Globalisation and the transnational capitalist class | AQA A-Level Sociology
Updated: Aug 30
For Specification 7192
AQA A-Level Sociology | Free Revision Notes
Estimated study time: 85-100 minutes
Globalisation can change inequality by allowing corporations, capital and workers to operate across national boundaries. This Globalisation and the transnational capitalist class A-Level Sociology revision page examines how these processes may create both opportunities and disadvantages, and how a globally mobile economic elite can affect national class structures. It develops changing structures of inequality [Changing structures of inequality] and prepares you for social mobility [Social mobility]. AQA explicitly includes globalisation and the transnational capitalist class within changing structures of inequality.
Learning Objectives 🎯
By the end of this revision page, you should be able to:
Explain how globalisation may affect inequality and life chances.
Explain how globalisation may alter employment and opportunities for social mobility.
Define the transnational capitalist class and explain its relationship to transnational corporations.
Analyse how globally mobile corporations can affect inequalities within the UK.
Explain how the presence of the global super-rich may alter structures of inequality.
Evaluate whether globalisation reduces inequality, increases inequality or produces different outcomes for different groups.
Revision Notes 📚
Globalisation and the transnational capitalist class A-Level Sociology revision overview
AQA requires students studying Stratification and Differentiation to understand:
changes in structures of inequality
globalisation and the transnational capitalist class
the implications of these changes
patterns of social mobility
This lesson therefore focuses on two connected questions:
How does globalisation affect existing patterns of inequality?
What is the significance of a capitalist class whose economic interests and activities operate across national boundaries?
The course plan places this lesson directly after changing structures of inequality [Changing structures of inequality] and before social mobility [Social mobility].
What is globalisation?
Globalisation refers to the increasing interconnectedness of societies across national boundaries.
Within this part of Stratification and Differentiation, the most important aspects of globalisation concern changes in:
employment
production
corporations
migration
economic opportunities
social mobility
class inequality
AQA assessment material repeatedly explores these relationships.
For example, official mark schemes recognise that globalisation may involve:
corporations moving production between countries
workers migrating for employment
expansion into global markets
outsourcing
increased international competition
greater access to cheaper consumer goods
The key point is that globalisation can change where economic activity takes place and who benefits from it.
Globalisation is not automatically equalising
A common misconception is that greater global interconnectedness must make societies more similar or more equal.
AQA assessment material does not support such a simple conclusion.
Globalisation can produce:
new employment opportunities
upward mobility
but it can also produce:
unemployment
insecure employment
poverty
reduced opportunities for some workers
A useful principle is:
The same process of globalisation may create opportunities for one social group while increasing insecurity for another.
This is why globalisation is important for understanding changing structures of inequality.
Globalisation and employment
Corporations operating internationally
One major feature of globalisation is that corporations can operate across several countries.
AQA's 2023 item states that transnational corporations may move operations between countries in search of profit.
A corporation may therefore make decisions about:
where production takes place
where workers are employed
where operations expand
where operations are reduced
These decisions can alter employment opportunities in different countries.
Why this matters for inequality
Employment affects:
income
job security
status
health
social mobility
wider life chances
A decision made by a transnational corporation can therefore alter the social position of groups who may be geographically distant from its owners and controllers.
Outsourcing
Outsourcing involves moving or purchasing work from elsewhere, including other countries.
AQA's 2023 mark scheme explicitly recognises the possibility that TNCs may outsource low and unskilled work abroad, creating:
unemployment
fewer work opportunities for working-class people in the UK
A useful analytical chain is:
TNC seeks greater profit
↓
work moved abroad
↓
some UK employment disappears
↓
workers face unemployment or restricted opportunities
↓
working-class life chances may decline
This illustrates a direct relationship between globalisation and inequality.
Global competition
AQA's 2024 mark scheme similarly recognises that companies may move production because of global competition, producing unemployment and reducing working-class life chances.
This means corporations do not need to remain tied to one national labour market.
Workers in one country may effectively compete with workers elsewhere for employment.
This can change the balance of power between:
workers
employers
corporations
A global labour market may therefore reshape national class relations.
Loss of traditional employment
Globalisation may contribute to the decline of some forms of traditional employment.
AQA recognises that the loss of traditional work can push some sections of the working class towards more disadvantaged positions.
This links directly with the previous lesson on deindustrialisation and class change [Changing structures of inequality].
The process may be:
global competition or relocation
↓
traditional employment declines
↓
workers need new employment
↓
some gain new opportunities while others experience downward mobility or insecurity
Globalisation therefore changes the composition of class positions.
Globalisation and precarious employment
What is precarious employment?
Precarious employment refers to work characterised by insecurity or instability.
AQA's 2024 mark scheme identifies contemporary working-class employment under globalisation as potentially involving:
deskilling
low wages
part-time work
short-term work
zero-hours contracts
These forms of work can affect life chances even when someone remains employed.
Employment does not always mean economic security
Two workers may both have jobs but experience very different conditions.
For example:
Worker A
secure contract
stable income
predictable hours
Worker B
short-term work
unstable hours
lower security
Employment status alone therefore does not reveal the full extent of inequality.
Precarious work and life chances
AQA explicitly links precarious employment with poorer working-class life chances.
The chain may be:
precarious work → unstable income → economic insecurity → greater risk of poverty → reduced life chances
Effects may extend beyond employment to:
health
housing
consumption
ability to plan for the future
social mobility
Globalisation can therefore reshape inequality even without producing outright unemployment.
Deskilling
AQA's 2024 mark scheme includes deskilling among possible consequences of globalisation for working-class employment.
