The Changing Role of the Middle Class in British Society

This sociology essay provides a detailed analysis of the British middle class in contemporary society. It begins with an introduction to the concept of the middle class, differentiating it from working and upper classes, and providing statistics on its prevalence in Britain. The essay then delves into the social structure of Britain, highlighting the different classes and their characteristics, including the underclass, working class, and upper class. A significant portion of the essay is dedicated to discussing the middle class in British society, its segmentation into various categories (lower, middle, and upper middle class), income levels, and challenges faced, such as stagnant incomes and restricted freedoms. The essay further explores the importance of the middle class in British society today, emphasizing its role in innovation and development. Finally, it examines the changing status and role of the British middle class, including the impact of economic changes and the emergence of new labor classes, and how the middle class is now divided into service class, routine white-collar workers, and petite bourgeoisie.

SOCIOLOGY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Contemporary British societies....................................................................................................3
Middle class in British Society....................................................................................................4
How important is middle class in British Society today..............................................................5
Change in the status and role of British middle class..................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION.
Middle class is a social group that exists between working and working class which may
include business and professional people and their families. It is the class of people which is in
the middle of social hierarchy and it is commonly referred with the term “Middle Class”. Middle
class in Britain consists of people who are born into the families which traditionally possessed
medium levels of income, this group is defined more by the job and income (Parry and Parry,
2018). In Britain there are about 25% of middle people living in the British societies. Middle
class people are engaged in wide variety of occupations but most of them are professionals in
public services and even hold managerial jobs. Middle class people live throughout Britain and
also most of them live outside the large towns and forms the vital part within the different British
societies.
MAIN BODY
Contemporary British societies
Social structure of Britain has historically been influenced through the concept of social
class which has been continuously been affecting British societies at present. British society like
various societies of the world has divided in hierarchically in the system which involves
hereditary transmission of social status, occupation as well as political influence (Ingham, 2016).
From the period of industrialisation this system has been in the constant state of revisions and
new factors has been added to these classes other than birth. At present British societies can be
divided as follows:
Under class: Under class people are those people who are unemployed and have been
unemployed for generations and these are the people who do not work at all.
Working Class: Working class people can be divided into two categories such as unskilled,
semi-skilled and skilled class. People who go to work in semi-skilled and unskilled jobs on the
assembly lines and machines shops like steel mills, coal mines, car factories, textile mills etc are
referred as semi-skilled and unskilled working class people in Britain. In England there has been
decline in the manufacturing sector and there has been increase in service sector which has
resulted in low paid working class. The people who work in skilled industrial jobs like in
manufacturing or construction jobs refers to skilled working class.
Middle class: Middle class people can be divided into various categories such lower middle
class, middle middle class and upper middle class (Cole, 2018). British lower middle class

normally consists of office workers and are employed typically in unskilled service sector jobs or
work in local factories or at government posts. Middle middle class people of Britain consists of
people with tertiary education and are educated at private or state schools (Willis, R and et.al.).
Jobs which are performed by middle class people includes social workers, accounts, architects
doctors etc. various members of middle class are often engaged politically and socially. Middle
class people in England are referred as Middle England. Upper middle class people of Britain
consist of people who are born in the families with high incomes and are defined more by the
family back ground than by their jobs and income.
Upper class people: This class is statistically very small which consists of gentry, peerage as
well as hereditary land owners in Britain. Most of the people in upper class belong from the birth
most of the people know there peers from the young age and move in same social class circles
across the generations and also belong to same clubs.
Elite class: This is most higher class in Britain and member of this class are the top six percent
of the British society which have got very high economic capital, very highbrow cultural capital
and high social capita.
Middle class in British Society
Middle class in British society forms the major part for every society in England, for
defining the people in middle class, can be simply said that one who does not belong to upper
and lower class. At present in Britain many occupations which pay low wages are service jobs
like office security, call centres, contract cleaning etc. Even low paid workers nowadays were
proper uniform, tie and suit which make them indistinguishable from middle class people. So,
being a middle class in Britain is therefore about not being a lower class and upper class
(Hendrick, 2015). Middle class people are not homogeneous people and fall in to 4 distinctive
segments which are as Traditional Egalitarians, Traditional Free marketeers, The Angry Middle
and Post-Idealogical Liberals. It has been established that middle class people in Britain have an
average household income of £47,000 per year and owns a home on average of £177,000 and
have got the saving of £26,000. Most middle class people are graduates and a majority of their
members work in management or professions as many have been originated from managerial or
professional families. Middle class of British society is divided into various categories which has
made it broad and complicated. This is consists of lower middle class, middle middle class and
upper middle class. There has been shift from people moving from lower class to middle class. It

