Examine How The Concept Of ‘Class’ Can Be Used To Analyze Contemporary Irish Society: Community Development And Leadership Essay, NUIM, Ireland

Social Analysis

1. Examine how the concept of ‘class’ can be used to analyze contemporary Irish society.

2. State and society look to the education system to address issues of inequality, yet the education system is central to the reproduction of inequality – Discuss with reference to relevant literature and sociological frameworks.

3. In what way have social changes impacted community life in Ireland?

4. Using Sociological Imagination, discuss the ways in which social structures impact issues in your community.

General Guidelines

1. Your essay should be between 1,500 and 2,000 words in length and should be typed, single-sided. Use double or one-and-a-half line spacing. Use Times New Roman or Arial font style and font size 12.

2. You are expected to use the correct methods of referencing and bibliography. Refer to the handbook for guidance and examples.

3. Your essay should refer to and make proper use of relevant sociological concepts and theories from relevant sources. Do not refer solely to lecture notes/slides.

4. You should use at least three academic sources (books, journal articles). You may also supplement this material with reference to relevant websites, newspaper articles, etc.

5. Refer to the handbook for assignment submission and presentation guidelines.

Introduction

Despite the recent economic downturn, Ireland has experienced unprecedented economic growth since the early 1990s. The boom, metaphorically known as the ‘Celtic Tiger’, saw unemployment figures drop to historically low levels. While this prosperity should have made a significant difference to class inequality in Ireland, the reality is that it remains.

The role that education plays in the reproduction of inequalities is a key concern for sociologists in Irish society. Lynch argues that “educational credentials have become the major determinants of wealth, status and power” The aim of this paper is to discuss how the education system contributes to class inequality in contemporary Irish society. For the purpose of this essay, the author will focus on second-level education. The essay will firstly define a class and then equip the reader with an understanding of the different sociological theories that underpin class. The author will proceed to demonstrate that upper- and middle-class families are at a considerable advantage in education over working-class families. It will argue that any efforts by policymakers to reduce class inequalities in education may have succeeded in exacerbating the problem.

Defining Class

Sociologists often use the concept of class to explain inequalities in modern society. The class can probably be best understood in dualistic terms between a socially accepted middle-class majority versus a socially excluded working-class minority. Tovey and Share  argue that:
Inequality tends to be understood in terms of a gross differentiation between the majority the ‘more or fewer middle classes’ – and an ‘underclass’ made up of the poor, the long-term unemployed, substance abusers and marginalised groups such as Travellers.

The concept of social class has a number of meanings: it acknowledges that a person’s economic position places them in a group with others within the same economic position; it recognises that it is expressed through a person’s lifestyle and it is regarded as a measure of the status a person holds in society.

Sociologists can analyse social class at different levels. At a broad or macro-level, they can analyse the structural features of inequality in society and seek answers to how inequalities are caused and reproduced. At a smaller or micro-level, sociologists seek to establish how inequalities are experienced in everyday life such as in the workplace or in schools.

The concept of ‘class’ is a complex subject. Tovey and Share indicate some dimensions that often overlap and interact: It can embrace many aspects of social life, from inequalities of wealth, property and income to the work people do, the education they receive and the housing they occupy, their values, attitudes and political beliefs and practices and even the art, literature and mass media that they produce or consume.

Nevertheless, not all sociologists share the same meaning of social class. In order to understand and critically analyse such a topic, it is important to have an acquaintance with the different theoretical viewpoints surrounding the concept of social class.

Sociological theories of class

Functionalist/Consensus Perspective Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), from a functionalist perspective, argued that inequality is a natural function of society. His work, The Division of Labour in Society, is most relevant to understanding class and how social order is maintained in society. According to Munck, Durkheim distinguished between two types of societies: Traditional societies were, for Durkheim, characterised by a ‘mechanical solidarity’ held together by their commonality, whereas modern societies with their highly complex divisions of labour needed ‘organic solidarity based on interdependency and shared values.

Durkheim (1984) understood that problems existed due to the divisions of labour in modern society; he also believed that if the shift from traditional society to modern society was too quick it could result in problems such as anomie or normlessness. Durkheim argued that “…complex industrial society will develop a division of labour in which society rewards individuals according to a consensus of values on the importance of particular functions”. Furthermore, he stressed that within modern society, different jobs merit different rewards and the best would naturally rise to the top.

