Gilbert model

Last updated January 28, 2025

The Gilbert model was developed by Dennis Gilbert as a means of a more effective way of classifying people in a given society into social classes. It posits the existence of six distinct classes: a capitalist class, an upper middle class, a lower middle class, a working class, a working-poor class, and an underclass.

Influences

Karl Marx believed that social class is determined by ownership (or non-ownership) of the "means of economic production" –ownership of raw materials, farmland, coal mines, factories, etc.^[1] His theory contains the idea of a struggle between two social classes –the Bourgeoisie (the capital owners) and the Proletariat (the non-owner workers).

Like Marx, Max Weber agreed that social class is determined mostly based on the unequal distribution of economic power and hence the unequal distribution of opportunity.^[2] He also saw that honour, status and social prestige were key factors in determining what social class people belong to. "Life-styles" such as where a person lives and the schools they attend are very important in determining social class. "Life-chances" also determined social class. If a person becomes a respectable member of society it will raise their social class. Party affiliations can also influence social class.

Basis

Even though Marx's and Weber's research were both taken into consideration when trying to create an effective means of social stratification, they were not weighted the same. Although the Gilbert model is based on the assumption that class structure develops out of the economic system like the Marxist theory, it still has much more in common with Weber's more modern theory that dealt with socialism. The aspect that Marxism takes into consideration when referring to the economy is "what a specific person owns determines their class" –a capitalistic viewpoint. If a man owns a factory, he is going to be in a higher social class than someone who works in the factory. In Marxist theory, the middle class is not emphasized or described, but it is clearly present in the Gilbert model. The Gilbert model focuses on occupation and, more generally on the source of income (occupation for most, but also assets, and government transfers for people at the top or bottom) and when referring to how the economic system places people in classes. The occupation of a person is directly related to a person's educational preparation because better education provides for a better occupation which in turn raises their class level.^[3]

Six social classes

The six social classes that provide the basis for the Gilbert model are determined based on the assumption of how class structure develops out of the economic system.^[4] Although the social hierarchy is most obvious at the extremes, differences between classes begin to become blurred when moving away from one of the extremes and towards the centre to where the middle and working classes are. It is difficult to get a precise classification.

Capitalist class

(Typical income: $1.5 million, mostly from assets) Even though the capitalist class is a very small class of super-rich capitalists at the top of the hierarchy, its impact on the economy and society is far beyond their numbers. These people contribute their money to political parties and are often owners of newspapers or television stations. They have investments that affect millions of people in the labour force. They tend to only associate with other people from their own class, rarely interacting with people from an inferior class. Even their children are usually segregated, attending only the most elite preparatory schools and universities.

Upper middle class

(typical income $200,000; for Working rich $500,000) The upper middle class is the group in society most shaped by formal education. A college degree is usually required and graduate studies are becoming increasingly required. Most people in this class are technicians, professionals, managers, officials, and highly successful small business owners. At the top of this class is the growing segment of working rich, affluent professionals and business owners. Children in high school strive to prepare themselves for upper-middle-class jobs because these types of jobs are symbols of success. Upper-middle-class people are able to purchase status symbols such as spacious homes. They are convinced that they deserve what they have achieved and are mostly satisfied that they have achieved a proper share of the American Dream.

Lower middle class

(Typical income $85,000) To attain a middle-class job it takes at least a high school diploma. However, many in the middle class have received some form of additional post-secondary training. The most educated will become semi-professionals, or have low-level managerial jobs. Sales and craft people are also included in this social class. Gilbert estimates that about a third of the population is middle class.

Working class

(Typical income $40,000) The core of this working class is made up of semi-skilled machine operators. Clerks and salespeople whose tasks are habitual and mechanized and require practically no skill beyond literacy. Brief on-the-job training can also be considered to be a part of this class. It is estimated that this class includes roughly a third of the population.

Working-poor class

(Typical Income: $25,000) The working poor class includes unskilled labourers, people in service jobs, and lower-paid factory workers. Income depends on the number of workers in the family and the number of weeks that they work. Many have not finished high school. Unable to save money and when retired the working poor depend heavily on their social security pensions to live.

Underclass

(Typical Income $15,000) These people are under-employed. They suffer from low education, low employability, and/or low income. Some can not work because of their age or disability. Hard times might be magnified because they belong to a minority group who suffers discrimination in the workforce.

Related Research Articles

A social class or social stratum is a grouping of people into a set of hierarchical social categories, the most common being the working class, middle class, and upper class. Membership of a social class can for example be dependent on education, wealth, occupation, income, and belonging to a particular subculture or social network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Means of production</span> Inputs used in the production of goods and services with economic value

In political philosophy, the means of production refers to the generally necessary assets and resources that enable a society to engage in production. While the exact resources encompassed in the term may vary, it is widely agreed to include the classical factors of production as well as the general infrastructure and capital goods necessary to reproduce stable levels of productivity. It can also be used as an abbreviation of the "means of production and distribution" which additionally includes the logistical distribution and delivery of products, generally through distributors; or as an abbreviation of the "means of production, distribution, and exchange" which further includes the exchange of distributed products, generally to consumers.

Karl Marx's theory of alienation describes the separation and estrangement of people from their work, their wider world, their human nature, and their selves. Alienation is a consequence of the division of labour in a capitalist society, wherein a human being's life is lived as a mechanistic part of a social class.

