Knowing your place as class system lives on

Arguably, some kind of class system will always exist, so long as there are inequalities in economic circumstances and educational, health and cultural experience tied in large part to wealth, or lack of it.

For centuries, the demarcation was so clear – there was the aristocracy, who owned the land and ran the country, and the ordinary man who worked the fields; later, there were politicians largely lifted from this aristocracy, and, in an increasingly industrialised society, a working class drew daily or weekly wages in cash, didn't mix with the ruling class (except if they cooked their meals or otherwise served them) and generally had no route out of their place at the bottom of the heap.

Then came the burgeoning middle-class, a group of people who used education to work their way upwards in society via respectable professions, and a new class of self-made men whose money bought them a seat at certain tables, even if they lacked the finesse of aristocratic manners and social connections.

In Downton Abbey, other servants looked down on and tried to quash the aspirations of the young maid who longed for a life out of servitude, secretly taking a secretarial course by correspondence so that she could "better herself".

Victorian social values were solidly constructed on the idea of each class knowing its place and staying in that place. But the First World War took many servants away from their masters. Some never came home, and of those who did, few wanted to return below stairs. The tectonic plates of society shook and shifted.

But nearly a century on from the Great War, many would say that a layer of society still exists inside a bubble of entitlement and expects the top schools, universities, jobs and public positions are theirs for the taking. They were born into the idea that they would inherit the earth.

That group may be smaller than it was, and the layers of society below this golden circle may continue to shift, become blurred and, indeed, increasingly powerful, but layers still remain – however we choose to label them. What's also true is that a disproportionate number of the small golden circle still rule the country.

In a unique survey, the largest study of its kind ever to take place in the UK, the BBC and top sociologists are setting out to answer important questions about class in Britain today, tied in with wider current affairs investigations into class and its importance.

Many academics agree that the traditional model of class, with clearly defined "working", "middle", and "upper" divisions, is no longer relevant. The survey will focus on whether a class system exists and if so, what does it look like?

Until now, most major studies have looked at economic factors such as wealth and occupation and social factors like networks of personal contacts to determine class. But there is increasing evidence to suggest that our interests and hobbies – or "culture" – can also influence life chances. For the first time, this study will investigate all three factors together and provide a valuable resource for sociologists to plunder for years to come.

The survey was designed by leading sociologists Professor Mike Savage, of York University, and Professor Fiona Devine, of Manchester University, in collaboration with the BBC.

The online survey will set anonymous participants a series of questions that take around 20 minutes to answer, after which they receive a detailed report on themselves, measuring their answers against benchmark data on the UK population as a whole. The results of the whole survey will be revealed later this year.

"Class has long been something of a national obsession, and the traditional language of class still pervades public affairs and continues to influence our opportunities in life," says Richard Cable, editor of BBC Lab UK, which was launched in 2009 and has conducted four other scientific experiments and tests so far – Brain Test Britain, The Big Personality Test, The Web Behaviour Test and How Musical Are You? When it comes to making policy decisions and having any kind of informed debate about the class system, those concerned believe detailed data is needed that will help to take the argument beyond stereotypes and received wisdom.

Prof Savage says the cultural aspect of class has been largely ignored so far "perhaps because it is a broad yet subtle concept that can be difficult to measure. The problem is, if we don't measure it, we can't know how important it is and how much it influences people's chances in life".

He hopes the survey will attract at least 500,000 participants, as this would allow detailed geographical breakdown of results. Normally sociologists content themselves with surveys involving a maximum of maybe 10,000 people. The access to a potentially vast sample was clearly one of the attractions when Savage was approached by the BBC, as was the prospect of amplifying other research into class divisions he has spearheaded in recent years.

"Class is still very strong in our society but not in the traditional way", he says. "One of the things we already know is that the middle/upper classes are now much more omnivorous in their cultural activities.

"Where once you'd have said they stuck to Glyndebourne and the National Gallery, today they also like rock concerts and football. Football has become gentrified. Whereas you'd have said years ago that the working class frequented the working men's club, those clubs are now on the wane and what the working class tends to do is stay at home with family and friends and watch five or more hours of television a day."

Prof Savage says one area of discussion in academic circles is over the kind of vocabulary that's needed to describe the reinvented class system of the 21st century.

"The term 'working class' came about to describe miners, labourers and other manual workers. Many of those jobs aren't there any more, although there are still lots of unskilled jobs with few prospects.

"The notion of what the working class is is different to years ago. Britain is distinct in the world. In most of the developed world two-thirds to three-quarters of the population would describe themselves as middle class. In Britain, half of us say we're working class even if we are in professional jobs, because there's a perception that if we say middle class we'll be seen as snobbish. There's a tendency to downplay our class."

The team behind the survey acknowledge that it's the middle class (if they're still called that) who are most likely to take part in the survey and be interested in its outcome. The findings will be weighted to take this into account, says Prof Savage.

Apart from learning what kind of houses we live in, how we entertain ourselves and whether we have many books in the house, what use will the survey be to wider society?

"People seem to be increasingly worried about a divided society, the 'us and them' factor, which increasingly separates ordinary working people from the group of the very rich, who wield great influence and are pulling away from the rest.

"Many more of all classes now go to university, but proportions haven't changed – with a majority of the middle class and a minority of the working class going. Learning about how communities work, how we 'help ourselves' in the parlance of the 'Big Society', will be very useful to policy makers because it will give a better understanding of how real people live. We'd really like it if both members of the super rich and powerful group and those who feel marginalised and disenfranchised would take part, not just people in the middle."

To take part in the Great British Class Survey go to www.bbc.co.uk/labuk

In Posher & Posher: Why Public Schoolboys Run Britain (BBC Two, tonight at 9pm) Andrew Neil investigates the background of our leaders and asks if British politics is dominated by posh people.

Who Gets The Best Jobs? (BBC Two, Wednesday, February 2 at 9pm) considers to what extent people's background can still dictate the opportunities open to them in leading professions.