Class Privilege

Class privilege derives from an economic, wealth-based hierarchy in society. Like other forms of privilege (such as white privilege or male privilege), class privilege is a result of the power relationship that produces it. Karl Marx believed that a system of stratification is based on people's relationship to the economic process. Max Weber, however, pointed out that it was not the ownership of private property but life chances—access to basic opportunities and resources in the marketplace—that define one's class position in society. Racism, sexism, heterosexism, and class privilege are systems of advantage that provide certain individuals and groups with opportunities and rewards unavailable to others. These systems of oppression work in relation to one another, rationalizing and maintaining the prevailing distribution of power and privilege. In addition to tangible benefits, privilege brings individuals of a social group a sense of acceptance, inclusion, and respect, enabling them to set the agenda in a social institution and determine the rules and standards and how they are applied. It also grants these individuals the cultural authority to define reality, to have prevailing definitions of reality reflect their experience, to make judgments about others, and to ensure that those judgments stay unchallenged.

Class is not only an economic marker in society but also a symbolic and cultural marker. Pierre Bourdieu's theory of social distinction identifies three different types of capital in a society: economic, social, and cultural. Economic capital refers to money or assets that can be turned into money. Cultural capital is a means by which distinctions between social classes can be expressed and reinforced, encompassing such things as educational credentials, technical expertise, general knowledge, verbal abilities, and artistic sensibilities. For example, experiences of international travel, familiarity with exotic flavors, and appreciation of stylish architectures and gardens are regarded as part of cultural capital. Social capital constitutes the benefits of having a network of relationships and contacts that enables access to the capital of others. When these forms of capital are recognized to have value, they act as symbolic capital, a mark of distinction for the possessor. Bourdieu believed that a society's culture is as unequally distributed as its material wealth, and culture also serves to identify class interests and to promote and naturalize class differences. Bourdieu analyzed the phenomena of taste at elite, middlebrow, and popular levels of cultural consumption. Whereas economic capital is more powerful in general, cultural capital is always needed to transform good fortune into “legitimate” fortune. His theory is especially valuable in connecting the production, consumption, and valuation of cultural capital with the social practices of establishing hierarchies, maintaining distances, and legitimating differences between dominant and dominated groups.

In modern societies, many traditional class barriers and distinctions have been eroded. Without a clear boundary of identity and demarcation between classes, class takes a more fluid and indefinite meaning in social consciousness. Scholars note the dying of the old class and the rise of the new class that is composed of elites and professionals, equipped with technology and education. The presence or relevance of cultural capital is the basis of the new class; meanwhile, its relative absence or irrelevance contributes to the old class's loss of control. While the uneven distribution of economic, social, and cultural capital is a key feature of class, it is the ways in which different capitals are classified, valued, and judged that produce the lived experience of class. Scholars believe that inequality based on race, class, and gender is present in our commonsense knowledge and thus perpetuated through our daily [Page 38]interactions. Class might seem less visible than the other dimensions of privilege, because whereas our objective position in an economic order depends on empirically measurable criteria (income, occupation, education), class as an everyday experience rests on other people's evaluation of our presentation of self.

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