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Musrara ( Arabic : مصرارة , Hebrew : מוסררה , also known by its Hebrew name, Morasha , מורשה ‎) is a formerly Ottoman neighborhood in what is now West Jerusalem . It is bordered by the Israeli neighborhoods of Mea Shearim and Beit Yisrael to the north, by the Russian Compound and Kikar Safra to the west, and by Mamilla mall to the south, and the Old City to the east.

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72-608: Musrara was founded by upper class Arab Christians residents during the late 19th century, as a part of the " departure from the walls ", during which people began living outside the Old City of Jerusalem. During the 1947–1949 Palestine war , the Arab residents fled during the fighting or were expelled and not permitted to return to their homes. Musrara remained on the Israeli side of the border between Israel and Jordan . During

144-702: A "pariah group". For Bourdieu , the place in the social strata for any person is vaguer than the equivalent in Weberian sociology. Bourdieu introduced an array of concepts of what he refers to as types of capital. These types were economic capital, in the form assets convertible to money and secured as private property . This type of capital is separated from the other types of culturally constituted types of capital, which Bourdieu introduces, which are: personal cultural capital (formal education, knowledge); objective cultural capital (books, art); and institutionalized cultural capital (honours and titles). On 2 April 2013,

216-604: A Swedish survey considered it correct that they are living in a class society. One may use comparative methods to study class societies, using, for example, comparison of Gini coefficients , de facto educational opportunities, unemployment, and culture. Societies with large class differences have a greater proportion of people who suffer from mental health issues such as anxiety and depression symptoms. A series of scientific studies have demonstrated this relationship. Statistics support this assertion and results are found in life expectancy and overall health; for example, in

288-551: A bachelor's degree or higher. In class societies, the lower classes systematically receive lower-quality education and care. There are more explicit effects where those within the higher class actively demonize parts of the lower-class population. Definitions of social classes reflect a number of sociological perspectives , informed by anthropology , economics , psychology and sociology . The major perspectives historically have been Marxism and structural functionalism . The common stratum model of class divides society into

360-523: A disproportionate influence over the nation's political, educational, religious, and other institutions. Of all social classes, members of the upper class also have a strong sense of solidarity and 'consciousness of kind' that stretches across the nation and even the globe. Since the 1970s, income inequality in the United States has been increasing, with the top 1% (largely because of the top 0.1%) experiencing significantly larger gains in income than

432-415: A few number of professionals , are considered members of this class by contemporary sociologists, such as James Henslin or Dennis Gilbert . There may be prestige differences between different upper-class households. An A-list actor, for example, might not be accorded as much prestige as a former U.S. President , yet all members of this class are so influential and wealthy as to be considered members of

504-407: A general decrease in significance ascribed to hereditary characteristics and increase in the significance of wealth and income as indicators of position in the social hierarchy . The existence of social classes is considered normal in many societies, both historic and modern, to varying degrees. The existence of a class system dates back to times of Ancient Egypt , where the position of elite

576-508: A living, as they were supported by earned or inherited investments (often real estate ), although members of the upper class may have had less actual money than merchants. Upper-class status commonly derived from the social position of one's family and not from one's own achievements or wealth. Much of the population that composed the upper class consisted of aristocrats, ruling families, titled people, and religious hierarchs . These people were usually born into their status and historically there

648-522: A new class of petty bourgeois has been formed". "An industrial army of workmen, under the command of a capitalist, requires, like a real army, officers (managers) and sergeants (foremen, over-lookers) who, while the work is being done, command in the name of the capitalist". Marx makes the argument that, as the bourgeoisie reach a point of wealth accumulation, they hold enough power as the dominant class to shape political institutions and society according to their own interests. Marx then goes on to claim that

720-472: A patrician and a plebeian being almost erased during the late Roman Republic . Jean-Jacques Rousseau had a large influence over political ideals of the French Revolution because of his views of inequality and classes. Rousseau saw humans as "naturally pure and good," meaning that humans from birth were seen as innocent and any evilness was learned. He believed that social problems arise through

