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Sociology vocabulary · Class, Stratification and Inequality

Working class

Meaning in sociology, with examples

nounCore term

In sociology, working class means: The social class made up of people who mainly do manual, routine or service jobs for wages and usually have less income, job security and control over their work.

In Turkish: işçi sınıfı, emekçi sınıf

How it is used

Used as a noun (the working class) and, with a hyphen, as an adjective before a noun (working-class families, working-class culture). In British English it is far more common than proletariat in both everyday and research writing.

Example sentences

  1. Willis studied how working-class boys came to accept working-class jobs.

  2. The decline of mining changed working-class communities in the north of England.

Common collocations

  • working-class background
  • working-class communities
  • the industrial working class
  • working-class culture
  • middle classThe social class between the working class and the upper class, usually associated with professional, managerial and office jobs, higher education and moderate wealth.
  • social classA large group of people who share a similar economic position, such as income, wealth, occupation and education, and often similar life chances.
  • proletariatIn Marxist theory, the working class that owns no means of production and must sell its labour for wages in order to live.
  • social mobilityMovement of individuals or groups between positions in a social hierarchy, for example when someone from a working-class family gets a professional job.

More terms: Class, Stratification and Inequality

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