Consequently, for functionalists, there is equal opportunity for all people in society and justification for any inequalities that exist. Functionalists Davis and Moore (1966), deemed social stratification necessary in modern society; they believed that an equal society would lack incentives for people to work to the best of their abilities. According, to Davis and Moore, “social inequality is an unconsciously evolved device by which societies ensure that the most important positions are conscientiously filled by the most qualified persons”.

Following on with this perspective, Saunders (1990), argued that contemporary society is a meritocratic society and that those who criticise the class system cannot accept “that talents are unevenly distributed among people, that the most talented tend to rise towards the higher social positions, and that they tend to pass on some of their genetic advantages to some of their offspring”. According to Munck (2007), “how this supposedly natural and genetic imbalance translates into an occupational structure is through the educational system where IQs determine who is best equipped to do which job in society”.

The education system performs three vital functions on behalf of society, it “helps to develop the human resources of an industrial nation…selects individuals according to their talents…and contributes to social cohesion by transmitting to new generations the central values of society”.

In contemporary Irish society, the functionalist will analyse “…how the socialisation experience is being structured and how the educational system is adapting to the changing labour market”

Marxist/Conflict Perspective

Karl Marx (1818-1883), from a conflict perspective, disagreed with the functionalist approach and argued that inequality was not a natural function of modern society. While the functionalist approach is based on solidarity, Marxism is based on inequality. He identified two classes in modern capitalist society; the capitalist class or bourgeoisie and the working class or proletariat. Marx argued that it is the relationship or conflict between these two classes that determine how modern society develops. The bourgeoisie exploits the proletariat in order to maximise profits, the proletariat becomes disconnected or alienated from the products of their labour and from each other.

A capitalist society, according to Tovey and Share (2000), “…is also a society that alienates human beings from each other and its structures reduce human freedom”. Erik Olin Wright, a contemporary sociologist, updated Marx’s theories of class.

He identified three dimensions to ownership:
1. Those who have control over money or capital
2. Those who have control over the physical means of production such as property and machinery
3. Those who have control over labour-power Although Wright shared Marx’s view that ultimately there are the owners and the workers, he said there were more categories in between the two.

For example, the workers on the assembly line, the shop floor supervisor, the manager and the factory owner. In Ireland, Denis O’Hearn’s 1998 analysis of the share of national income going to wages versus profit concluded that the “…winners from economic growth are capitalists, who have enjoyed a rapid rise in their profit incomes – not just absolutely but also relative to wages”, suggests “Some classes are more powerful than others because they own more property and wealth. This power gives them the means to defend and keep what they hold”.

In contemporary Irish society, those who wish to apply a Marxist perspective will analyse how “…schools are involved in the production of consciousness and in the reproduction of the class structure”.

Weberian Perspective/Social Action Theory

Although normally opposed to the theories of Marx, German sociologist Max Weber (1864- 1920) did agree with Marx’s view that those who are powerful in society use this power for their own good. On the other hand, Weber agreed with the functionalists view that “it was necessary for some groups to have more power to ensure society functioned more efficiently”.

For Weber, rationalisation is a characteristic of modern industrial society. A person acts purposive-rationally when the ends, the means and the secondary results are all rationally taken into account and weighed. (Weber, 1968, p. 26) Bureaucratisation is a good example of Weber’s ideas to modern society. A bureaucratic organisation, such as the educational system in Ireland, has clearly defined goals in which superiors strictly control and discipline the activities of its pupils or subordinates. Weber (1948) defined bureaucracy as “a hierarchical organisation structure designed rationally to co-ordinate the work of many individuals in the pursuit of large-scale administrative tasks and organisational goals”.

From a Weberian perspective, access to education is based on social status and the economic position one holds. Weber referred to stratification as “the distribution of power within a community”. This power, Munck states: …had an economic aspect (class) but also a social dimension (status) and a political dimension (party). In any particular society, for Weber, class, status and party could interact in various crosscutting ways. (2007, p.308)

Furthermore, Weber believed that in pre-industrial societies, peoples actions were guided by traditional beliefs, whereas in modern society people tend to “…evaluate jobs [and] schools, in terms of what we put into them and what we expect to receive in return”  In contemporary Irish society, those who wish to apply a Weberian perspective to the concept of class in education will analyse how “…education is used by individuals and groups in the struggle for economic advantage, status and domination” (Clancy, 2007, p. 105).