792-483: A person from an undistinguished background into a member of the upper class as one must be born into a family of that class and raised in a particular manner to understand and share upper class values, traditions, and cultural norms. The term is often used in conjunction with terms like upper-middle class , middle class , and working class as part of a model of social stratification . Historically in some cultures, members of an upper class often did not have to work for

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864-473: A political movement. Musrara's strategic location between the Haredi and religious neighborhoods to the north and the secular neighborhoods to the west has contributed to its diverse population. Over the last decade some have advocated to prevent the neighborhood from becoming more Hareidi, a process which has since slowed considerably. Today, Musrara is home to about 4,500 people. Musrara's built environment

936-472: A simple hierarchy of working class , middle class and upper class . Within academia, two broad schools of definitions emerge: those aligned with 20th-century sociological stratum models of class society and those aligned with the 19th-century historical materialist economic models of the Marxists and anarchists . Another distinction can be drawn between analytical concepts of social class, such as

1008-411: A very wealthy and powerful upper class that owns and controls the means of production; a middle class of professional workers, small business owners and low-level managers ; and a lower class, who rely on low-paying jobs for their livelihood and experience poverty . The upper class is the social class composed of those who are rich , well-born, powerful, or a combination of those. They usually wield

1080-407: Is a living testimony to its diversity – and that of Jerusalem in general – over the past 130 years. Examples of the various styles of architecture popular during this period can be found there. They can be divided into three general periods: The first phase was the Arab phase, in which large, luxurious mansions were built by wealthy Arabs attempting to escape the overcrowding in the Old City during

1152-428: Is a subject of analysis for sociologists , political scientists , anthropologists and social historians . The term has a wide range of sometimes conflicting meanings, and there is no broad consensus on a definition of class. Some people argue that due to social mobility , class boundaries do not exist. In common parlance, the term social class is usually synonymous with socioeconomic class, defined as "people having

1224-530: Is determined by social prestige rather than simply just relations of production. The term class is etymologically derived from the Latin classis , which was used by census takers to categorize citizens by wealth in order to determine military service obligations. In the late 18th century, the term class began to replace classifications such as estates , rank and orders as the primary means of organizing society into hierarchical divisions. This corresponded to

1296-698: Is estimated to constitute less than 1% of the population. By self-identification, according to this 2001–2012 Gallup Poll data, 98% of Americans identify with the five other class terms used, 48–50% identifying as "middle class". The main distinguishing feature of the upper class is its ability to derive enormous incomes from wealth through techniques such as money management and investing, rather than engaging in wage-labor salaried employment, although most upper-class individuals today will still hold some sort of employment, which differs from historical norms. Successful entrepreneurs , CEOs , investment bankers , venture capitalists , heir to fortunes, celebrities, and

1368-757: Is now a center of the arts, home to the Naggar Multidisciplinary School of Art and Society also known as "Musrara", the Eastern Music Center, the Jerusalem Municipality's art center, and Polis - the Jerusalem Institute of Languages and Humanities . Since 2009, the "Muslala" group, composed of artists, creators and residents of the neighborhood, has been developing art routes: different artist are invited to create site-specific interventions in

1440-482: Is sometimes separated into those who are employed but lacking financial security (the " working poor ") and an underclass —those who are long-term unemployed and/or homeless , especially those receiving welfare from the state . The latter is today considered analogous to the Marxist term " lumpenproletariat ". However, during the time of Marx's writing the lumpenproletariat referred to those in dire poverty; such as

1512-450: Is the condition for the free development of all". This would mark the beginning of a classless society in which human needs rather than profit would be motive for production. In a society with democratic control and production for use , there would be no class, no state and no need for financial and banking institutions and money. These theorists have taken this binary class system and expanded it to include contradictory class locations,

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1584-465: Is unclear whether slavery as understood today existed in ancient Egypt ; there is difference of opinions among authors. Not a single Egyptian was, in our sense of the word, free. No individual could call in question a hierarchy of authority which culminated in a living god. Although slaves were mostly used as indentured servants, they were able to buy and sell their servitude, work their way to freedom or nobility, and were usually treated by doctors in

