1. People grouped according to a classification based on socioeconomic profiles that apply to the individual or the family group (income, level of education, work).
2- Form of order and differentiation of power among the members of society, generally identified by lower, middle and upper class, allowing to observe problems and activate policies of aid, stability, wealth distribution, etc.
3. Instrument of discrimination or hierarchical control, from the wealthiest class towards the humblest.
Etymology: class, from Latin classes; and social, by the lain socialisregarding partnerswhich refers to ‘partner’, and the suffix -al, by reason of membership.
Grammatical category: noun fem.
in syllables: class + social.
Social class
lilen gomez
Professor in Philosophy
historical origin
Although the main referent of a theorization around the concept of social class has been the philosopher Karl Marx (1818-1883), it is possible to trace from Antiquity the idea of a division of societies between poor and rich citizens. Already in Politics, Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) presents a differentiation within society between slaves and free men, whose correlate is the division between rich and poor. In turn, this division is related to the forms of government, since certain social classes have access to political power, while others are dominated. It is also possible to trace notions close to that of social class, for example, in the developments of Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) around the feudal hierarchy in the early Middle Ages.
Towards the French Revolution, the representation of a separation of society between three well-distinguished orders became more present in the social consciousness of the time, which can be observed, for example, in the work of François Babeuf (1760-1797), around the class struggle as a decisive factor for the political struggle. Other authors of the time have clearly proposed an analysis of society under a class division, such as Saint-Simon, Proudhon or Adam Smith.
The Marxist concept of social classes
The particularity of Marx’s developments around the notion of social class is that his approach is scientific, he focuses on the explanation of the structure of classes, although he does not receive a systematic treatment, such as other concepts in his work. . The concept of social class appears mentioned at various times in Marx’s work, but its most specific treatment is found in Capital, once the process of production and circulation of capital has been explained.
The analytical study of social classes is presented as essential for understanding the development of concrete society in its empirical form, namely, the development of the tendencies displayed by the capitalist mode of production. In this sense, the concept of social class is not the result of a descriptive observation on social evolution, but a theoretical product of research on the mode of production itself. Thus, different levels of analysis are proposed, with different degrees of abstraction.
The levels of social analysis from the notion of class
The most abstract level at which the concept is situated is that of the analysis of the mode of production, as a result of the inquiry into the productive forces (namely, the organization of the labor force and the means of production) and the production relations (the links that men establish among themselves in the context of production). These relationships, throughout history, are configured according to certain ways. When these relationships are constituted based on private property, the way in which they are configured is contradictory: a dynamic is established between groups whose interests are antagonistic. Social classes are, then, the expression of such antagonistic relations, which take the form of a class struggle.
To the extent that the historical and geographical conditions of a certain society are specified, the analysis of social classes becomes more concrete, until the structure of such society in its particular situation is defined. The analysis of social science is the one that operates at this level, by establishing the theoretical mediations between the universal and the concrete.
distinctive notes
The social class, basically, consists of a group of individuals that are part of a society, which assumes an interest that is antagonistic to that of another social group, according to the role that both play in the productive process, in relation to ownership of the means of production. In other words, those who own the means of production are the ones who make up the ruling class, while those who only own their own workforce make up the working class.
Both classes enter into a struggle, since the logic of profit maximization that governs the capitalist system leads, necessarily, to the exploitation of the working classes, as a counterpart to the accumulation of capital by the owning class. In the context of the capitalist production system, the class struggle arises, thus, between the bourgeoisie and the working class.
Following
References
Dos Santos, T. (1967, January). The concept of social classes. In Annals of the University of Chile (No. 141-144, pp. ág-81).