Class seems pretty straightforward. But, there's a lot going on under the surface that affects us directly. It might make you think very differently from your initial answer.
For instance, the kind of job you have is probably the first thing you thought of.
And yes, it has a massive effect on your financial status. But it’s more than jobs that pay a little, and jobs that pay a lot.
It’s also about how much your job guarantees you’ll earn enough to make a living.
In the case of part time jobs, contract work, and self-employment, the amount of work you can complete varies wildly. And putting extra effort into getting enough hours of work in each week means extra stress.
This is underemployment, it's a big issue that isn't talked about. The number of people who are underemployed is almost as large as those who are unemployed.
Class isn't just a job-by-job thing either. Those of parents with high-prestige jobs will usually earn more, even for the exact same job.
And technical knowledge, how suited your role is to management tasks, the transferability of your skills, and how easily your job can be automated all impact your prospects of securing a living wage.
So class is more than job distinctions or salary. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Naturally, wealth determines what housing you can buy, and in turn where you can live. But, wealth is becoming more and more geographically isolated.
We can measure this by the number of suburbs where the average person is in the bottom 10% in terms of wealth. The closer to the edges of disadvantage a suburb is, the more people fall under this threshold. In the 5 years from 2006 to 2011, the number of deeply poor suburbs rose by 42%.
This geographic divide has the most visible effect on your daily life.
On a Scale of 0% to 100%, with 0% being the least wealthy and 100% being the most wealthy, the average person in the given suburb is:
| Suburb | Average Person's Wealth |
|---|
It's no secret that jobs in the CBD tend to be higher paying than those further away.
This directly lines up with the time taken to travel.
In general, the less money you earn, the farther you have to commute.
Commute map courtesy Australian Bureau of Statistics | Esri, HERE, Garmin, USGS, NGA | ABS
A wide variety of resources available to you depend on the wealth of your suburb — from food, medical care and banking, to libraries and public pools.
Quality changes a heap, too. All the grocery stores in the world mean very little if they don't stock anything. In poorer suburbs, it’s easier to buy fast food than it is to buy healthy produce.
And if you’re stuck without a car, that extra amount of distance is a big deal. Travelling on public transport with large amounts of groceries isn’t an option.
Another thing that where you live influences is your community.
You’ve probably heard ‘It’s not what you know, it’s who you know’, but this distinction commonly sits along class lines.
If you think about the way that we make friends, it starts to make sense. You make friends with the people you grew up with, the places that you live, who you work with, and those who can afford similar interests.
This is called Social Capital, and it’s an important factor that social scientists take into account when considering class.
Different groups you interact with might sit differently in terms of class. You might be the first in your family to attend university, family and work gatherings might be very different. You might talk about the last State of Origin match with both friends and family, but only talk about the stock market with your work mates.
The longer you live within the behaviour, language and social expectations of your social groups, the harder it might be to change them.
But It’s not that low-brow and high-brow media are split between lower and upper classes.
If you’re higher class you might still watch the latest Bachelorette, but you might swear you only watch it ‘ironically’.
And the upper class tend to be better followers of new, upcoming and trending acts.
Instead, ‘low-brow’ content is consumed by everyone, but high-brow media are usually restricted to higher class audiences.
The real difference between what media you consume is the way you consume it.
Those in higher classes are more likely to break down and analyse what they watch, and get enjoyment from doing it. This means they are more likely to consume media to expand their horizons, and as part of lifelong learning.
The skills of critical consumption that those with higher cultural capital build up continue to help them get further in life. This isn’t an innate, natural difference between the lower and higher classes - it’s as constructed as any other part of class is.
It's a feedback loop that starts as soon as you are born.
At this point, your cultural capital is absolutely crucial. If you’ve had practice watching media in a critical way before school, you’re going to do better.
And better grades means you’re more likely to finish highschool, and get into uni.
Going to uni is a big deal nowadays. Credential Creep means a race to the top for job requirements - what used to need highschool or a diploma now requires much more.
So how do we decide what our class is when considering so many aspects of our lives?
The categories are completely made up, so it’s up to us to decide what best fits the Australian circumstance. But there’s always going to be trade offs.
Jill Sheppard and Nick Biddle came up with six classes. Each of these categories are distinct in each way we’ve talked about today - career, wealth, where they live, who they’re mates with, and what entertainment they like.
This system gives a finer-grain approach to answer questions of where people sit in the class system.
Thanks for Reading!
Class shapes the people you regularly interact with, which in turn shapes your interests.
The class you fit into also has a big role on your media tastes - the classic low brow–high brow divide.
These sorts of class differences are cultural capital.