1656-533: Is understood as the aggregated phenomenon to the "interlinked movement", which generates the quasi-objective concept of capital. Subjectively, the members will necessarily have some perception (" class consciousness ") of their similarity and common interest. Class consciousness is not simply an awareness of one's own class interest but is also a set of shared views regarding how society should be organized legally, culturally, socially and politically. These class relations are reproduced through time. In Marxist theory ,

1728-473: Is viewed and run. Later Enlightenment thinkers viewed inequality as valuable and crucial to society's development and prosperity. They also acknowledged that private property will ultimately cause inequality because specific resources that are privately owned can be stored and the owners profit off of the deficit of the resource. This can create competition between the classes that was seen as necessary by these thinkers. This also creates stratification between

1800-479: The class structure of the capitalist mode of production is characterized by the conflict between two main classes: the bourgeoisie , the capitalists who own the means of production and the much larger proletariat (or "working class") who must sell their own labour power ( wage labour ). This is the fundamental economic structure of work and property, a state of inequality that is normalized and reproduced through cultural ideology . For Marxists, every person in

1872-502: The means of production (their relations of production ). His understanding of classes in modern capitalist society is that the proletariat work but do not own the means of production, and the bourgeoisie , those who invest and live off the surplus generated by the proletariat's operation of the means of production , do not work at all. This contrasts with the view of the sociologist Max Weber , who contrasted class as determined by economic position, with social status ( Stand) which

1944-612: The poverty line . Examples of these types of jobs are factory workers, salesperson, teacher, cooks and nurses. There is a new trend by some scholars which assumes that the size of the middle class in every society is the same. For example, in paradox of interest theory, middle class are those who are in 6th–9th decile groups which hold nearly 12% of the whole society's wealth. Lower class (occasionally described as working class) are those employed in low-paying wage jobs with very little economic security. The term "lower class" also refers to persons with low income. The working class

2016-432: The vizier and his court for redress. Farmers made up the bulk of the population, but agricultural produce was owned directly by the state, temple, or noble family that owned the land. Farmers were also subject to a labor tax and were required to work on irrigation or construction projects in a corvée system. Artists and craftsmen were of higher status than farmers, but they were also under state control, working in

2088-484: The Marxist and Weberian traditions, as well as the more empirical traditions such as socioeconomic status approach, which notes the correlation of income, education and wealth with social outcomes without necessarily implying a particular theory of social structure. "[Classes are] large groups of people differing from each other by the place they occupy in a historically determined system of social production, by their relation (in most cases fixed and formulated in law) to

2160-725: The Peerage of Ireland granted by the British monarch have no recognition in the Irish Constitution. Contemporary Ireland is generally perceived to have a two-tier social class system composed of working class and middle class (with the exception of a small number of wealthy billionaires). The American upper class is a social group within the United States consisting of people who have the highest social rank primarily due to economic wealth . The American upper class

2232-429: The aristocracy and royalty, with wealth playing a less important role in class status. Many aristocratic peerages or titles have seats attached to them, with the holder of the title (e.g. Earl of Bristol) and his family being the custodians of the house, but not the owners. Many of these require high expenditures, so wealth is typically needed. Many aristocratic peerages and their homes are parts of estates, owned and run by

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2304-696: The border, who did their utmost to disrupt the lives of the residents. This new reality became routine until the Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem after the Six-Day War in 1967. In 1971, young, second-generation Mizrahi Jews from the neighborhood founded the Israeli Black Panthers , a protest movement against the perceived injustice and discrimination by the government against them. The rage quickly spread from Musrara to all areas inhabited by poor Mizrahi Jews, and eventually evolved into

2376-495: The case of high differences in life expectancy between two Stockholm suburbs. The differences between life expectancy of the poor and less-well-educated inhabitants who live in proximity to the station Vårby gård , and the highly educated and more affluent inhabitants living near Danderyd differ by 18 years. Similar data about New York is also available for life expectancy, average income per capita, income distribution, median income mobility for people who grew up poor, share with

2448-627: The classes keeping a distinct difference between lower, poorer classes and the higher, wealthier classes. India ( ↑ ), Nepal, North Korea ( ↑ ), Sri Lanka ( ↑ ) and some Indigenous peoples maintain social classes today. In class societies, class conflict has tended to recur or is ongoing, depending on the sociological and anthropolitical perspective. Class societies have not always existed; there have been widely different types of class communities. For example, societies based on age rather than capital. During colonialism , social relations were dismantled by force, which gave rise to societies based on