The concept of ‘class’ in relation to education in Ireland. As mentioned previously, Ireland has experienced unprecedented economic growth since the early 1990s. The boom, metaphorically known as the ‘Celtic Tiger’, saw unemployment figures drop to historically low levels. According to The Economic Social and Research Institute (ERSI), the number of people in employment rose from 1.2 million in 1990 to 2.1 million in 2008. The rate of unemployment had dropped to only 4.5 per cent in 2007. There was also a decrease in the number of people emigrating which had been the trend prior to the boom. While there have been various reasons put forward to account for Ireland’s economic success during the Celtic Tiger period, the arrival of American IT companies into Ireland, such as Intel, Hewlett Packard and Microsoft, is probably considered the catalyst. While such prosperity should have made a significant difference to class inequality in Ireland, the reality is that it remains.

The education system in Ireland, as in other countries, is considered as contributing to class inequality. In Ireland education has expanded rapidly in recent decades and Ireland portrays itself as a modern and highly educated society.

Nevertheless, the reality is, the percentage of the population that has completed secondary education is low in comparison with the majority of countries within the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).  It is widely regarded that the level of educational qualification achieved is related to gender and parental socio-economic background. In spite of the significant economic progress over recent years, there is still a high level of early school leavers.

In their survey of school-leavers’, conducted on behalf of the ERSI and Department of Education and Science, Byrne and McCoy (2009, p.1) argue: While the prevalence of early school leaving has reduced over the years and now remains relatively stable at 14 percent for this cohort (representing almost 9,000 young people), males are more likely to leave school early than females, as are those from working-class households and households with parental unemployment. Furthermore, middle-class parents have direct experience of the system and access to resources which give their children considerably more advantages in education than the children of working-class parents. As Donohoe and Gaynor (2003), state “The class into which we are born influences…our educational prospects and our earning potential”.

Article 42 of the Irish Constitution acknowledges that the parents are the primary and natural educators of the child and are free to choose the school their child attends. It also accepts that the State will provide for free primary education. However, the evidence has shown that the educational system is geared in favor of those with economic resources. Public policies, in the form of tax rates and social expenditure, create economic inequalities between low-income and high-income families.

As Lynch and Lodge (2002) point out, “Public policy places upper- and middle-class families at a considerable advantage in education as they have the economic resources to exercise choice, in what is in many respects a free-market education system” (2002, p. 40). To illustrate, although all schools are state-funded, many request extra funding from parents in the form of fees or voluntary contributions. On the one hand, these fees and voluntary contributions may not be an issue for parents with access to resources while, on the other, they act as barriers to parents who lack resources. According to Lynch and Lodge (2002, p.42), parents who cannot pay school fees or voluntary contributions, fear their children would suffer as a consequence and therefore choose schools with no such requirements.

Furthermore, middle-class families can choose schools outside their own area as they have the access to private transport to facilitate this. Other hidden costs such as uniforms and sportswear requirements may also act as barriers to school choice. There are various types of schooling options at the post-primary level. Secondary schools, under the control of religious orders, are usually single-sex, academically orientated and cater for students from middle-class backgrounds. In contrast, vocational and community schools are
generally non-denominational, coeducational and provide a more technical-based curriculum and orientated towards working-class participants. In addition, fee-paying private schools offer another option. They are available only to those with the means to fund this highly academic and prestigious alternative. The salaries of the teaching staff in fee-paying secondary schools are paid by the state in addition to some capital development funding.

In most other countries private schools are fully funded by the fees paid by clients while in Ireland what have become private schools use tuition fees to supplement the state’s contribution. It is in effect a state-subsidized private system.

Social class differences within the Irish educational system become more apparent at the second level. As Lodge and Lynch (2002) suggest “The grouping of students in Irish schools is directly related to the way the curriculum and assessment systems operate” (2002, p.49). From the outset, students at the second level are grouped by their ‘ability. Under the education act, schools cannot choose students based on their academic ability.

Nevertheless, many schools have entrance assessment procedures, normally in the manner of an exam or test which enables them to group or ‘stream’ students from the first year. A study, commissioned by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) and, conducted by the ERSI, outlines the negative impact of ability grouping. The research reported that streaming was most common in working-class schools and argued: …students in lower streams…developed a more negative attitude to school, were more likely to misbehave and be given out to by teachers and were more likely to have disengaged from learning and from school life…Lower stream students were also more likely to leave school at the end of the junior cycle than their peers in mixed ability settings or in middle and higher streams.

