Abstract:

As the result of a current study of British political attitudes we have been led to examine the accepted measures of class and in particular the point at which the line is usually drawn between the "middle" and "working" classes. In the summer of 1963 we collected interviews from a stratified random sample of just over 2 ,000 British electors and seventeen months later we managed to reinterview just on three-quarters of these. Our main findings will be written up elsewhere but, since our approach to class may be of help to people working in quite different fields, we are publishing this immediate report.