2520-598: The classes through the assets that they have such as property and expertise. Weber derived many of his key concepts on social stratification by examining the social structure of many countries. He noted that contrary to Marx's theories, stratification was based on more than simply ownership of capital . Weber pointed out that some members of the aristocracy lack economic wealth yet might nevertheless have political power. Likewise in Europe, many wealthy Jewish families lacked prestige and honor because they were considered members of

2592-430: The development of society and suppress the innate pureness of humankind. He also believed that private property is the main reason for social issues in society because private property creates inequality through the property's value. Even though his theory predicted if there were no private property then there would be wide spread equality, Rousseau accepted that there will always be social inequality because of how society

2664-529: The early days of Israeli statehood , there was an extreme shortage of housing for the thousands of Jewish immigrants who flooded to Jerusalem. As a result, the Ministry of Housing decided to populate the Palestinian houses with new immigrants from North African countries. Due to its proximity to the new border, the residents of Musrara were exposed to daily attacks from Jordanian snipers stationed along

2736-475: The goods or services in society. In the Marxist view of capitalism , this is a conflict between capitalists ( bourgeoisie ) and wage-workers (the proletariat). For Marxists, class antagonism is rooted in the situation that control over social production necessarily entails control over the class which produces goods—in capitalism this is the exploitation of workers by the bourgeoisie. Furthermore, "in countries where modern civilisation has become fully developed,

2808-481: The greatest political power. In some countries, wealth alone is sufficient to allow entry into the upper class. In others, only people who are born or marry into certain aristocratic bloodlines are considered members of the upper class and those who gain great wealth through commercial activity are looked down upon by the aristocracy as nouveau riche . In the United Kingdom, for example, the upper classes are

2880-411: The group of white, middle-aged Americans between the ages of 45 and 54 and its relation to class. There has been a growing number of suicides and deaths by substance abuse in this particular group of middle-class Americans . This group also has been recorded to have an increase in reports of chronic pain and poor general health. Deaton and Case came to the conclusion from these observations that because of

2952-459: The high ranks of society and aristocracy , whereas sumptuary laws stipulated the dress and jewelry appropriate for a person's social rank and station . In Europe, these laws became increasingly commonplace during the Middle Ages. However, these laws were prone to change due to societal changes, and in many cases, these distinctions may either almost disappear, such as the distinction between

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3024-419: The highest social status, usually are the wealthiest members of class society , and wield the greatest political power . According to this view, the upper class is generally distinguished by immense wealth which is passed on from generation to generation. Prior to the 20th century, the emphasis was on aristocracy , which emphasized generations of inherited noble status , not just recent wealth. Because

3096-419: The homeless. Members of the working class are sometimes called blue-collar workers . A person's socioeconomic class has wide-ranging effects. It can determine the schools they are able to attend, their health, the jobs open to them, when they exit the labour market, whom they may marry and their treatment by police and the courts. Angus Deaton and Anne Case have analyzed the mortality rates related to

3168-605: The idea that a person can be employed in many different class locations that fall between the two classes of proletariat and bourgeoisie. Erik Olin Wright stated that class definitions are more diverse and elaborate through identifying with multiple classes, having familial ties with people in different a class, or having a temporary leadership role. Max Weber formulated a three-component theory of stratification that saw social class as emerging from an interplay between "class", "status" and "power". Weber believed that class position

3240-450: The late 19th century. These houses have grand entrances, beautiful masonry and shingled roofs. The second phase began with the War of Independence. In the ensuing upheaval and unsettled conditions that arose along the unpeaceful new border with Jordan, houses were abandoned and new residents struggled. The neighborhood scene was one of unemployment, poverty and neglect. Conditions contributed to

3312-485: The means of production, by their role in the social organization of labor, and, consequently, by the dimensions of the share of social wealth of which they dispose and the mode of acquiring it." — Vladimir Lenin , A Great Beginning in June 1919 For Marx, class is a combination of objective and subjective factors. Objectively, a class shares a common relationship to the means of production . The class society itself

