Social Class in Europe. Étienne Penissat
to plan leave. In this respect, the lack of holidays has a significance well beyond the confines of leisure: it is part and parcel of a more general shift that tends to confine the working class within national boundaries – except in the case of migration for work.
The digital divide: financial or cultural boundary?
Computer ownership, a further indicator of access to consumer goods, is now widespread throughout Europe: nine Europeans in ten own a computer. The price of computers has fallen markedly, making them accessible to many consumers. And indeed, most (80 per cent) of the working class owns one, although in this domain, too, they are less well off than others.
Their likelihood of having access to digital technology still varies, however. Skilled workers, and white-collar employees in retail and services, are almost as well equipped as the average European. However, working-class people living in the countryside lag behind in this area: only seven out of ten farmers or agricultural labourers own a computer. Among the working class, levels of computer ownership are lower in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and in Portugal. Thus access to digital technology depends not only on income, but also on occupational status and geographical location. The reasons given by respondents for not having a computer are usually other than financial ones, because they do not feel the need for one, or do not feel comfortable with information technology.
The digital divide in effect owes as much to unequal grasp of IT skills as to difficulty accessing a computer or the Internet. More than two-thirds of Europeans state that they have a good understanding of new information and communication technologies (NICT),40 a definition that encompasses the ability to use word processing and calculation software; to copy, save and compress files; to connect a peripheral device; to change software parameters; etc. The proportion is somewhat lower with regard to navigating the Internet, which includes using search engines, sending email, downloading and sharing files, posting messages on sites and forums, and so on. But these figures hide major inequalities. While a little under half of working-class people have a good grasp of new technology, more than four-fifths of middle-class people, and more than nine-tenths of the dominant class, say they do. Similarly, a little under half of working-class people know how to use the Internet, compared to three-quarters of the middle class and four-fifths of the dominant class.
Those who have greatest difficulty with new technology and the Internet are farmers, cleaners, farm labourers, manual labourers and skilled workers in craft, or in the food and drink industry or in construction. At the other end of the scale, executives and most of those working in intellectual and scientific professions have full grasp of NICT and the Internet. The middle class report very similar levels of competence, with the exception of shopkeepers, more than 40 per cent of whom have difficulty with these tools. These disparities in new technology skills to a considerable degree reflect the unequal importance of information technology in different occupations: those who use computers in their day-to-day work are most likely to be able to take full advantage of it at home. But these inequalities are also due to levels of skill and qualification: working-class people with the lowest educational qualifications are those least able to access these technologies. They suffer a double handicap as a result: first, on the labour market, because knowledge of these tools has become imperative even in jobs at the bottom of the social scale, and second, in terms of access to rights, since the development of an administration without counter service and the progressive move to electronic services places users less comfortable with text and computers at a disadvantage.41
Inequalities in grasp of technology are also linked to gender and age, two criteria that create greater discrimination at the bottom of the social scale. The gap between working-class men and women is 8 percentage points, and the generation gap is wider still: more than 70 per cent of those aged between twenty-five and thirty-five have a good grasp of information technology, compared to about 32 per cent of the oldest group (aged fifty and over). These divisions also pertain in the dominant and middle classes, but to a much lesser extent.
In a Europe where physically present staff are disappearing from public services, new technology could alleviate geographical and generational disparities, but in fact many indicators show that it usually reinforces phenomena of exclusion.
Health inequality and going without treatment
While, in comparison to other regions of the world, it may appear that in Europe social-welfare systems enable the majority to access a basic level of care, there are nevertheless marked inequalities in the arena of health between different social groups. Here, the disadvantaged position of the working class is due primarily to their living and working conditions: exposure to pollution, work-related cancers and premature death vary according to occupation and place of residence. The risks related to asbestos for manual workers, and to pesticides for farm workers, offer two examples. To these need to be added all the deleterious effects on health of harsh working conditions: restricted capacity for work, chronic illness, and the feeling of being in poor health, particularly among older workers.42 Vulnerability to unemployment and job insecurity also has serious effects on health.43 These work-related social inequalities nevertheless vary considerably from one country to another, owing to the lack of common European legislation.
In Greece, for example, the financial crisis and austerity programmes have only increased these inequalities, by substantially reducing access to care and undermining the health of the population. The drastic financial measures imposed by the European Union reduced public health expenditure to the strict minimum, the effect of which was to withdraw social protection from the most vulnerable groups. This resulted in an increasingly unequal system of access to care, whereas before the crisis the entire population benefited from health insurance. More generally, since the 2008 crisis in public finance, many countries have increased the share of costs that patients have to pay, resulting in an increase in health inequality across Europe.
Overall, inequality in access to healthcare relates mainly to income and educational qualifications: this explains the disadvantaged position of working-class people, 9 per cent of whom, on a Europe-wide level, stated that they had had to forgo a medical appointment during the previous year. Eleven per cent of working-class people have already given up dental care, compared to only 6 per cent of middle-class people and 5 per cent of dominant-class people. These figures, however, contain some bias, as the definition of doing without care may vary depending on the importance attached to prevention and the necessity of looking after oneself.
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