Social class

As used in the social sciences and political philosophy, "social class" refers to the forms of social stratification that exist in a class society, in which individuals are categorised into hierarchical social categories, with the top, middle, and lower classes being the most prevalent. Membership in a social class may be determined by factors such as education, money, profession, income, and affiliation with a specific subculture or social network, among other things.

Sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, and social historians have all studied the concept of "class" in some depth. Although there is no universally accepted definition of "class," the word has a broad variety of connotations that are often in conflict with one another. Some individuals believe that, as a result of social mobility, there are no longer any distinctions between classes. According to common usage, the term "social class" is usually synonymous with "socio-economic class," which is defined as "people who share the same social, economic, cultural, political and educational status", such as "the working class" or "a newly emerging professional class," among other things. But academics distinguish between social class and socioeconomic status, using the former to refer to one's relatively stable sociocultural background and the latter to refer to one's current social and economic situation, which is more changeable over time as a result of the former's relatively stable background.

In the late 18th century, the word "class" started to take precedence over categories such as estates, rank, and orders as the main method of structuring society into hierarchical divisions, eventually becoming the dominant classification system. In general, this corresponds to a reduction in the importance assigned to inherited traits and a rise in the relevance ascribed to money and income as indications of one's place in the social hierarchy.