UCSP 1.2

Socioeconomic class

Socioeconomic class

refers to a category that groups people into similar economic, social, cultural, and political status.

Economic status

refers to the ranking of people based on their income classification.

Different occupations and educational attainment

have an attached value that influences an individual's position in a socioeconomic class.

white-collar occupations

Doctors, lawyers, and other ______ are considered more prestigious than blue-collar jobs.

Blue-collar workers

like construction workers and janitors are sometimes socially stigmatized.

the caste system of India

determines an individual's social class and status in their society. Citizens from higher classes receive more job opportunities in the government tha lower caste members.

Brahmins

priests

Kshatriyas

kings, rulers, warriors

Vaisyas

merchants, craftsmen, landowners, skilled workers

Sudras

farm workers, unskilled workers, servants

Dalits (Untouchables)

streetsweepers, human/animal waste removers, dead body handiers, outcastes

PENINSULARES

citizens with pure Spanish blood who were born in Spain

INSULARES

pure Spaniards born in the Philippines

ILUSTRADOS

Filipinos who studied abroad (like Jose Rizal, and Marcelo H. Del Pilar)

CHINESE MESTIZOS

fourth in the hierarchy

INDIOS

native Filipinos that are born and raised in the Philippines.

Karl Marx

proposed a socioeconomic class system that delineates the bourgeois and the proletariat.

The bourgeois

is the class that owns the "means of production" (e.g., monetary, land, technological capital) needed to initiate the production of wealth. They do not have to work since they gain money from owning and investing their capital.

The proletariat

includes anybody who is not an owner of the means of production. They must work to survive. In this system of socioeconomic class, the difference between the classes' economic and social status is clearly evident.

Economic capital

refers to financial resources that an individual possesses. Examples include money, assets, properties, and savings.

Social capital

is the collection or network of an individual's social relations with people that may be of help in the future.

Cultural capital

is the combination of knowledge, behaviors, and skills that an individual has acquired to demonstrate one's cultural competence and, in turn, determine one's social status in society.