Deskilling refers to work being organised so that fewer or less complex skills are required.
Where employment becomes deskilled, workers may experience:
reduced bargaining position
limited occupational progression
restricted mobility
The significance is not simply that jobs change.
The sociological issue is whether those changes alter class position and life chances.
Globalisation and trade union power
Reduced collective power
AQA's 2024 mark scheme recognises that globalisation may reduce the power of trade unions, making them less effective at protecting working-class life chances.
Trade unions may seek to protect workers through collective action over:
wages
job security
working conditions
If corporations can move operations internationally, employees may have less leverage.
Globalisation and the balance of power
This creates an important relationship:
greater mobility of corporations
↓
greater ability to relocate operations
↓
weaker bargaining position for some workers
↓
reduced collective power
↓
possible increase in inequality
This connects globalisation directly to class, status and power [Class, status and power].
Globalisation can create employment opportunities
New global markets
Globalisation does not only remove jobs.
AQA's 2024 mark scheme recognises that emerging global markets may create new employment opportunities for working-class people.
Similarly, the 2022 social mobility mark scheme recognises new employment created when companies expand globally.
The analytical chain may be:
company expands internationally
↓
new economic activity
↓
new employment opportunities
↓
greater income or occupational opportunities
↓
improved life chances or upward mobility
Globalisation therefore has potentially positive as well as negative effects.
Growth of service employment
AQA assessment of globalisation and UK employment has recognised that the growth of large corporations can create new employment opportunities in the service sector.
This is significant because the decline of one type of employment may coincide with the growth of another.
The overall effect depends on:
which jobs disappear
which jobs are created
who has the qualifications or skills needed
how secure and well rewarded the new employment is
The existence of new jobs alone does not tell us whether inequality has increased or decreased.
Globalisation and migration
International migration for employment
AQA's 2022 mark scheme identifies international migration to take up employment as one way globalisation affects social mobility.
People may gain access to opportunities beyond their country of origin.
Migration can therefore create routes to:
employment
higher income
education
upward social mobility
This means national borders may become less restrictive for some forms of opportunity.
Migration and upward mobility
A person who moves to access a better-paid or higher-status occupation may experience upward social mobility.
AQA explicitly accepts migration for work as a route to either upward or downward mobility depending on the circumstances.
Globalisation therefore expands the geographical range within which mobility may occur.
Migration does not guarantee upward mobility
Migration may also be associated with:
low-paid work
restricted opportunities
insecure employment
The AQA 2022 mark scheme recognises that undocumented migrant workers may become part of a disadvantaged group in the host country.
The sociological point is:
Cross-border movement creates an opportunity to move, but it does not guarantee movement upwards within the stratification system.
Migration can affect workers already in the host country
AQA also recognises the possibility that increased labour supply may affect:
wages
employment opportunities
for workers in a host society.
This again demonstrates that globalisation can create different outcomes for different groups.
One worker's new opportunity may be experienced by another worker as increased competition.
Globalisation and social mobility
What is social mobility?
Social mobility refers to movement between positions within a system of stratification.
Globalisation can affect mobility by changing:
employment opportunities
occupational structures
migration opportunities
demand for particular skills
AQA assessed the relationship directly in 2022.
The topic is developed fully in social mobility [Social mobility], but it is essential here because changing global economic arrangements can change people's chances of moving within the social structure.
Upward mobility through globalisation
AQA recognises several possible routes:
migration to access employment
companies creating new jobs through international expansion
educational opportunities in other countries
These may improve an individual's:
occupational position
income
life chances
Downward mobility through globalisation
Globalisation may also produce downward mobility through:
unemployment
foreign competition
relocation of work
restricted opportunities for workers without skills demanded by the global economy
The effects are therefore unequal.
Globalisation and consumption
Cheaper consumer goods
AQA's 2024 mark scheme recognises that globalisation may increase working-class access to a wider range of cheaper consumer goods, potentially improving living standards.
This provides an important counterargument to claims that globalisation only harms the working class.
Consumers may benefit from:
lower prices
greater choice
access to globally produced goods
Does cheaper consumption mean less inequality?
Not necessarily.
Improved access to consumer products does not automatically remove differences in:
income
wealth
employment security
power
mobility
A group may experience improved consumption while remaining relatively disadvantaged in the class structure.
This links back to changing structures of inequality [Changing structures of inequality].
What is a transnational corporation?
A transnational corporation, or TNC, is a corporation whose operations extend across national boundaries.
For this specification, the key feature supported directly by AQA is that TNCs may:
move operations between countries in search of profit.
Their decisions may therefore affect workers and inequalities in more than one national society.
TNCs matter because they provide an organisational basis for the transnational capitalist class.
What is the transnational capitalist class?
Definition
The transnational capitalist class, or TCC, is a globally oriented capitalist class associated with the ownership and control of transnational corporations.
AQA's 2023 Item O states specifically that the transnational capitalist class includes:
owners of transnational corporations
controllers of transnational corporations
The corporations they control can move operations between countries in pursuit of profit.
This gives the class a significance that extends beyond one national economy.
Why "transnational"?
Transnational means operating across or beyond individual national boundaries.
The TCC differs from a purely national capitalist class because its:
corporations
investments
economic decisions
interests
are not necessarily confined to one country.
The central AQA idea is that owners and controllers of TNCs can make decisions about where their corporations operate internationally.
Why "capitalist class"?
The concept is related to wider Marxist ideas about social class.
AQA's 2023 examination describes Marxists as viewing capitalist society in terms of a division between:
the bourgeoisie, who own the means of production
the proletariat, who sell their labour power
The TCC extends this concern with ownership and control into a globalised economy.