Social class in the United States refers to the idea of grouping Americans by some measure of social status, typically by economic status. However, it could also refer to social status and/or location. The idea that American society can be divided into social classes is disputed, and there are many competing class systems.

The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Common definitions for the middle class range from the middle fifth of individuals on a nation's income ladder, to everyone but the poorest and wealthiest 20%. Theories like "Paradox of Interest" use decile groups and wealth distribution data to determine the size and wealth share of the middle class.

In sociology, the upper middle class is the social group constituted by higher status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term lower middle class, which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle-class stratum, and to the broader term middle class. There is considerable debate as to how the upper middle class might be defined. According to sociologist Max Weber, the upper middle class consists of well-educated professionals with postgraduate degrees and comfortable incomes.

Social stratification refers to a society's categorization of its people into groups based on socioeconomic factors like wealth, income, race, education, ethnicity, gender, occupation, social status, or derived power. It is a hierarchy within groups that ascribe them to different levels of privileges. As such, stratification is the relative social position of persons within a social group, category, geographic region, or social unit.

In developed nations around the world, the lower middle class is a subdivision of the greater middle class. Universally, the term refers to the group of middle class households or individuals who have not attained the status of the middle or upper middle class associated with the higher realms of the middle class, hence the name.

Social position is the position of an individual in a given society and culture. A given position may belong to many individuals.

Life chances is a theory in sociology which refers to the opportunities each individual has to improve their quality of life. The concept was introduced by German sociologist Max Weber in the 1920s. It is a probabilistic concept, describing how likely it is, given certain factors, that an individual's life will turn out a certain way. According to this theory, life chances are positively correlated with one's socioeconomic status.

Though the American middle class does not have a definitive definition, contemporary social scientists have put forward several ostensibly congruent theories on it. Depending on the class model used, the middle class constitutes anywhere from 25% to 75% of households.

The American upper class is a social group within the United States consisting of people who have the highest social rank, due to economic wealth, lineage, and typically educational attainment. The American upper class is estimated to be the richest 1% of the population.

The social structure of the United Kingdom has historically been highly influenced by the concept of social class, which continues to affect British society today. British society, like its European neighbours and most societies in world history, was traditionally divided hierarchically within a system that involved the hereditary transmission of occupation, social status and political influence. Since the advent of industrialisation, this system has been in a constant state of revision, and new factors other than birth are now a greater part of creating identity in Britain.

Social reproduction describes the reproduction of social structures and systems, mainly on the basis of particular preconditions in demographics, education and inheritance of material property or legal titles. Reproduction is understood as the maintenance and continuation of existing social relations. Originally formulated by Karl Marx in Das Kapital, this concept is a variety of Marx's notion of economic reproduction.

Social inequality occurs when resources within a society are distributed unevenly, often as a result of inequitable allocation practices that create distinct unequal patterns based on socially defined categories of people. Differences in accessing social goods within society are influenced by factors like power, religion, kinship, prestige, race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, intelligence and class. Social inequality usually implies the lack of equality of outcome, but may alternatively be conceptualized as a lack of equality in access to opportunity.

Marxian class theory asserts that an individual's position within a class hierarchy is determined by their role in the production process, and argues that political and ideological consciousness is determined by class position. A class is those who share common economic interests, are conscious of those interests, and engage in collective action which advances those interests. Within Marxian class theory, the structure of the production process forms the basis of class construction.

In sociology, the upper middle class of the United States is the social group constituted by higher-status members of the middle class in American society. This is in contrast to the term lower middle class, which refers to the group at the opposite end of the middle class scale. There is considerable debate as to how the upper middle class might be defined. According to Max Weber, the upper middle class consists of well-educated professionals with graduate degrees and comfortable incomes.

In Marxism, class consciousness is the set of beliefs that persons hold regarding their social class or economic rank in society, the structure of their class, and their common class interests. According to Karl Marx, class consciousness is an awareness that is key to sparking a revolution which would "create a dictatorship of the proletariat, transforming it from a wage-earning, propertyless mass into the ruling class".

Exploitation is a concept defined as, in its broadest sense, one agent taking unfair advantage of another agent. When applying this to labour, it denotes an unjust social relationship based on an asymmetry of power or unequal exchange of value between workers and their employers. When speaking about exploitation, there is a direct affiliation with consumption in social theory and traditionally this would label exploitation as unfairly taking advantage of another person because of their vulnerable position, giving the exploiter the power.

The proletariat is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose possession of significant economic value is their labour power. A member of such a class is a proletarian or a proletaire. Marxist philosophy regards the proletariat under conditions of capitalism as an exploited class⁠ forced to accept meager wages in return for operating the means of production, which belong to the class of business owners, the bourgeoisie.

References

↑ Karl Marx (1867). Das Kapital . Retrieved 2009-10-23.
↑ Reinhard Bendix (1977). Max Weber . University of California Press. pp. 85–87. Retrieved 2009-10-23.
↑ Gilbert, Dennis (2018). The American Class Structure in an Age of Growing Inequality. SAGE Publishing. p. 13-15.
↑ Dennis Gilbert (2018). The American Class Structure: In An Age of Growing Inequality. Sage Press. ISBN 978-1-5063-4596-3 . Retrieved 27 October 2018.