Abstract
After introducing the importance of stratification to sociological analysis, this chapter explores the concept of social class, and asks whether class is still a significant feature of contemporary society. You should ensure that students gain a sense of the different approaches to social class, and how these build on but go beyond the classical Marxist and Weberian perspectives. Students should also be able to understand the substantive issues that surround the debates over wealth and poverty in industrialised societies.
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Further Reading
Crompton, R. (1993) Class and Stratification, Polity Press, Cambridge. A very useful, clear introduction to the whole field of class and social stratification. offers one of the clearest accounts of feminist approaches to stratification.
Pakulski, J. and Waters, M. (1995) The Death of Class, Sage, London. A useful summary of the arguments for the demise of class — especially through reference to postmodern arguments relating to the advent of consumerism, the book is tied to a neo-Weberian theoretical perspective, and is very critical of Marxist class theory.
Scott, J. (1996) Stratification and Power, Polity Press, Cambridge. A novel, readable analysis of the dimensions of social stratification that translates Weber’s classic notions of ‘class, status and party’ into ‘class, status and command’, arguing that the last term gives a better indication of and weight to the role of power and domination in structures of inequality. The book is an effective synthesis of Marxist, Weberian and elite theories.
Wright, E. O. (1997) Class Count: Comparative Studies in Class Analysis, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Wright provides a very detailed examination of social class in this text, the culmination of a 20-year project — the Comparative Class Analysis Project — based on material from 15 countries. The book is grounded in a Marxist class analysis and seeks to combine this approach with more conventional quantitative research — the ‘counts’ of class indicated in the title of the book. Demanding but very rich in information.
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© 1998 Tony Bilton, Kevin Bonnett, Pip Jones, David Skinner, Michelle Stanworth and Andrew Webster
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Bilton, T., Bonnett, K., Jones, P., Skinner, D., Stanworth, M., Webster, A. (1998). Understanding Social Stratification: Social Class. In: Introductory Sociology. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-14741-0_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-14741-0_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-72709-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-14741-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)