Social Grading by Manual Workers.

This article discusses a study on social grading by manual workers. This paper reports a small research project in East London in England wherein the sample consisted mainly of manual workers. Personal interviews were used rather than written questionnaires. After they had graded occupations, people were asked the reasons for their decisions. The small research project described here was an attempt to find out whether manual workers chosen at random from electoral registers. This East London inquiry finds a considerable measure of dissensus amongst the manual workers in its sample. The respondents are divided into two groups. The deviants grade occupations according to their social contribution. Manual workers are on the whole ranked above non-manual. The deviants are influenced by their political attitudes. In conclusion, it was on a very small scale, and a much larger sample is plainly required. It was made in East London, and the residents in it may not be at all representative of manual workers in general. The validity of the findings can only be tested by a full-scale inquiry. A full-scale inquiry into the views of a cross-section of the population using verbal interviews could reveal the measure of dissensus consensus on the status of occupations, and beyond that, lay the foundations for a study of an important aspect of political ideology in contemporary Britain.