In this assignment I will discuss the recognition of social class and its relationship to popular culture. First, according to Augustyn (2019), “social class, also called class, a group of people within a society who possess the same socioeconomic status.” This is encapsulated in the universal and traditional classes: the upper class (also known as the bourgeoisie, in Marxian terms who own the means of production) and the working class (also known as the proletariat whose labor is exploited for profit). In our modern and contemporary society there is a "new class" called the precariat, introduced by Guy Standing (2011) considered inferior to the working class. Furthermore, the term 'popular culture' "broadly refers to the traditions and material culture of a particular society." In contemporary society, popular culture is significant, for example keeping up with the latest trends, music, clothes, language and so on, through the power of social media. This keeps individuals in society involved in traditional culture. Additionally, I will discuss sociological theories such as Marxism. Marx says that the class that owns the means of production also produces the creation of ideologies through the illustration of the base and the superstructure (which will be discussed later) and non-sociological theories such as cultural and material deprivation. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay To begin with, some ideas about how social class has been understood sociologically include Marxism, introduced by Marx who explores the differences between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. He argues that class is defined by a person's relationship to the means of production. The base is the foundation that shapes the superstructure. It consists of everything related to production owned by the bourgeoisie. While the superstructure maintains the base, it is composed of important institutions such as education, religion, media, and more. Similarly, Weber, (also considered a Marxist) took some ideas from Marx, except he revealed that a person is not defined by his class, but by his position in the market, through his qualifications, skills and so on that it acquires. Weber took into account economic and non-economic factors in relation to power and inequality. In support of this, according to Longhurst et al, “Weber's concept of status… paves the way for the consideration of overlaps… between class and status”. Likewise, Gramsci's idea of hegemony reiterates the way in which the ruling class maintains its power, through the path of consensus (often through force). Consensus is achieved ideologically by getting the masses to accept ideas, thus maintaining their dominance. Similarly, social class has also been understood sociologically through a non-theoretical approach, using the ideas of cultural and material deprivation. Cultural deprivation refers to this; in the education system, working-class pupils often lack basic cultural equipment such as language, self-discipline or reasoning skills, while material deprivation refers to poverty and the lack of basic material goods such as an income and adequate accommodation. Furthermore, social class also relates to popular culture in various ways. The sociological ideas of both Marx and Weber relate to popular culture because it is simply due to differences in power, class, and status. For example, since the bourgeoisie owns the means of production, this means that it is able to shape the superstructure, which is composed of major institutions such as the mass media,family and more. An example of this is the idea of "pester power", i.e. advertising on television (through the media) encourages children to want what they don't need, leading to "annoying" parents. As a result, parents are almost forced to purchase the product, to the benefit of those in power. This further relates to popular culture as children often want those products so they don't feel left out of the latest trends. This is highly dependent on social media. For example, many young people watch reality stars, such as Kim Kardashian, in hopes of looking, dressing, and acting like them. Furthermore, referring to Gramsci's idea of hegemony, according to which the bourgeoisie is able to maintain its power through consensus, mostly forced he refers to popular culture because, in Origins of American Pop Culture, “new means of production mass… they gave larger numbers of people the income needed to consume them.” In the United States, the rise of media culture, including film, popular music, radio, TV, and other forms, has allowed popular culture to become industrialized in production and commercialized in intent. Leisure and activities have become important and overwhelmed by cultural industries, such as TV, which are controlled by large corporations. Likewise, according to a study conducted by the University of Frankfurt, the Frankfurt School, found that in 1933 many Jews fled Germany for the United States, some had then returned to Germany in 1949. As a result of the media, Hitler succeeded to achieve so much power, mainly due to the fact that the working class and the middle class both had access to the media, thus relating let's go back to McAdams' words. Perhaps, to some extent, another relationship between social class and popular culture is due to race and gender. This is due to popular culture such as the media and other tabloids, there is the misrepresentation that "black males" come from a disadvantaged and working class background, causing controlling agents such as the police to maintain stereotypes and typifications against these "worker-workers". classy black kids.” For example, according to one article revealed, "poverty and deprivation (of life chances and opportunities) can push children and young people into violent criminal activity." Therefore, revealing the way in which social class correlates to popular culture. This is mainly due to media accessibility. This refers to the view of cultural and material deprivation, for example, cultural deprivation theorists argue that many "black families" are dysfunctional. According to Sewell, “the absence of fathers as role models” leads “black boys” to seek that educational role among other boys by joining gangs. Illustrating the misrepresentation that 'black kids' come from a working class background and how many people believe this ideology because of what they see in the media, through 'popular culture'. Therefore, show how the relationship between social class and popular culture is also that of gender and race. To further emphasize the relationship between social class and popular culture is through the illustration of examples. First, in contemporary society, the working class group is seen as mainly composed of ethnic minorities. For example, according to government statistics, it turns out; “The lowest employment rate was recorded in the Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group, at 57%” compared to 77% for employed whites. This relates to popular culture because social class is also linked to race, meaning the media misrepresents minority ethnic groups, such as black individuals and Asian communities, as class”.
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