Social Inequality

The Great British Class Survey

The Great British Class Survey was led by sociologists Mike Savage and Fiona Devine and was a collaboration with the BBC. Perhaps its most significant finding was that the British class system is rather more complex than had previously been suggested, with a proposed seven classes ranging from the ‘Elite’ at the top to the ‘Precariat’ at the bottom.

Students could be asked to consider the social class they would consider themselves to be a member of and why. Concepts such as ‘middle class’ and ‘working class’ are likely to feature here. From this they could complete the short survey to determine which of Savage and Devine’s classes they are part of:

Discover More The Great British class calculator: What class are you?

Students could then read the following article and write a brief report on its methodology and findings:

Discover More What is your 21st Century social class?

This Guardian article also provides a useful overview and in addition, includes a sitcom’ guide to the new class structure. The class could have a look at clips of these sitcom characters on YouTube or other video sharing platforms: of the social class.

Discover More Great British Class Survey finds seven social classes in UK