ABSTRACT
Class is a very complicated concept. Class can be regarded, as the Marxists among many others regard it, as an objective phenomenon, so that, subject to marginal exceptions, each individual can be put into a definite class-pocket in terms of one or more defined characteristics of his situation in society. The author focuses on recently published data for the British Census of 1951, and sees what light can be derived from them concerning the present class structure of British society. The Census authorities, in dealing with the problem of class, work mainly on the basis of an arbitrary division of the occupied population into five ‘social classes’ placed one below another in a descending order. The top class is composed mainly of the higher professions and of such persons as can be grouped together under the heading of higher ‘managers’ or directors of business enterprise.
