The Service Class Essay, Research Paper
The service class as defined by the Oxford Dictionary of Sociology (Gordon Marshall,
1998) is;?A
term first used by the Austro-Marxist Karl Renner to describe employees in Government
(Civil Servants), private economic service (Business administrators, managers,
technical experts), and social services (?distributors of welfare?. ?Subsequently
adopted by the by the British sociologist?
John H Goldthorpe, to describe
those whose employment relationship is based on a code of service rather than
a labour contract, and so involves trust as a key element with autonomy as its corollary??.
However it has always been difficult to classify the service class for Marxists,
as unlike the proletariats they have skills and expertise.The
service class categorises how high level, non-manual workers (i.e. managers and
professionals
such as doctors or lawyers) are perceived with regards to their class. Goldthorpe?s
service class included the top level of the white-collar middle class. The service
class has increased greatly in size and importance over the twentieth century compared
to other white-collar services. Goldthorpe?s ?Intergenerational class mobility
among men in England and Wales (1972)? showed this, where 14% of fathers
had occupied a service class position, nearly twice as many sons (27%) occupied
the same positions. His table also said ( A. Giddens, Human Societies 1992) that
73% of those aged 35 and over in the service class had had first jobs in other classes,
showing a high proportion of social mobility to be evident. This Nuffield study
(Goldthorpe, Llewellyn and Payne) was contrary to previous studies, which had shown
classes to be largely self-recruiting. The demand for highly qualified professionals
has meant a great increase in upward social mobility, as sheer numbers needed
to fill these positions has left the door open for movement within the classes.?Galbraith thinks that the service class is
the new dominant class. He speaks of how previously
the land owners were the dominant group, however the rise of capitalism showed
that those who owned the capital to be the dominant class, then with industrialisation
capital became abundant and so skills and knowledge becomes the dominant
resource.? This gave rise to what was
termed the ?managerial revolution?, where
the separation of ownership from control enables managers to command vast sums
in return for their specialised knowledge. The
development of increasingly complex occupational hierarchies occurred in both manufacturing
and services, and were accompanied by the rapid growth of? higher education
from the 1880s (Devine, Social class in America and Britain, 1997)C
Wright Mills stated that the old middle class is now in decline as the
entrepreneurs are
no longer able to compete with large corporations and their specialisation.The
service class brings many problems for classification? of location, Wright, gives a model
where he states that the service class is in a contradictory class location between
the bourgeoisie and the proletariats (also between the bourgeoisie and the petty
bourgeoisie ?and between the petty bourgeoisie
and the working class).Bilton,
Bonnett, Jones, Stanworth, Sheard and Webster (Introductory Sociology, 1989)
think that non manual workers have been subject to a wholesale downgrading, where
there boundary with the working class is actually broken. They note that in 1851
there were only around 60 000 clerks (mostly male) working in mainly professional
settings (Banks, solicitors etc.), but by 1981 there was 13 000 000? clerks and
associated? office, retail and ?personal
service? staff , who consisted of both male and
female working particularly in large scale impersonal office blocks, on low pay
??and
with little chance of a career, so to what extent can we say that this marginal
middle
class really ?that different from the
working class? Goldthorpe argues that they have
not been proletarianised, he sees them as constituting part of an intermediate class,
in-between the service class and the working class. The
upper class can be defined according to both Weberian and Marxist approaches in
accordance
with the ownership of productive capital, and also distinctive culture and status
hierarchy.So
where does the service class fit in? The middle class is sometimes referred to
as the
service ?class(Social
Class in Britain and America, Fiona Devine, 1997) however there are many different
sectors within the middle classes and it is not possible to find a distinct economic,
social and political similarities, divisions have to be made. Distinctions
are? made
between the old entrepreneurial middle class and the new ?salaried? middle class,
or between managers and professionals (Devine, Social class in America and Britain,
1997).Karl
Renner stated that high level bureaucrats constituted a service class as they served
their employers by controlling and regulating the processes of production.Goldthorpe
(1982) predicted that the service class would be a conservative force, occupying
privileged employment positions with favourable intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.
He argued that they would seek to use the superior resources that they posses in
order to preserve their positions of relative social power and advantage for themselves
and their children (Fiona Devine, Social Class in America and Britain, 1997).Lash
and Urry (1987) argued that the service class is tightly connected with the
rise of the
welfare state, hence these people would be concerned with the welfare services
as well
as other political activities on the left of the political spectrum. (feminist
groups, environmental
groups etc.) (Devine, Social class in America and Britain, 1997).Ehrenreich
and Ehrenreich (1979) noted the growth of the professional managerial class
(PMC), they stated that the PMCs main function is one of social control, so
they are
in opposition? to capitalists with
regards to issues such as ownership and control, and
their interests are also in opposition to the working class, they become an independent
?reservoir of radicalism? and through owning knowledge they own social power-
power to manipulate as in the case of Harold Shipman, his profession meant he
was given trust and power, or power to command?
extortionate fees, as with the top managers
of this class. (Devine tells that Kristol (1972) and Moynihan (1979) see this class
as a frustrated group is search of power and status in its own interests) Kristol
(1972) and Moynihan?s (1979) view is backed up by the article included form the
Guardian.? Here it says that Michael
Jackson?s (Channel 4 chief executive) pay rose
by £42 000 in 2000, making it more than £500 000 overall, however it also
states that
he gets significantly less than other bosses in the commercial sector. So what
is it that
enables these service class managers to command such fees? Knowledge. This section
of the class, along with top lawyers or consultants has the power to command excessive
fees because they are in a position to manipulate, due to the separation of ownership
from control. Within Bureaucratic corporations the top managers are separated
from their workers, having little contact, and so they have no social ties with
either the working class or the capitalist class, they are ?a frustrated group
in search
of power and status.? ?BibliographySociology
? Anthony Giddens- Oxford – 1993Introductory
Sociology ? Bilton, Bonnett, Jones, Stanworth, Sheard and Webster (Foreward by
Anthony Giddens)- London- 1989Social
Class in America and Britain ? Fiona Devine ? Edinburgh ? 1997Oxford
Dictionary of Sociology ? Gordon Marshall ? Oxford ? 1998On
The Service Class, its Formation and Future ? John Goldthorpe