Instead of capitalist ownership operating only within one national society, economic power can be organised through corporations operating internationally.
The TCC and owners of TNCs
Ownership matters because owners can benefit economically from successful corporate activity.
The ability of TNCs to operate internationally means the economic interests of owners may not be tied to:
one workforce
one locality
one national labour market
This can change the relationship between capital and labour.
Workers may remain geographically rooted while corporate operations can be moved internationally.
The TCC and controllers of TNCs
AQA also includes controllers of TNCs within the transnational capitalist class.
Control matters because major organisational decisions can affect:
location of production
employment
opportunities for workers
profitability
This links the concept of class directly to power.
The TCC is significant not only because its members possess resources, but because they can make decisions with consequences across societies.
The global super-rich
London and the global super-rich
The 2023 AQA item states that:
London is a base for many of the super-rich from around the world.
AQA uses this example to help students analyse how the transnational capitalist class may affect inequality in the UK.
The mark scheme explicitly identifies:
inequality in the UK may have widened because of the presence of the global super-rich.
This is therefore a central piece of content for this lesson.
How the super-rich may affect structures of inequality
If a society contains a group with extremely high levels of economic resources, the distance between this group and others may increase.
The structure may become more polarised between:
highly advantaged global elites
other social groups with fewer resources
AQA's 2023 assessment therefore shows that national inequality can be affected by globally mobile elites.
The important implication is:
A country's stratification system may increasingly include people whose economic position is global rather than simply national.
Inequality can become more transnational
Traditional class analysis often focuses on class divisions within one country.
The TCC concept raises a different possibility.
The most advantaged groups may:
operate across several countries
control corporations with international operations
possess interests that extend beyond one national labour market
This can make national class structures increasingly influenced by global economic relationships.
How the TCC may widen inequality
Global economic resources
The presence of a highly wealthy transnational group can increase the distance between the top and other positions in the social hierarchy.
AQA's 2023 mark scheme directly recognises the possibility that the global super-rich widen inequality in the UK.
A simple chain is:
global accumulation of economic advantage
↓
super-rich locate within or operate through the UK
↓
greater concentration of advantage at the top
↓
wider inequality
The central issue is the changing structure, rather than the lifestyle of particular wealthy individuals.
TNC relocation and working-class disadvantage
The TCC may also affect inequality through its control of TNCs.
AQA's mark scheme recognises:
TNC outsourcing → unemployment and fewer opportunities for low-skilled and unskilled workers in the UK.
This can widen inequality because:
those controlling global capital retain economic opportunities
workers affected by relocation may lose employment or mobility opportunities
The same global process can therefore strengthen advantage at one end of the structure and disadvantage at another.
Owners may be mobile while workers are less mobile
The AQA material implies an important contrast.
Owners and controllers of TNCs can move corporate operations internationally.
Many workers depend on the employment opportunities available to them.
This creates a potential inequality of mobility and power:
capital can move
while
workers may have less control over where employment is located
This is one reason globalisation can alter class power relationships.
The TCC may also create opportunities
The effects of the transnational capitalist class are not necessarily entirely negative.
The 2023 AQA mark scheme explicitly recognises that TNCs may create opportunities for upward social mobility in the UK.
This is an essential evaluation point.
TNC activity may create:
employment
occupational opportunities
routes to higher social positions
Global corporations can therefore contribute to inequality in contradictory ways.
TNCs and upward mobility
If a TNC creates employment offering opportunities for:
occupational progression
higher income
greater status
some workers may achieve upward mobility.
The chain could be:
TNC expands operations
↓
new employment opportunities
↓
individual gains access to higher occupational position
↓
upward social mobility
This means the TCC cannot simply be described as increasing disadvantage for everyone outside it.
Unequal access to new opportunities
However, not everyone will necessarily benefit equally from new employment.
AQA's 2022 and 2025 mark schemes recognise that individuals without skills required by the global economy may have fewer opportunities for upward mobility.
The same process may therefore create:
mobility for some
exclusion for others
The impact depends on people's starting positions and access to relevant opportunities.
The TCC and changing class structures
From national to global class relations
The TCC changes how sociologists can think about class.
Traditional approaches may imagine:
national capitalist class ↔ national working class
Globalisation introduces a more complex pattern:
owners and controllers operating transnationally ↔ workers located across different national labour markets
This does not necessarily remove traditional class divisions.
It changes the geographical scale on which they operate.
A more globally connected elite
The TCC concept suggests that members of the most advantaged economic groups may have more in common with similarly placed elites in other countries than with less advantaged people living in the same country.
The supplied AQA material supports the importance of owners, controllers, TNCs and globally mobile super-rich, but it does not prescribe a detailed list of internal TCC subgroups.
For examination purposes, the secure core is:
ownership and control of TNCs
operations across countries
search for profit
global super-rich
implications for national inequality
The TCC and class power
Control over economic decisions
Class inequality involves not only differences in resources but also differences in power.
Owners and controllers of TNCs can influence:
where operations are located
where employment is created
where employment is lost
This gives their decisions consequences for the life chances of others.
Connection with Marxism
AQA's 2023 Marxism question links capitalist stratification to:
ownership
labour
conflicting class interests
The TCC can therefore be interpreted as evidence that capitalist ownership and control remain significant under globalisation.
The key difference is that those relationships increasingly operate across national boundaries.
Marxist interpretations of the TCC
Globalisation does not remove class inequality
A Marxist approach may argue that globalisation transforms capitalism without ending its basic class divisions.
