Page 130 - DSOC202_SOCIAL_STRATIFICATION_ENGLISH

Unit 7: Class

(vi) The benefits of land reforms have so far not gone so much to the agricultural workers or Notes
even to ex-zamindars as to the emergent middle peasantry.
(vii) As a result of these contradictions in the agrarian class structure the tensions in the rural
social system have increased and are bound to increase further, and finally,
(viii) That the sociological process that is dominant in the current class transformations in the
villages is the embourgeoisiment, of some and ‘proletarianization’ of many social strata.
PC Joshi (1971) in his celebrated work has made very incisive comments on the trends in the
agrarian class structure. Some of these are summarized as under :
(a) It led to the decline of feudal and customary types of tenancies. It was replaced by a more
exploitative and insecure lease arrangement.
(b) It gave rise to a new commercial based rich peasant class who were part owners and part
tenants. They had resource and enterprise to carry out commercial agriculture.
(c) It led to the decline of feudal landlord class and another class of commercial farmers emerged
for whom agriculture was a business. They used the non-customary type of tenancy.
Thus, the rural India witnessed and still witnessing the process of social mobility and
transformation. Depeasantization of small and marginal peasant is also a by-product of the
transformation of village India.
Meaning of a Social Class or Class
People may be placed on different positions on a continuum or a range; the continuum, in fact is
divided into specific social classes, or strata. Thus, people in a society may be placed in different
strata based on their status; each of these strata may be referred to as social class.
Schiffman defines social class as “the division of members of a society into a hierarchy of distinct status
classes, so that members of each class have relatively the same status and members of all other classes have
either more or less status”.

Social Class and Social Status
Social class is measured in terms of status; a person belonging to a particular class is said to hold
status similar to members of that class. So social class is defined in terms of the amount of status
the members of a particular class relatively have, in comparison with members of other social
classes. Broadly speaking, the stratification into varied social classes, is done on the bases on three
factors, viz., wealth (economic assets) power (ability to exert influence over others) and prestige
(recognition received). However, marketing academicians and researchers, as well as consumer
researchers, define status in terms of demographical variables like income, occupation and education;
in fact, the three are interrelated and thus, used in conjunction to each other. While understanding
buying patterns and consumption behavior, it is necessary to understand the dynamics of social
class. These are discussed as follows :
(i) Hierarchical structure : Social class is hierarchical in nature. The social-class categories are
ranked in a hierarchy that ranges from low to high. Based on education, occupation and
income, the society is divided into various ranks, such that people in a particular rank are
similar to others in the same rank and different across various ranks. So members of a
particular social class view themselves as a) having a status similar to others in their own
class; and b) having a status high or low than members of the higher or lower class. Based on
the social class, they view themselves equal to other (in the same social class), inferior to
others (from higher social class), and superior to others (from lower social class). The
hierarchical structure holds relevance for a marketer.
• First, marketers can use this as a basis to segment the market; the various strata provide a
basis for market segmentation.

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