rigid. Based on heredity, castes ranked from the Brahmin to the Kshatriya, to the Vaishya caste of artisans, farmers, and merchants, to the lower castes of Shudra and Atishudra laborers. Below these were the Dalits (formerly known as Untouchables), who continue to experience social and economic marginalization 70 years after India’s constitution outlawed caste-based discrimination. Mehta (2014, p. 37) describes the social and economic inequality in India: “The one thing my sons are always amazed by when they visit India is the condescension displayed toward entire groups of people. They hate the way people speak to their maids, their drivers, their waiters—anybody Indians consider socially inferior.”

In France, the States-General established in 1302 provided a legislative assembly ranking members by hereditary class. The First Estate were the highborn sons of families who had devoted themselves to religion. The Second Estate were the highborn sons devoted to war. The Third Estate were the richest members of the bourgeoisie. The rigidity of the French hereditary system was one cause of the French Revolution.

The Great British Class Survey in 2011 clearly showed that class remains a source of identity. The top 6% had much higher income, education at elite universities, and a network of social connections to one another. The lowest 15% had the lowest income, irregular or unstable employment, little in savings, and few social connections to the classes above them (Savage et al., 2013). In Chapter 7, you’ll read more about social class in the United States.