The National Readership Survey devised the system of Social Grade Definitions in the 1960s, based on audience research, to facilitate consumer marketing segmentation for firms wising to home in on defined markets. The NRS included the age, sex and social class of readers. As its definition of class it used occupation and manual and non-manual work marked the division between working class (grades C2, D and E) and middle classes (A, B and C1). (“Manual” is indeed here a more accurate term than “working” but the latter is firmly entrenched.)
This was based on the observed structure of British society and a firm wishing to target, say, young women aged 20 to 25 in grade B could turn to Willing’s Press Guide and select qualifying publications in which to advertise.
This is a commercial application of class structure although I believe Government uses it for certain purposes. For others purposes it has a far more differentiated National Statistics Socio-economic Classification. The term “socio-economic” usefully makes clear that social class and income are both significant in social stratification.
Details are obtained via questions asked in the national population census and are used (inter alia) to shape social policy. They reveal, for example, that working class children have reduced life chances in terms of health, nutrition and longevity, education and work.
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