Owners and controllers remain able to make economic decisions, while workers remain dependent on employment.
TNCs therefore demonstrate the continuing importance of:
ownership
control
profit
labour
class inequality
Globalisation may increase capitalist power
If corporations can move operations to different countries, owners may gain greater flexibility.
Workers may face:
greater competition
reduced job security
fewer opportunities in declining industries
AQA's 2023 and 2024 mark schemes provide direct support for these processes.
TCC as an extension of the capitalist class
From this perspective, the transnational capitalist class can be seen as a globalised form of capitalist advantage.
Its significance lies in the fact that:
ownership crosses national boundaries
corporate control crosses national boundaries
the consequences of corporate decisions cross national boundaries
The class structure therefore becomes less contained within individual nation-states.
Evaluating the Marxist interpretation
A Marxist interpretation is useful because it highlights:
ownership
profit
power
outsourcing
employment insecurity
widening inequality
However, globalisation may also create:
new employment
cheaper consumer goods
migration opportunities
upward social mobility
The effects cannot therefore be reduced to a single pattern of universal working-class decline.
Globalisation and class polarisation
Increasing distance between groups
The transnational capitalist class may contribute to class polarisation if the economic distance between the most advantaged and disadvantaged positions increases.
The 2023 mark scheme's recognition that the global super-rich may widen UK inequality supports this interpretation.
At the same time, globalisation may contribute to:
unemployment
insecure work
low wages
among sections of the working class.
The structure may therefore become more divided between:
globally mobile economic elites
and
workers experiencing insecurity or restricted opportunities
But polarisation is not the only possible outcome
AQA material also recognises:
new employment
migration opportunities
upward mobility
improved access to cheaper goods
This means some groups between the extremes may improve their position.
Contemporary stratification may therefore involve:
polarisation in some respects
mobility in others
greater complexity overall
A strong answer should avoid treating globalisation as producing one identical outcome for every group.
Globalisation and the underclass
AQA's 2024 mark scheme recognises that loss of traditional employment may push some sections of the working class into an underclass position.
Within this context, the term refers to particularly disadvantaged positions associated with restricted economic opportunities.
The analytical chain is:
loss of employment → reduced income and opportunities → increased poverty risk → greater social disadvantage
However, students should not assume that globalisation automatically creates an underclass or that all working-class people experience the same outcome.
Globalisation and poverty
Globalisation may increase poverty risk for some groups through:
unemployment
low wages
precarious work
AQA's 2024 mark scheme explicitly identifies increased risk of poverty as one way globalisation may reduce working-class life chances.
This can reinforce inequality because poverty affects opportunities beyond employment.
For example:
precarious employment → low or uncertain income → greater poverty risk → reduced life chances
Globalisation and skills
Unequal access to the global economy
AQA's 2022 mark scheme recognises that people who do not possess skills required in a global economy may have fewer opportunities for upward mobility.
This suggests globalisation may reward some kinds of labour more than others.
Workers able to access expanding opportunities may improve their position.
Others may experience:
unemployment
occupational decline
reduced mobility
Implication for inequality
Globalisation can therefore create new inequalities between workers.
The important division may not simply be:
employed versus unemployed
but also:
workers able to access global opportunities versus workers whose existing opportunities decline.
Globalisation and national inequality
Global processes, national consequences
The TCC is particularly significant because its activities are transnational while many of its consequences are experienced within specific national societies.
For example, AQA's 2023 question asked specifically how the TCC may have affected inequalities in the UK.
This demonstrates that students must be able to connect:
global economic processes
to
national structures of inequality
Example 1: Outsourcing
Global process: a TNC relocates low-skilled work.
UK consequence: some workers lose employment opportunities.
Inequality consequence: working-class life chances may decline.
Example 2: Global super-rich
Global process: highly wealthy transnational individuals base themselves in London.
UK consequence: the economic position of the most advantaged becomes more extreme.
Inequality consequence: inequality may widen.
Example 3: TNC employment
Global process: a transnational corporation expands activity in the UK.
UK consequence: new occupational opportunities may develop.
Inequality consequence: some individuals may experience upward mobility.
All three examples are recognised within the 2023 AQA assessment framework.
Globalisation and social class
Does globalisation make social class less important?
Globalisation might appear to weaken traditional class categories because:
corporations operate internationally
workers migrate
employment structures change
national labour markets become interconnected
However, AQA assessment material continues to connect globalisation strongly to:
working-class life chances
class inequality
social mobility
owners and controllers of corporations
This suggests that globalisation may make class more complex and more transnational, rather than simply making it irrelevant.
Class may become less nationally bounded
A useful sociological interpretation is:
traditional class divisions remain important
but
the processes producing them increasingly cross national borders.
A worker's life chances may be affected by:
decisions made by a corporation headquartered elsewhere
competition from international labour markets
opportunities to migrate
global consumer markets
Class inequality therefore needs to be understood within a wider global context.
Globalisation and power
Greater corporate mobility
The ability of corporations to move operations can itself be a form of power.
AQA's 2023 item makes mobility of operations central to understanding the TCC.
If workers depend on employment but corporate owners can relocate production, the two groups do not possess equal control over the situation.
This creates a possible imbalance in:
bargaining power
economic security
control over employment decisions
Reduced trade union power
AQA's 2024 mark scheme adds that globalisation may weaken trade union power.
Together these processes suggest:
greater corporate mobility + weaker worker bargaining power → changed class power relationships
This is one reason globalisation has implications for the whole structure of inequality, not merely the number of jobs available.
