Social Class

The chapter proposes a framework for reading inequalities in terms of social class. Mobilising the concept of social class means conceiving inequalities in a relational or structural manner rather than in terms of stratification: societies are not simply hierarchized according to the volume of resources possessed by each individual; they are structured by power relations that define classes struggling for the exclusive appropriation of resources. Three main approaches to the study of class are used today: their formulations by Karl Marx, Max Weber and Pierre Bourdieu are presented, as well as some of the critical extensions they have given rise to in the light of the transformations of capitalism, the global diversity of class structures and the challenges posed to class analysis by theories of intersectionality.