I will be discussing political engagement across social classes, concentrating on how social-economic inequalities inhibit political engagement and focusing on the lack of importance regarding political discourse in education, which I believe to be the cause of political disengagement.

I wish to focus my idea mainly on the importance of educational inequality, education can increase political engagement regardless of social and economic differences, there are many inequalities amongst society, however, in the UK every child deserves a right to an education. The issue of political inequality begins earlier than we think,  the level and type of education are based on social-economic factors, such as parental social class and their income, both affect the probability of political participation in the future (Hoskins and Janmaat, 2016).

I have provided data on previous elections, to present a thorough understanding of how socioeconomic inequalities affect voter turnout.

Data gathered from Britain’s general election in 2017, shows a higher voter turnout of higher professional occupations in comparison to lower grade occupations that include semi-skilled, unskilled occupations and unemployed. The focus on voter turnout based on social class is only applicable when determining what social class voted the most and the least since social class is no longer a good predictor of voting behaviour (Curtis, 2017).  It used to be the case that the Conservative party would gain the vote of the middle class, whilst the working class voted for Labour. Estimated data suggests that this is not as clear-cut anymore, as seen in the chart below.

Figure 1.

Source: Yougov.com

Figure 2.

 Source: Ipsos MORI

Ipsos MORI data suggests throughout the last three elections including the EU referendum, category DE has voted far less than category AB, the below chart explains the social grade in more detail. As the data suggests, throughout the last three elections category DE voted far less than category AB.

Figure 3.

Source: www.ukgeographics.co.uk

According to Bourdieu’s publication ‘La Distinction’ (1979), cultural tastes and lifestyle are class- dependent, people in different classes develop different kinds of habitus- a preference for certain types of lifestyles, dependant on factors such as cognitive and emotional tendencies (Vestheim, 2010: 90). Therefore, based on Bourdieu’s theoretical perspective, people with different lifestyles do not have equal opportunities, this ties in directly with data shown on voter turnout.

I propose that the difference in voter turnout begins with young people, specifically the social-economic differences within education, contributing to a lack of political interest and resulting in a snowball effect. Your income is dependent on your occupation, which affects your lifestyle choices, data suggest’s that age and education are confirmed as a key indicator of civic and political engagement (Sloam, 2012: 664). Moreover, parents unintentionally filter down socio-economic disparities from generation to generation (Verba, Burns and Schlozman, 2003: 46).

Figure 4.

Source: www.poppoliticsaus.wordpress.com

 

Feeling misunderstood or not catered to is no excuse to not make your voice heard!

It is important to engage young people politically, not just to increase youth votes but most importantly to encourage youth to make up their own minds and to express opinions freely. A study that looked at Tackling social inequalities in political socialisation, focused on the school subject, citizenship, it is seen as an undervalued vocational subject by many parents and teachers (Hoskins and Janmaat, 2016). Although academic subjects in public schools are prioritised over Citizenship, what has been overlooked is the importance of practical knowledge, ‘knowing how’ to do something rather than ‘knowing that’ (Pring, 2009). Knowing how to vote, where to go to vote, who to vote for!

When it comes to political interest and voting for our future, education should deepen their political discourse throughout young people’s school years. I left school without understanding politics or the government that I was living in, in this day and age it should no longer be the case that our social-economic background affects our political engagement. Despite household lack of political interest or whether you attend a private or public school, young people should have the opportunity to learn how to politically engage. Hoskins and Janmaat (2016) referred to an open classroom climate of discussion, whereby children can learn how to politically engage via introducing issues for discussion in classrooms, whereby children ‘Feel encouraged to make up their own minds on issues, feel free to express their own opinions, feel able to disagree with the teacher, and that teachers respect their opinions (Hoskins and Janmaat, 2016: 91).

Figure 5.

Source: Twitter

As suggested with the above twitter feeds, there are vast ways to introduce political engagement in education, the first tweet suggests engagement through young political cartoons. I believe that this addresses the misconceptions of youth disengagement, that it is only later in life that social-economic inequalities can inhibit one’s interest in politics. I have included a short video, that incorporates a few ideas on how to get youth politically engaged. Jacob Helliwell speaks of youth as not indifferent but rather that their engagement is different.

Figure 6.

 

References

Curtis, C. and Curtis, C. (2017). YouGov | The demographics dividing Britain. [online] YouGov: What the world thinks. Available at: https://yougov.co.uk/news/2017/04/25/demographics-dividing-britain/ [Accessed 2 Mar. 2018].

Geographics, U. (2018). UK Quota & Random Sampling, Postcodes, Census, Geodemographics – UK Geographics. [online] Ukgeographics.co.uk. Available at: http://www.ukgeographics.co.uk [Accessed 3 Mar. 2018].

Hoskins, B., Janmaat, J. and Melis, G. (2016) Tackling inequalities in political socialisation: A Systematic analysis of Access to and Mitigation Effects of Learning Citizenship at School. Social science Research, 68, pp.88-101

Ipsos MORI. (2018). How Britain voted in the 2017 election. [online] Available at: https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/how-britain-voted-2017-election [Accessed 3 Mar. 2018].

Pring, R. (2009). Education Cannot Compensate for Society: reflections on the Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training. FORUM, 51(2).

Sloam, J. (2012). New Voice, Less Equal. Comparative Political Studies, 47(5), pp.663-688.

Verba, S., Burns, N. and Schlozman, K. (2003). Unequal at the starting line: Creating participatory inequalities across generations and among groups. The American Sociologist, 34(1-2), pp.45-69.

YouTube. (2018). Youth engagement in politics indifferent or just different? | Jacob Helliwell | TEDxYouth@Victoria. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdDFLzyk94k [Accessed 5 Mar. 2018].

Vestheim, G. (2010). Pierre Bourdieu, La distinction: critique sociale du jugement. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 16(1), pp.89-91.