Globalisation and status
Globalisation may also alter occupational status through changes in employment.
For example:
loss of a secure occupational position may reduce status
movement into a higher occupational position through global expansion may increase status
However, the supplied AQA material for this specific lesson concentrates primarily on:
employment
mobility
inequality
TNC ownership and control
Status can therefore be used as a consequence where relevant, but it should not replace the central focus on globalisation and changing inequality.
Globalisation and inequality: positive and negative effects
Global change | Possible reduction in disadvantage | Possible increase in disadvantage |
TNC expansion | Creates new employment and mobility opportunities | May produce unequal access to opportunities |
International relocation | May create jobs in receiving locations | Can remove jobs from other locations |
Migration | May improve employment and mobility opportunities | May involve insecure or disadvantaged employment |
Global markets | May create new jobs | Competition may cause unemployment elsewhere |
Global production | Can make consumer goods cheaper | Can be associated with low-paid or insecure work |
Corporate mobility | Can generate new investment and employment | May weaken workers' bargaining position |
Global elite | TNC activity can generate opportunities | Presence of global super-rich may widen inequality |
The key examination judgement is therefore:
Globalisation redistributes opportunities and risks rather than affecting all social groups in the same way.
The transnational capitalist class and national elites
The concept of the TCC suggests that the highest class positions may increasingly be connected across national boundaries.
AQA's 2023 item combines:
owners and controllers of TNCs
internationally mobile corporate activity
globally super-rich people based in London
This provides a picture of an elite whose economic resources and activities cannot be understood only through one national class system.
The significance for stratification is that:
The top of the class structure may become increasingly globalised while many lower positions remain dependent on national or local employment opportunities.
Implications for structures of inequality
Implication 1: Inequality may widen
The global super-rich may increase the economic distance between the most advantaged and other groups.
Implication 2: Employment may become less secure
Relocation, competition and precarious work may reduce working-class security and life chances.
Implication 3: New opportunities may develop
TNC expansion and emerging markets may generate employment and opportunities for upward mobility.
Implication 4: Class power may become more transnational
Owners and controllers can make decisions about operations in more than one national economy.
Implication 5: National class structures become connected to global processes
Employment and inequality within the UK can be affected by corporate decisions and labour-market developments elsewhere.
Implication 6: Mobility can operate internationally
Individuals may seek education and employment in other countries, creating new routes to upward or downward mobility.
Has globalisation increased inequality?
Arguments that it may increase inequality
AQA assessment supports several mechanisms:
TNCs may outsource employment
unemployment may increase
working-class employment may become more precarious
poverty risk may increase
trade union power may decline
the global super-rich may widen inequality
These mechanisms support conflict approaches that see globalisation as increasing the advantages of capital relative to labour.
Arguments that it may reduce some inequalities
Globalisation may also:
create employment
create opportunities for upward mobility
create opportunities through migration
provide access to cheaper consumer goods
It may therefore improve the life chances of some individuals and groups.
Best evaluation
The strongest conclusion is not:
"Globalisation increases inequality."
or:
"Globalisation reduces inequality."
Instead:
Globalisation changes the distribution of opportunities and resources, producing gains for some groups and losses for others. Its effect on inequality depends on which social group, occupation and aspect of life chances is being examined.
Is the transnational capitalist class a useful concept?
Strength: it captures globalised ownership
The concept draws attention to the fact that owners and controllers of major corporations may operate across national boundaries.
This helps explain why economic power cannot always be analysed only within one country.
Strength: it connects globalisation to class inequality
The TCC concept gives a class-based explanation of globalisation.
It connects:
ownership
control
profit
corporate mobility
inequality
Strength: it helps explain changes at the top of stratification
The global super-rich identified in AQA's 2023 item demonstrate how globalisation may alter the most advantaged positions within national class structures.
Limitation: TNCs can create opportunities
If TNCs create employment and upward mobility, their effects cannot be understood only through exploitation or widening inequality.
AQA's mark scheme explicitly expects students to recognise this possibility.
Limitation: effects vary between workers
Some workers may gain from global expansion while others lose employment.
The working class itself does not therefore experience globalisation uniformly.
Limitation: class is not the only inequality
AQA's wider Stratification and Differentiation specification also requires students to study:
gender
ethnicity
age
disability in relation to life chances
The TCC may therefore help explain economic inequality without providing a complete explanation of every dimension of stratification.
Globalisation compared with national explanations
A national explanation might focus mainly on:
domestic employers
domestic occupations
national class groups
A globalisation approach adds:
transnational corporations
international migration
global competition
corporate relocation
transnational elites
This expands rather than necessarily replaces earlier class analysis.
A useful contrast is:
National class analysis | Globalised class analysis |
Focuses primarily on inequalities within one country. | Examines how cross-border processes shape inequality. |
Employers and workers are analysed mainly within a national economy. | TNCs may move activities between national economies. |
Mobility may be considered mainly within the national occupational structure. | Migration and international opportunities may affect mobility. |
Economic elites may be treated as national. | The TCC may possess transnational interests and resources. |
Globalisation and Marxist theories of stratification
The TCC fits closely with Marxist concerns about:
capitalist ownership
class conflict
unequal power
AQA's 2023 examination placed the TCC question immediately before a 20-mark question on Marxist theories of stratification, providing students with two closely connected areas of the specification.
A Marxist interpretation may argue that globalisation:
allows capitalist ownership to operate internationally
increases corporate flexibility
exposes workers to greater competition
contributes to class polarisation
However, alternative evidence of employment creation and mobility should be used to evaluate an overly one-sided interpretation.
