What problems are associated with trying to measure social class?

The master(prenominal) problem with trying to bank none well-disposed mob is that the term favor competent dissever is most controversial. on that pointfrom the bureau in which it is calculated will vary harmonize to how it is dod. Many theorists reason that the question of how to stones throw kind variant cannot be separated from the question of correct-consciousness. Thompson believed that amicable severalize would exactly exist if at that place were soma- consciousness. By this he meant class is single class if you believe that you belong to a certain class.What this meant was that several(prenominal)s in the same(p) class situation sh be a sense of their common land interest, and thus think or be withstand in a similar manner. Whereas Marx believed that class was identified according to an somebodys relationship to the dominant mode of production. He believed that the cardinal great classes of a capitalist society were the bourgeoisie and the proletar iat. The bourgeoisie were those who were the owners and controllers of the means of production ands the proletariat were those who only had their own labour power, which they were forced to sell in invest to survive.This then leads to class inequalities, as the bourgeoisie will aim to maximise production with nominal costs. This would mean that the bourgeoisie make the proletariat tame exceptionally hard and pay very gnomish. Marx would press that these economic inequalities lead to class inequalities. The main way in which somebodys atomic number 18 allocated to their societal class is via their date position and the structure of drill has been divided up in various ways in order to generate them. This is complete as the employment sum approach to class analysis.There argon many a(prenominal) a(prenominal) ways in which class dodgings that are available. angiotensin-converting enzyme of the main schemes is the register general. This scheme has six categories, ranging from original dividing lines to unskilled manual of arms practiceers, which understandably show the power structure of occupations advantages and disadvantages. The register generals class scheme show detain for Marxist theory of class inequality on the bases of economic factors. As he argued that class subdivision does occur on the bases of the type of employment you are in and the register generals class scheme clearly reflects this.Marx would also go on to argue that those in the lower professions are unable to move up the class structure as it is not in the interest of the bourgeoisie, also they are not devoted the same life chances as the bourgeoisie, for example the commandment that those in the top professions receive is argued to be interrupt than those in the lower professions. It has also been argued that even if complaisant mobility does occur its is much harder for the working class to shoot to the top professions as they are faced with more concentrated a long the way.However there are a number of problems with using the register generals class scheme to define which social class an individual belongs to. This is because in order to gain the information to categories individuals into their social class the Government produce a number form, which the public must complete. However because it is a questionnaire there are many methodological problems associated with it. The main adept being that the public whitethorn not be completely honest when completing the form, in fearfulness of being judged or not wanting others to know their psycheal information. likewise the census only requires a simple job description and not expand information, this can not then be a reliable way in which to categories peoples occupational status. some other problem with using occupational scales to measuring stick social class is that although a certain job whitethorn come under the heading of a manual worker the actual job it self may be super paid and involve a lot of skill, but due to the fact the individual is doing manual work they would still be class as working class.An example of this would be a builder, their job involves a lot of skill and is highly paid but it is still a manual job, therefore you would be sum uped working class. some other main problem with using the register generals class scheme is that there are many people who dont discriminate to any of the categories provided. For example domestic workers and employer dont figure in the scale therefore how can they be allocated to a certain class. Another method for measuring social class is on heathenish and semi policy-making factors.What is meant by this is that the type of lifestyle you lead is a measure for what social class you fit into. For example if an individual wears designer clothes such as Gucci and drives a fashionable car then they would be consider to be middle or even amphetamine class, due to their lifestyle. However if an individual wa s to elect campaign in the public election then they would be considered to be working class as they are believed to be a working class political party.The problem with using this measure of social class is that it is very subjective and to what one individual would define as middle class some other may define as working class. Also another problem is that although a person may have the lifestyle of a middle class person e. g. expensive clothes etc they may have a working class job and therefore work extremely long hours in order to expire a life similar to the middle class.Another problem with class measurement is the grammatical gender factor, although many theorist consider the topic of class to be gender neutral, it has been argued by many that this is not the case. It has been argued that the class structure for men differs from womens due to employment opportunities. It was not until recently that women were actually able to do the same jobs as men and fail equal pay. the n this would cause problems when measuring womens class position, because although they were working their income was jolly low compared to men doing the same job.Therefore a man and women who doing similar jobs were unlikely to be mensurable at the same social class if the cultural method was being used. However if they using the employment aggregated method they would be the same social class. This therefore shows the some of the problems with the different methods available. The other gender problem is that until recently women were not able to get the highly professional and powerful jobs therefore would not have been considered as middle class unless there husbands job was middle class.However once women were able to get the higher positioned jobs their employment still had little effect on the families social position because it was endlessly the males employment that was used even if it was lower than the womens. Therefore having considered the different measures that are av ailable to measure social class I believe that it very difficult to measure a persons class position on just the bases of either their occupation, cultural or political factors. This is because I dont believe a person occupation does necessarily indicate which class a person belongs to.This is because although a person may have a professional job there wealth in terms of assets may be very low. Also an individuals may have a classification of a professional job but their status within that job may be low, thats why I feel that Goldthorpes class scheme is a more accurate than the register generals. Having brought this discussion to an end I believe that in order to accurately measure an individuals social class position all lead dimension should be measure (economic, political and cultural) as this would give a more valid social class position.