has been the year of 2000 when people of Britain has become more middle class than the
working class as per the social grading data. This has been mainly due to rise the economy
stability of the country which has increased the living standards of the people which has shifted
people from working class to middle class (Kennedy, 2016). Social grading system of UK has
divided the middle class households on the basis of jobs. Grade ranges from A which includes
upper managerial and professional roles to E which includes casual workers, state pensioners and
various unemployed people receiving the state benefits. There are also various challenges which
are faced by middle class people as there are various freedoms which are restricted to middle
class people as they are struck in the straitjacket of bourgeois values. The income of middle class
people nowadays is stagnant and middle class people have been suffering from various aspects of
life, like they can afford nice house or provide quality education to their children. Middle class
people are also struggling with their children to provide quality education as they want to send
their kids to private schools but could not afford due to rise in school fees. Middle class people
can not enjoy the benefits which are given to upper class people they have to suffer from
discriminations at different levels. Also, there have been any developments which are made that
could benefit the middle class people. Due to increase in number middle class people in Britain
average income level of middle class people have fallen since 2008 and there is also rise
inequalities which has drastically affected the middle class people of Britain.
Middle class can be divided in various categories like Established middle class, which
form about 25% of British society which is reported with high economic status, capital and high
emerging capital. The occupations which are related to it are electrical engineers, midwives,
environmental professionals, regulatory professionals etc. Another type of middle class in Britain
is Technical middle class which forms about total six percent of British society. Technical
middle class shows the high economic capital, it also shows very high social contacts, but there
are few contacts reported and have got the moderate cultural capital. Various occupations which
are referred to technical class are aircraft pilots, natural and social science professionals, medical
radiographers,pharmacists, administrative and research positions.
How important is middle class in British Society today
Britain has been rigid in making distinctions between different strata societies, as class
system has been the essential part for British people and this class distinctions did not die. People
of UK has been looking for various ways for expressing themselves. As per the views of

Steinbach, (2016) Britain has been suffered from rigid class system from decades and it still
continues in Britain as compared to other countries. Middle class has been important for Britain
as it has resulted in transformation and innovations as country's intellectual improvements has
mainly occurred through the middle regions of the society. Also, rise of middle class in the
British societies has given reasons for ordinary people to innovate. One may be thinking why is
it middle class people and why not upper class, the major reason behind it is that as we know that
innovation has always been disruptive. Upper class consist of the type of people who are
currently benefiting themselves from profits and rents of their old properties. So, there has been
low incentive towards developments as it will disrupt their own interest. In the case of lower
class people they would be willing to take country towards the developments and innovations but
they don't too much opportunities in Britain for making developments as their opportunities are
limited. So, it is clearly the middle class who are working for the developments and innovation
of the country. Middle class forms the major part for development of British societies and in the
development of the country. Middle class people aspire to improve socio-economic status in
which they live in and for which they are willing to take risks by taking entrepreneurial activities
which build the stronger position for the nation in terms of development. At present middle class
are becoming increasingly more effective in ensuring that they are affording various needs of the
life like quality education for their children, good living standards for their families etc for which
they work hard all the time. This hard work has helped in the development of nation as middle
class people have and are contributing towards the country. Due to their contribution now no one
is arguing for stopping the middle class to do best for themselves in the future and they want to
be the part of resilient or dynamic society which in return generates the dynamic economic
opportunities.
Change in the status and role of British middle class
In the 20th century middle class of Britain has always enjoyed social and economic
stability but arrival of credit crunch in the year 2008 and also the subsequent economic recession
has brought various challenges for the middle class social group. Middle class people has been
facing the series of challenges in establishing the stable way of life (Zakreski, 2016). As a result
of rise in economic uncertainties, rise in cost of living and education have made the things even
more complex for middle class people. But from the date there has been various changes which
has taken place till now, which has resulted in improvement in the standard of living of middle