Globalisation and functionalist interpretations
A functionalist interpretation could place greater emphasis on how changing economic structures create new occupational roles and opportunities.
Global expansion can:
generate employment
reward skills needed by changing economies
create routes to occupational mobility
AQA's 2022 and 2024 mark schemes provide support for the possibility of new employment and mobility opportunities.
Evaluation
The existence of opportunity does not prove that opportunities are equally available.
Some workers may:
lack skills required by expanding sectors
lose employment through global competition
experience precarious work
The distribution of new opportunities is therefore central to evaluating globalisation.
Globalisation and Weberian approaches
A multidimensional approach can examine not only economic class but also:
status
power
life chances
Globalisation may create new combinations of these dimensions.
For example:
an owner or controller may possess significant economic resources and organisational power
a worker may have employment but little security
a migrant may improve income while occupying a relatively insecure position
This shows why changing inequality can become more complex under globalisation.
Globalisation and postmodernist interpretations
Globalisation can also be associated with increasingly complex and fluid social arrangements.
However, for this lesson, the supplied AQA assessment material places much greater emphasis on economic inequalities, especially:
TNCs
owners and controllers
super-rich groups
employment
mobility
Students should therefore avoid turning a Stratification and Differentiation answer into a general essay on global culture.
The question must remain focused on inequality and structures of stratification.
Applying the transnational capitalist class in an examination
Consider this original scenario:
A corporation operates in several countries. It closes one low-skilled operation in the UK while expanding a higher-skilled part of its business elsewhere in the UK. At the same time, its owners and senior controllers have access to substantial economic resources.
A weak answer might write:
"Globalisation creates inequality because the rich get richer."
A stronger answer separates the mechanisms.
Mechanism 1: Loss of employment
TNC mobility → low-skilled work relocated → unemployment or reduced opportunities → working-class disadvantage
Mechanism 2: New opportunity
TNC expansion → new skilled employment → opportunities for occupational progression → possible upward mobility
Then evaluate:
The same transnational corporation can therefore increase disadvantage for one group while creating opportunities for another.
This reflects the type of analytical thinking rewarded by AQA.
Applying the global super-rich
Consider another original scenario:
A major global city attracts extremely wealthy people whose economic resources place them far above most of the population.
The key analysis is not simply:
"Rich people live there."
Instead:
global concentration of highly advantaged individuals → greater economic distance between the top and other groups → widening structure of inequality
This follows the relationship AQA explicitly accepted in the 2023 mark scheme.
Applying globalisation to working-class life chances
If an item says:
Companies can move production internationally, while consumers gain access to cheaper goods.
There are two deliberately different hooks.
Hook 1: Moving production
relocation → loss of employment → lower income or unemployment → poorer life chances
Hook 2: Cheaper goods
global production → lower consumer prices → greater purchasing power → improved material living standards
A strong answer recognises that globalisation may have contradictory effects.
The link with social mobility
Globalisation and the TCC cannot be understood fully without considering mobility.
Globalisation may change:
which jobs exist
where those jobs exist
who can access them
which workers lose opportunities
which workers gain opportunities
This leads directly into the next lesson, social mobility [Social mobility].
AQA has assessed globalisation and mobility repeatedly, so students should be comfortable moving between:
global economic change
and
individual or group movement within the stratification system.
Overall significance for contemporary stratification
The transnational capitalist class is significant because it shows that the structure of inequality is no longer adequately understood only through national boundaries.
Globalisation can connect:
globally mobile capital
transnational owners and controllers
workers in different national economies
international migration
national inequalities
global concentrations of wealth
At the same time, these processes do not produce one simple outcome.
Globalisation can:
widen inequality
and
create mobility opportunities
depending on the group and process being examined.
The strongest sociological conclusion is therefore that globalisation has restructured inequality rather than simply increased or decreased it in a uniform way.
Key Words 🔑
Key word | Student-friendly definition | How it may be used in an exam |
Globalisation | Increasing interconnectedness between societies across national boundaries. | Use when explaining international changes in employment, corporations and social mobility. |
Transnational corporation (TNC) | A corporation whose operations extend across national boundaries. | Use when explaining how companies may move operations internationally and affect inequality. |
Transnational capitalist class (TCC) | A globally oriented capitalist class that includes owners and controllers of transnational corporations. | Use when analysing how globalisation changes class inequality and economic power. |
Outsourcing | Moving or obtaining work from elsewhere, including other countries. | Link TNC decisions to unemployment or changing occupational opportunities. |
Precarious employment | Work characterised by insecurity, unstable hours or uncertain income. | Use when explaining negative effects of globalisation on working-class life chances. |
Social mobility | Movement between positions within a system of stratification. | Use to explain how globalisation may create upward or downward movement. |
Global super-rich | Extremely wealthy people whose economic position and activities may operate across national boundaries. | Use when analysing how the TCC may widen inequality at the top of the structure. |
Trade union power | The ability of trade unions to protect and advance workers' interests collectively. | Use when explaining how globalisation may alter power relations between workers and employers. |
Deskilling | The reduction of the skills required to perform work. | Use when analysing changes to working-class employment under globalisation. |
Class inequality | Unequal economic positions, resources and opportunities between social classes. | Use to connect globalisation and TCC processes to wider stratification. |
Hints from the Examiner Reports 💡
Examiner hint: Learn the phrase transnational capitalist class accurately. The 2023 examiner report states that some students did not recognise the term even though it is explicitly part of the Stratification and Differentiation specification.
Examiner hint: When the TCC appears in an item, keep the answer focused on how it changes inequality. The 2023 mark scheme warns that weaker answers could drift into discussing inequality in general rather than explaining how the TCC produced the change.