On the whole, the role of education plays a powerful role in determining a person’s occupational achievements. “Those who receive much formal education are considerably advantaged over those who receive little, and those who receive their education in elite institutions are privileged over those who do not”.

Educational qualifications determine who will proceed to third-level education and therefore who will secure the most prestigious and highly paid jobs. This point is argued by Clancy (2007, pp.110-1): …educational qualifications serve as a screening device, which allocates people to their respective position in a hierarchical labor market [and]…the absence of valued educational credentials leads to very high risk of unemployment.

Accordingly, as middle-class high-income families have the means to access, participate and achieve in education, they maintain their advantage over working-class low-income families and as Clancy (2007) suggests “the class structure is reproduced” (2007, p.111). The various theoretical perspectives provide contrasting ways to interpret the education system in Ireland. The functionalist viewpoint focuses on how the education system socializes people into behaving in a certain way and to understand the norms and values of society.

It recognizes that the education system prepares all individuals for the workplace and acknowledges that those who achieve qualifications in school will obtain better-paid, more prestigious jobs. In contrast, the Marxist approach does not consider inequality to be a natural function of society. It considers that the education system favors privileged middle-class families. They have more access to resources that provide a better education for their children and therefore they will secure the best jobs.

Thus, the middle-class maintains and reproduces the class structure. Meanwhile, the Weberian perspective considers education as a means of gaining “economic advantage, status and domination”. People are able to perceive the importance of education credentials and pursue it.

Drudy (1991) identified that the functionalist approach was the most dominant approach to Irish educational analysis (Tovey and Share, 2000, p.167). Michael McDowell, former Progressive Democrat and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, argued that “a dynamic liberal economy like ours demands flexibility and inequality in some respects to function”.

Functionalists believe that inequality is natural and necessary for a properly functioning society. Conversely, in his submission to the educational disadvantaged forum, Griffin (2007) argued: The functionalist approach has allowed the policymakers to get off the hook as they provide an educational provision with the appearance of equality of opportunity for all. The importance of educational credentials lies in determining access to wealth, status and In analyzing education inequality in Irish society, aspects of both Marxist and Weberian perspectives are important. Lynch (1989) asserts that the Marxist concepts are valuable in terms of the sociology of education. She evaluates the work of many writers who reflect a Marxist perspective. In her appraisal of the work of Bowles and Gintis, Lynch concurs with their standpoint that “schools reproduce the existing social relations of capitalist society by reproducing the consciousness necessary for such relations” (1989, p.3). The Marxist perspective focuses on the relationship between education and the labor market. As illustrated, education plays a powerful role in determining a person’s occupational achievements as credentials determine who will proceed to third-level education and therefore who will secure the most prestigious and highly paid jobs. Nevertheless, the Marxist perspective on education is limited as its focus is purely economic.

Weberian perspectives are also considered relevant to modern Irish society. In addition to the economic aspect, it also focuses on cultural acquisition, stressing the role that education plays in determining a person’s status in society. This paper has demonstrated that access to education in modern Irish society is based on the social status one holds. In modern Irish society “the acquisition of specialized knowledge becomes a key to social standing and, increasingly, to wealth and power” Furthermore, the Weberian approach: …draws our attention to concepts such as power, domination and authority; to the conflict over economic resources and rewards; to the competition for status and prestige; to the struggle for control; and to the role of bargaining, negotiation and compromise”.

While educational spending may have increased and led to a growth in participation in recent decades, it is clear that the main beneficiaries have been middle-class families. Although at a micro-level, the Government has funded numerous schemes to tackle class inequalities and disadvantages within the education system, gross inequalities remain. As argued by Drudy and Lynch (1993, p. 163), “substantial proportions of low-income children from working-class…and unemployed backgrounds are still underachieving”. The social class inequalities within education pose significant challenges for public policymakers. There have been various initiatives; such as home-school liaison schemes, early start programs and disadvantaged areas schemes, which have attempted to overcome inequalities in education.

However, according to Lynch and Lodge (2002), these initiatives have done little to alter class inequalities in education. They also suggest that the government, by identifying and providing funding to ‘disadvantaged’ schools, could actually be exacerbating the problem because parents will not want to send their children to schools that have been highlighted as being disadvantaged. The policymakers need to address the enormous income and wealth divisions within Irish society. They must analyze at a macro level why class inequalities continue to persist. In doing this, they can make correct economic decisions, such as implementing appropriate tax rates, which could result in the narrowing of the gap between the rich and the poor.