3384-527: The merchant class and were ennobled between the 14th and 19th centuries while intermarrying with the old nobility and gentry. Since the Second World War , the term has come to encompass rich and powerful members of the managerial and professional classes as well. In the years since Irish independence in 1922 the upper class has all but vanished in the Republic of Ireland. Aristocratic titles within

3456-436: The nation. But its money buys plenty of access." Social class A social class or social stratum is a grouping of people into a set of hierarchical social categories, the most common being the working class , middle class , and upper class . Membership of a social class can for example be dependent on education, wealth, occupation, income, and belonging to a particular subculture or social network. Class

3528-456: The neighborhood public space, and the public is invited to follow in their steps, using maps that are distributed for free. The group also started the Musrara community garden. 31°46′57″N 35°13′32″E  /  31.78250°N 35.22556°E  / 31.78250; 35.22556 Upper class Upper class in modern societies is the social class composed of people who hold

3600-429: The non-elite class, owing to their large numbers, have the power to overthrow the elite and create an equal society. In The Communist Manifesto , Marx himself argued that it was the goal of the proletariat itself to displace the capitalist system with socialism , changing the social relationships underpinning the class system and then developing into a future communist society in which: "the free development of each

3672-555: The prevalence of titles of nobility varied widely from country to country. Some upper classes were almost entirely untitled, for example, the Szlachta of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . In Great Britain and Ireland , the "upper class" traditionally comprised the landed gentry and the aristocracy of noble families with hereditary titles. The vast majority of post-medieval aristocratic families originated in

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3744-471: The process of production has separate social relationships and issues. Along with this, every person is placed into different groups that have similar interests and values that can differ drastically from group to group. Class is special in that does not relate to specifically to a singular person, but to a specific role. Marxists explain the history of "civilized" societies in terms of a war of classes between those who control production and those who produce

3816-558: The rest of society. Alan Greenspan , former chair of the Federal Reserve , sees it as a problem for society, calling it a "very disturbing trend". According to the book Who Rules America? by William Domhoff , the distribution of wealth in America is the primary highlight of the influence of the upper class. The top 1% of Americans own around 34% of the wealth in the U.S. while the bottom 80% own only approximately 16% of

3888-595: The results of a survey conducted by BBC Lab UK developed in collaboration with academic experts and slated to be published in the journal Sociology were published online. The results released were based on a survey of 160,000 residents of the United Kingdom most of whom lived in England and described themselves as " white ". Class was defined and measured according to the amount and kind of economic, cultural and social resources reported. Economic capital

3960-514: The rise of the Israeli Black Panther movement among new olim (Jewish immigrants) from North Africa. This phase lasted through the 1970s. The third period, beginning in the 1980s, saw increased activity as a result of a Jerusalem Municipality program to improve the neighborhood's appearance. Development regulations were adopted that were intended to restore the neighborhood's former glory. Renovations were subsequently completed in

4032-546: The same social, economic, cultural, political or educational status", e.g. the working class , "an emerging professional class" etc. However, academics distinguish social class from socioeconomic status , using the former to refer to one's relatively stable cultural background and the latter to refer to one's current social and economic situation which is consequently more changeable over time. The precise measurements of what determines social class in society have varied over time. Karl Marx defined class by one's relationship to

4104-443: The shops attached to the temples and paid directly from the state treasury. Scribes and officials formed the upper class in ancient Egypt, known as the "white kilt class" in reference to the bleached linen garments that served as a mark of their rank. The upper class prominently displayed their social status in art and literature. Below the nobility were the priests, physicians, and engineers with specialized training in their field. It

4176-447: The social categories of waged labor, private property, and capital. Class society or class-based society is an organizing principle society in which ownership of property, means of production , and wealth is the determining factor of the distribution of power, in which those with more property and wealth are stratified higher in the society and those without access to the means of production and without wealth are stratified lower in

4248-436: The society. In a class society, at least implicitly, people are divided into distinct social strata, commonly referred to as social classes or castes . The nature of class society is a matter of sociological research. Class societies exist all over the globe in both industrialized and developing nations. Class stratification is theorized to come directly from capitalism . In terms of public opinion, nine out of ten people in