class people. Now are all middle class, as there has been shift to new labour class which has
proved viable in the recent years and this change has drastically impacted the British societies.
As outline there are various definitions of middle class in Britain which change from different
perspectives, but now it is normally defined on the basis of occupation that gives attributes to
class. Middle class people are linked to their occupation to greater extent which are performed by
individuals of the middle class. Currently middle class is divided in three following groups
which are the service class which consists of high professionals like lawyers, engineers, doctors
etc, managers and low professionals which include teachers, social workers, nurses etc. This is
the change which has taken place by dividing the service class into two parts higher
professionals and lower professionals (Mark, E.,2014.). Second category is routine white collar
workers who performs routine administrative works. Third one is Petite bourgeoisie which are
the self employed people or are the owners of the small business in Britain. Also there has also
been social and economic changes which has taken place in recent years which have affected the
individual groups of the middle class of Britain with different intensity producing different
outcomes. Due to the credit crunch in 2008 which has slowed down the Economy of England
gave the emergence of term which is called Coping class as it was given to middle class who
were pressed due to economic recession. During the time middle class people had to put their
efforts in maintaining their livelihood due to which they have to suffer a lot. Many people has to
deal with rinsing bills which created pressure on the middle class people. But with the passage of
time middle class people have been evolving as there has been rise in political and economic
stability within the country. This has resulted in the standard of living of middle class people
which has changed the financial and social position of middle class people in Britain.
CONCLUSION
Present report concludes that social class has huge importance within the British society,
and in Britain social class is divided into three major categories out of which Middle class form
the major part. It can also be concluded form the above report that majority of people in UK
come under the middle class, and these people had to face various challenges in order to sustain
their living. Also, present report concludes that middle class has been evolving since economic
recession and has become much more stable at present, and they have to struggle a lot during the
recession. This report also concludes that there has been changes within the British social system

which have affected the middle class people. It can also Middle class people has played an
important role in the development of the country and has been major factor for its advancement.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Cole, G. D. H., 2018. British working class politics. 1832-1914. Routledge.
Hendrick, H., 2015. Constructions and reconstructions of British childhood: An interpretative
survey, 1800 to the present. In Constructing and reconstructing childhood.(pp. 29-53).
Routledge.
Ingham, G., 2016. Capitalism Divided? The City & Industry in British Social Development.
Macmillan International Higher Education.
Kennedy, P., 2016. The middle class cosmopolitan journey: the life trajectories and transnational
affiliations of skilled EU migrants in Manchester. In Cosmopolitanism in practice.(pp.
19-36). Routledge.
Parry, N. and Parry, J., 2018. The rise of the medical profession: a study of collective social
mobility. Routledge.
Steinbach, S. L., 2016. Understanding the Victorians: Politics, culture and society in nineteenth-
century Britain. Routledge.
Willis, R., Khambhaita, P., Pathak, P. and Evandrou, M., 2016. Satisfaction with social care
services among South Asian and White British older people: the need to understand the
system. Ageing & Society. 36(7). pp.1364-1387.
Zakreski, P., 2016. Representing female artistic labour. 1848–1890: refining work for the
middle-class woman. Routledge.
Online
Mark, E.,2014. Time to Abandon the Middle Classes. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2011/03/time_to_abandon_the_
middle_cla.html>.