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Is class still a relevant factor in 21st century Britain?
Social stratification has always been in existence since the foundation of the first ancient societies. Throughout the history there were many different approaches to stratifying people and describing inequality, but in the modern world the term class has become one of the major tools used to emphasise how people differ from each other on an economic or social basis (Roberts, 2001, p. 4). While our society has been going through diverse changes, the class system has undergone several alterations in accordance with contemporary social structure. While class having the same characteristics as in 18th century is not a useful term in 21st century Britain, a modified version of it may be successfully used when describing differences between people with diverse social statuses. This essay is going to compare multiple definitions of class, to provide arguments why class remains important and to examine how social class can be applied
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There are several arguments which claim that the importance of class is gradually diminishing; for instance, an old theory of ‘embourgeoisement’ states that incomes of the lower classes are rising, therefore the working class is now able to purchase goods and to enjoy diverse forms of entertainment which were earlier only affordable for the middle and upper classes. However, as the working class has advanced, the middle and the upper classes did not remain the same as well, what means that the gap did not shorten. Also, as soon as the lower classes started enjoying the same things as the upper classes, those goods have lost popularity amongst bourgeoise. Moreover, lifestyles of the working class members have hardly changed, mainly, because lower classes continue earning money by selling their labour and having the same everyday routine as before the change in incomes (Roberts,