Gunnar Landtman as a Sociologist of Social Inequality and Social Classes

Gunnar Landtman, who worked as professor of sociology in Finland, was a researcher of social inequality and the development of social classes. This chapter begins by examining Landtman’s understanding of the task and methods of sociology. Then I approach his work on social classes by examining the ideas of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel, Max Weber, and Thorstein Veblen on the emergence of class differences. Towards the end of the chapter, I analyse the starting points and key results of Landtman’s main sociological work, The Origin of the Inequality of the Social Classes (1938). For Landtman, the origins or ‘primacy causes’ of social inequality are related to personal characteristics and abilities, the emergence of agriculture, the accumulation of wealth, the division of labour, and conflicts between ethnic groups. Finally, I assess Landtman’s place in the history of classical sociology and social class studies.