Examiner hint: Develop both item hooks separately in a 10-mark analyse question. The 2023 TCC item gave students owners and controllers moving operations internationally and the presence of the global super-rich. Strong responses developed two distinct applications rather than repeating one general claim.
Examiner hint: Do not assume globalisation only harms working-class people. AQA's 2024 mark scheme recognises both disadvantages, such as precarious work and unemployment, and potential benefits, such as new employment opportunities and cheaper consumer goods.
Examiner hint: For globalisation questions, connect the process directly to the outcome named. AQA's mark schemes warn against drifting into descriptions of globalisation without linking it to life chances or social mobility.
Examiner hint: Use sociological terminology. The 2023 examiner report noted more generally that answers benefit from concepts, theories and sociological material, while some Stratification responses were too general.
Examiner hint: In a 20-mark evaluation, keep the theory or claim named in the question at the centre. The 2023 report found evaluation became weaker when alternative perspectives began criticising one another rather than the perspective students had actually been asked to evaluate.
Common Mistakes ⚠️
Mistake: Treating globalisation as simply "countries becoming connected"
Why this is incorrect: The definition is too general for a Stratification and Differentiation answer.
How to improve: Explain the relevant economic mechanism, such as:
corporations move operations internationally → employment opportunities change → inequality or mobility changes
Mistake: Not knowing what the transnational capitalist class means
Why this is incorrect: AQA's 2023 examiner report specifically identified this as a problem among some students.
How to improve: Remember the secure AQA core:
TCC = owners and controllers of TNCs operating across national boundaries.
Mistake: Treating the TCC and TNCs as the same thing
Why this is incorrect: A TNC is a corporation. The TCC refers to a social class associated with owners and controllers of those corporations.
How to improve: Keep the distinction:
TNC = organisation
TCC = class
Mistake: Saying the TCC only means "rich people"
Why this is incorrect: AQA specifically connects the TCC to ownership and control of transnational corporations.
How to improve: Explain the relationship between economic resources, corporate control and cross-border operations.
Mistake: Assuming TNCs always increase inequality
Why this is incorrect: AQA explicitly recognises that TNCs may create opportunities for upward social mobility as well as unemployment or fewer opportunities.
How to improve: Consider both advantages and disadvantages, then judge the overall effect.
Mistake: Describing outsourcing without linking it to social class
Why this is incorrect: AQA's question is about inequality, not simply business decisions.
How to improve: Complete the chain:
outsourcing → loss of low-skilled UK employment → fewer working-class opportunities → poorer life chances or downward mobility
Mistake: Assuming cheaper consumer goods prove inequality has fallen
Why this is incorrect: Cheaper goods may improve living standards while differences in employment security, wealth and power continue.
How to improve: Distinguish improvements in consumption from changes in the underlying structure of inequality.
Mistake: Treating migration as automatically upward mobility
Why this is incorrect: AQA recognises that international migration may produce either upward or downward mobility.
How to improve: Explain the occupational position entered after migration rather than assuming movement between countries equals movement up the class structure.
Mistake: Writing a general Marxism essay
Why this is incorrect: A question on the TCC requires direct analysis of globalisation, transnational corporations and changing inequality.
How to improve: Use Marxism to interpret the evidence, but keep the TCC and its consequences central.
Mistake: Adding unsupported detail about the TCC
Why this is incorrect: The supplied AQA material securely identifies owners and controllers of TNCs, globally mobile operations and the global super-rich. It does not require students to memorise an elaborate list of TCC subdivisions.
How to improve: Prioritise the content that AQA has explicitly specified and assessed.
Exam-Style Questions ✍️
Questions
1. Identify one type of organisation associated with the transnational capitalist class.[1 mark]
2. Identify one way globalisation may negatively affect working-class employment.[1 mark]
3. Explain what sociologists mean by the transnational capitalist class.[4 marks]
4. Explain two ways in which globalisation may affect inequality.[6 marks]
5. Outline and explain two ways in which globalisation may affect social mobility.[10 marks]
6. Read Item A below and answer the question that follows.
Item A A transnational corporation can move some of its operations between countries. This may reduce employment in one location while expansion into new markets may create jobs elsewhere.Globalisation may affect inequalities within a national economy.
Applying material from Item A, analyse two ways in which the international activities of transnational corporations may affect inequality.[10 marks]
7. Read Item B below and answer the question that follows.
Item B Owners and controllers of transnational corporations can make decisions about where their businesses operate. Some global cities also contain people with exceptionally high levels of economic resources.The transnational capitalist class may change the structure of inequality.
Applying material from Item B, analyse two ways in which the transnational capitalist class may change the structure of inequality.[10 marks]
8. Read Item C below and answer the question that follows.
Item C Globalisation can create employment opportunities and provide consumers with access to cheaper goods. It can also result in companies relocating work, while some workers experience low wages and insecure employment.The consequences of globalisation may therefore differ between social groups.
Applying material from Item C and your knowledge, evaluate the view that globalisation has increased social inequality.[20 marks]
9. Read Item D below and answer the question that follows.
Item D Owners and controllers of transnational corporations increasingly operate across national boundaries. Their ability to move economic activity internationally may give them considerable advantages over workers whose employment depends on the decisions of these corporations.However, TNCs can also generate employment and opportunities for social mobility.