4320-447: The struggle between new money and old money . The upper class is generally contained within the richest one or two percent of the population. Members of the upper class are often born into it and are distinguished by immense wealth which is passed from generation to generation in the form of estates. Based on some new social and political theories upper class consists of the most wealthy decile group in society which holds nearly 87% of

4392-439: The style of the historic Arab structures. In many buildings, though, a clear line can be seen between lower floors, built in the historic Arab style, and upper storeys built in the unadorned functional style of modern multistorey buildings. These lines reflect the decisions of real estate developers who, in the interest of cost savings, did not want to maintain the more expensive style of traditional facades on upper levels. Musrara

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4464-502: The tendency toward an enlarged middle class in modern Western societies, particularly in relation to the necessity of an educated work force in technological economies. Perspectives concerning globalization and neocolonialism , such as dependency theory , suggest this is due to the shift of low-level labour to developing nations and the Third World . Middle class is the group of people with jobs that pay significantly more than

4536-498: The title holder with moneys generated by the land, rents or other sources of wealth. However, in the United States where there is no aristocracy or royalty, the upper class status exclusive of Americans of ancestral wealth or patricians of European ancestry is referred to in the media as the extremely wealthy, the so-called "super-rich", though there is some tendency even in the United States for those with old family wealth to look down on those who have accrued their money through business,

4608-501: The upper class. At the pinnacle of U.S. wealth, 2004 saw a dramatic increase in the numbers of billionaires. According to Forbes Magazine , there are now 374 U.S. billionaires. The growth in billionaires took a dramatic leap since the early 1980s, when the average net worth of the individuals on the Forbes 400 list was $ 400 million. Today , the average net worth is $ 2.8 billion. Upper-class families... dominate corporate America and have

4680-400: The upper classes of a society may no longer rule the society in which they are living, they are often referred to as the old upper classes, and they are often culturally distinct from the newly rich middle classes that tend to dominate public life in modern social democracies. According to the latter view held by the traditional upper classes, no amount of individual wealth or fame would make

4752-403: The wealth. This large disparity displays the unequal distribution of wealth in America in absolute terms. In 1998, Bob Herbert of The New York Times referred to modern American plutocrats as " The Donor Class " (list of top donors) and defined the class, for the first time, as "a tiny group – just one-quarter of 1 percent of the population – and it is not representative of the rest of

4824-542: The whole society's wealth. See also: Middle-class squeeze The middle class is the most contested of the three categories, the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the lower and upper classes. One example of the contest of this term is that in the United States "middle class" is applied very broadly and includes people who would elsewhere be considered working class . Middle-class workers are sometimes called " white-collar workers ". Theorists such as Ralf Dahrendorf have noted

4896-437: The workplace. In Ancient Greece when the clan system was declining. The classes replaced the clan society when it became too small to sustain the needs of increasing population. The division of labor is also essential for the growth of classes. Historically, social class and behavior were laid down in law. For example, permitted mode of dress in some times and places was strictly regulated, with sumptuous dressing only for

4968-414: Was also characterized by literacy. The wealthier people were at the top in the social order and common people and slaves being at the bottom. However, the class was not rigid; a man of humble origins could ascend to a high post. The ancient Egyptians viewed men and women, including people from all social classes, as essentially equal under the law, and even the lowliest peasant was entitled to petition

5040-444: Was defined as income and assets ; cultural capital as amount and type of cultural interests and activities; and social capital as the quantity and social status of their friends , family and personal and business contacts. This theoretical framework was developed by Pierre Bourdieu who first published his theory of social distinction in 1979. Today, concepts of social class often assume three general economic categories:

5112-410: Was determined by a person's relationship to the means of production, while status or "Stand" emerged from estimations of honor or prestige. Weber views class as a group of people who have common goals and opportunities that are available to them. This means that what separates each class from each other is their value in the marketplace through their own goods and services. This creates a divide between

5184-429: Was not much movement across class boundaries. In many countries, the term "upper class" was intimately associated with hereditary land ownership. Political power was often in the hands of the landowners in many pre-industrial societies despite there being no legal barriers to land ownership for other social classes. Upper-class landowners in Europe were often also members of the titled nobility , though not necessarily:

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