ABSTRACT
Friendship per se is not a subject which has been researched by many sociologists, even in western societies, so it is actually very difficult to provide satisfactory answers to the questions in any case. There is no substantial evidence from any studies of the existence or significance of friendships which cross class lines in western industrial societies. Middle-class people tend to make friends with other middle-class people, and working-class people with other working-class people. The Oxford data also shows, however, that a proportion of those in Britain who are socially mobile do have friends from a wide range of social backgrounds. Most sociological studies of friendship have suggested that not only do working- and middle-class friendships not cross class lines, but also that within each class the styles of friendship are very different. The available evidence, then, suggests that friendship largely sustains the social order, at least as far as the class structure is concerned.
