Repositioning Class

Social Inequality in Industrial Societies

In recent years, the death of social class has regularly been reportedùin popular and scholarly publications alike. However, class analysis is probably now in a healthier state than at any time in its long sociological history, with social class as important to the understanding of late-twentieth century industrial societies as it was to their early-twentieth century counterparts. This book, a major contribution to our understanding of contemporary industrial societies, explains why. Gordon Marshall informs his argument with a number of common substantive themes, broadly pertaining to the relationship between social stratification and social order. Specific issues discussed include the debate about the unit of class composition; the question of meritocracy; the relationship between class and gender; crossnational similarities and differences in mobility regimes; and arguments about proletarianization, distributional struggles, collective identities, and the nature of the so-called underclass in advanced societies.