Class And Social Exclusion Analysis

Class and Social Exclusion: The neglected and troublesome partners

Introduction

Researchers are debating about the definitions of class and what are contributing factors to class (Gilfillan, 2009; Crompton, 2010). Because the society is complicated, there are many possible aspects that can define status and class (Robson, 2016). Bourdieu (1986) proposes that the factors that constitute class can be found in the economic, social, cultural, and symbolic capitals of a person. They are, for instance, accent, clothing, physical look and education (Charlesworth, 2004). When the lower class people are able to attain prosperity or power and break through to the higher class, called “upwardly mobile”, the large difference in the level of Bourdieu’s
The economic capital, which is essentially the amount of possessed money, as proposed by Bourdieu (1986), is a key determinant of one’s education. Because people from lower class are also economically deprived, they are not able to afford higher education, which leads to lower academic qualifications. Even though graduating with the same level of education, people from underprivileged classes also experience lower yield due to lower quality of the educational institution (Hall and Patrinos, 2012). Therefore, this gap in the opportunity to access a high quality teaching can be hindrances for the lower class in the labour market (United Nations, 2016). For example, Ashley and Empson (2013) found that many firms focus on recruiting graduates with robust academic results through written documents found in multiple recruitment channels. Potentially, although education can be a good measure of skills and competencies of a prospect employee, education can also act in favor for the upper class job applicants, who possess time and resources to focus on excellent academic results, to outclass the lower background applicants in the labor
Cabinet Office (2009) published the Milburn Review to response to the worry that the ability of less fortunate people to enter prestigious professions, such as a lawyer, is being limited in the past 30 years. Moreover, together with the concept of race and gender, social background is still a barrier in the workplace. Berry and Bell (2012) reveals that class stratifications are highly visible in the retail sector as many workers in various position posses the same academic qualification, such as high school level. Consequently, taking race, gender, and class altogether, social background can be a barrier in the recruitment process, pay and benefit determination, and career opportunity at