Social Class

The concept of class is widely used by social scientists, and especially sociologists, to explore the unequal structuring of social practices, ranging from collective activities (such as social and political movements and social networks) to individual behaviors and attitudes (such as consumption choices or attitudes). It is now common to distinguish between a classical class formation paradigm, associated with Karl Marx and Max Weber and which predominated until the 1980s, and a new cultural class paradigm influenced by Pierre Bourdieu's sociology, which has proved influential especially in European sociology since the late 1990s. The study of consumption plays a major role in this latter approach. The best overview of the development of class analysis that reflects on the study of social class is Rosemary Crompton's ...