1 / 12

SOCIAL ISSUES IN THE UK

SOCIAL ISSUES IN THE UK. Professional English 24.1.2011. I Class. What is class? Materialist definition; economic situation only (Karl Marx)

karan
Download Presentation

SOCIAL ISSUES IN THE UK

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. SOCIAL ISSUES IN THE UK Professional English 24.1.2011

  2. I Class • What is class? • Materialist definition; economic situation only (Karl Marx) • A number of factors determine class: income, wealth, education, housing, life style, language, status etc. Stratification of society exists, but social mobility is possible. (Max Weber)

  3. The British Class System • What classes are there in Britain? • Upper class • Upper middle class • Middle middle class • Lower middle class • Working class • Underclass? • What characterizes the different classes?

  4. Is Britain still class divided? • Distributionof wealth • A widening gap between rich and poor • Unequal opportunities • Social exclusion • Differences within the classes • A classless society? A meritocracy?

  5. II Poverty • 1/5 of the British population (about 12 million) are poor • More than 1/5 of the children(about 25 %) • Social exclusion - Unemployment - Little education - Broken families • But, also the ”working poor”

  6. III Unemployment 1986: 13.7% (3.4 million) 1997: 6.2% 2004: 4.8%  2006: 5.5% 2007: 5.4% 2008: 6.0% 2010: 7.9% 2.5 million unemployed (Nov.2010)

  7. Varies according to : • Region • Occupation • Age • Gender • Race • State intervention • Jobseeker’s allowance • Training programmes ”Welfare-to-work” and ”New Deals”. Rights and responsibilities

  8. IV Crime • Less registred crime, but more perceived crime • More people imprisoned • Youth crime • ”Tough on crime. Tough on the causes of Crime” (New Labour) • Tough on which crimes and which criminals?

  9. V The Welfare State • The age of consensus after WWII • The National Health Service • National Insurance • National assistance • The system was left largely unchanged until the 1980s

  10. The Welfare State Today • Reforms in the 80s: ”Rolling back the state” • Reforms made by New Labour: • Joint partnerships between the public and the private sectors • ”A hand up”; programmes for training and education • Changes and reforms to be made by the coalition government: • Massive budget cuts • A new Health and Social Care Bill introduced. The most radical reform of the NHS since 1946.

  11. VI Immigration and Race Relations • 7 %, or about 4 million people, say they belong to a non-white minority • Mainly from Commonwealth countries • History of immigration to Britain after 1945: • Open-door policy until the 60s • Push and pull factors • Recentdevelopments

  12. Social inequality Riots, e.g. Notting Hill 1958 Brixton 1981 and 1985 Oldham 2001 Discrimination and racism and efforts to protect against it Religion as a divisive issue BUT, Britain is also in many ways considered a successful multicultural society

More Related