Applying material from Item D and your knowledge, evaluate the significance of the transnational capitalist class for contemporary structures of inequality.[20 marks]
Mark Scheme
Question 1
Award 1 mark for:
transnational corporation
TNC
Question 2
Award 1 mark for one relevant way, for example:
outsourcing
relocation of production
unemployment
precarious employment
low-paid work
reduced job security
Question 3
Award up to 4 marks.
Indicative content:
The transnational capitalist class is associated with owners and controllers of transnational corporations.
Its economic interests and activities operate across national boundaries.
TNCs may move operations internationally in pursuit of profit.
A developed answer should connect the TCC with changing economic inequality or power.
Example answer: The transnational capitalist class is a globally oriented capitalist class that includes the owners and controllers of transnational corporations. These corporations can operate and move activities between countries, giving members of the class economic interests and influence that extend beyond a single national economy.
Question 4
Award up to 6 marks for two developed ways.
Possible answers include:
Relocation of employment
TNCs may move work from one country to another. Workers who lose employment may experience lower income and fewer opportunities, increasing inequality.
New employment
TNC expansion may create new jobs and opportunities for upward mobility, potentially improving the life chances of those who gain access to them.
Global super-rich
The presence of extremely wealthy transnational groups may widen the economic distance between those at the top and other social groups.
Precarious employment
Global competition may contribute to low-paid or insecure work, reducing working-class life chances.
Each point must show the consequence for inequality.
Question 5
This is an outline and explain question.
Students should develop exactly two ways.
Indicative content may include:
migration for employment creating upward mobility
migration leading to disadvantaged employment and downward mobility
new jobs created by companies expanding globally
unemployment caused by international competition
jobs being moved abroad
workers without relevant skills having fewer opportunities
access to educational opportunities in other countries
For each way:
identify the globalisation process
explain how it affects occupational or economic opportunity
link it explicitly to upward or downward social mobility
Evaluation is not required.
Question 6
Students should use both main ideas in Item A.
Way 1: Moving operations
Item A states that TNCs can move operations internationally.
Work may be transferred away from a national labour market.
Workers may experience unemployment or reduced occupational opportunities.
Their income, security and mobility chances may therefore decline, increasing inequality.
Way 2: Expansion and new employment
Item A states that expansion into new markets can create employment.
New jobs may provide income and occupational opportunities.
Some individuals may improve their social position through these opportunities.
Globalisation can therefore reduce disadvantage for some while increasing it for others.
For higher marks, the two effects must be analysed separately rather than summarised as "globalisation changes jobs".
Question 7
Students should explicitly apply both hooks in Item B.
Way 1: Owners and controllers of TNCs
Item B refers to owners and controllers deciding where businesses operate.
Their ability to move economic activity can give them substantial economic power.
Workers may have less control over where employment is located.
This may alter the balance of power between capital and labour and contribute to class inequality.
Way 2: Extremely wealthy global groups
Item B refers to people with exceptionally high economic resources.
The presence of the global super-rich can increase the economic distance between the top and other groups.
This may produce greater concentration of advantage.
The national structure of inequality may therefore become more polarised.
For high marks, both points need clear application and explanation of the structural effect.
Question 8
This is a 20-mark evaluative essay.
A high-level answer should keep the claim that globalisation has increased inequality at the centre.
Arguments supporting the view may include:
outsourcing
relocation of production
unemployment
loss of traditional working-class jobs
precarious employment
deskilling
low wages
part-time or short-term work
increased poverty risk
declining trade union power
global super-rich
concentration of advantage through the TCC
Arguments challenging the view may include:
new employment opportunities
expansion into new global markets
upward social mobility
international migration for better employment
access to educational opportunities abroad
cheaper consumer goods
improved living standards for some groups
Marxist interpretation may include:
ownership and control
capitalism
class inequality
power of owners relative to workers
globalisation of capitalist class relations
Evaluation may include:
effects differ between groups
some working-class people benefit while others lose
the type and security of employment created matters
increased consumption does not necessarily remove wealth inequality
globalisation may transform rather than simply increase inequality
A reasoned conclusion might argue that globalisation can increase inequality where it strengthens the economic position of transnational owners while increasing insecurity among workers, but its effects are uneven because it also creates new employment and mobility opportunities.
Question 9
This question focuses specifically on the significance of the transnational capitalist class.
A high-level response should include:
Knowledge of the TCC
owners and controllers of TNCs
corporations operating internationally
movement of operations in pursuit of profit
global super-rich
Reasons the TCC may increase inequality
corporate relocation
outsourcing
unemployment
fewer opportunities for low-skilled workers
greater economic power of owners and controllers
widened inequality through the global super-rich
changing balance of power between capital and labour
Reasons its effects may be more complex
TNCs may create employment
TNCs may provide routes to upward mobility
expanding global markets may create opportunities
different workers are affected differently
Marxist evaluation
TCC supports the continuing importance of ownership and capitalist class power
globalisation may internationalise class relationships rather than remove them
Alternative evaluation
contemporary inequality is multidimensional
gender, ethnicity and age also affect stratification
opportunities under globalisation are not distributed entirely according to class
mobility means class positions are not completely closed
Overall significance
Students should consider whether the TCC:
widens national inequalities
changes the scale on which class operates
shifts economic power towards globally mobile owners and controllers
makes national stratification increasingly dependent on global processes
For the highest marks, students should avoid turning the answer into a general essay on globalisation.
A strong conclusion might argue that the transnational capitalist class is significant because it demonstrates how ownership, control and class power increasingly operate across national boundaries. Its influence can widen inequality and alter workers' opportunities, but TNC activity may also create employment and routes to mobility. The TCC therefore helps explain how globalisation has restructured class inequality rather than producing one uniform increase or decrease in inequality.
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