Classes

(Paperback)

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Questions of class, power and distribution have reemerged as central concerns in the public discourse. When we talk about class, we don't always know what is meant. Is class about income or affect or the ownership of the means of production Perhaps it is about authority or autonomy But what happens when, as is often the case in complex advanced economies, people can occupy social and economic roles that seem to indicate membership in more than one class And what does this mean for the supposed relationship between class and potential political capacity and affinity In Classes, Erik Olin Wright, the greatest American Marxist sociologists, rises to the twofold challenge of both clarifying the abstract, structural account of class implicit in Marx, and of applying and refining the account in the light of contemporary developments in advanced capitalist societies. What Wright calls "contradictory class locations" can make the class landscape appear much more complex than the simple model presented in Marx. Despite this complexity, common interests and therefore political alliances can still be found. In a society, like the US, characterized by extreme inequality, Classes provides not just a useful descriptive account of the operation of class but also the tools to understand the interplay of class interests and political (re)alignment.

Reviews

The most impressive book on class I have read in some years.Michael Mann, Contemporary Sociology

An empirically supported reformulation of class theory that achieves exemplary standards of critique, complexity and clarity.Claus Offe

Erik Olin Wrights Classes is almost certain to be the most important book on social classes this decade ... The book presents a major breakthrough in the conceptualization of class relations ... and it will be required reading for all macro-sociologists.American Journal of Sociology

Author Bio

Erik Olin Wright (1947-2019) was Vilas Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin and former president of the American Sociological Association. He authored many books, including Classes, Interrogating Inequality, Class Counts, Deepening Democracy (with Archon Fung), and Envisioning Real Utopias