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.