Class and Stratification

by Crompton, Rosemary

• ISBN13: 9780745638690
• ISBN10: 0745638694
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-05-19
• Publisher: Polity

Summary

Inequality in its many forms is becoming an ever greater problem in modern society. The revised edition of this popular book explains why it is so important to understand class and stratification, and how the tools used to analyse these divisions can help us to understand and confront problems of inequality. This third edition of Class and Stratification has been extensively revised, expanded and updated, incorporating discussions of contemporary economic and social change. It includes discussions of political and economic neoliberalism and its impacts as well as developments in social theory, such as the emphasis on 'individualization' and the 'cultural turn'. New to this edition is a chapter focusing on 'cultural' approaches to class analysis, which together with established approaches are used to explore new developments in social mobility, educational opportunity, and social polarization. The book will be essential reading for upper-level undergraduate and postgraduate students in the social sciences seeking to understand the changing face of social inequality. By highlighting the damage increasing inequality is causing to the social fabric, the book reveals the important part class continues to play in our lives today.

Author Biography

Rosemary Crompton is Professor of Sociology at City University, London.

Table of Contents

Introduction to the First Edition Introduction to the Second Edition Introduction to the Third Edition, and Acknowledgements

Setting the Scene Individualisation, neoliberalism, and `extreme capitalism'

Summary of chapters

Approaches to Class and Stratification Analysis

Introduction Debating inequality

Theories of social differentiation `Class', a multi-faceted concept

Social theory and social change The wider critique of `class analysis'

Action and structure, economy and culture

Class Analysis: The Classic Inheritance and its Development in the 20th Century

Introduction Marx Weber Class and sociology after the Second World War

The development of theoretically informed accounts of the `class structure'

Class and history The intertwining of structure and action, economy and culture

Class inequality and the `cultural turn' Social class, social geography and the turn to `realism'

Conclusions

Measuring the `Class Structure'

Introduction Occupations Descriptive occupational and status hierarchies and the analysis of `social classes'

Theoretical ('relational') class schemes: Wright Theoretical ('relational') class schemes: Goldthorpe

The ONS-SEC Conceptual basis of the ONS-SEC

Conclusions

An untimely prediction of death and a timely renewal

Introduction Changes in the structure of work and employment

The expansion of women's employment Class, politics and action

Farewell to class societies?

Where do we go from here? `New and revised' approaches

Conclusion

Class and culture: the ethnography of class

Introduction Social status, social hierarchies, and social citizenship Bourdieu

The `new middle classes' The contemporary ethnography of the working class Discussion and conclusions: a new synthesis?

Families, Social Mobility and Educational Achievement

Introduction: Class and the family Social mobility

Declining social mobility Secondary and higher education in Britain

Explaining class differences in educational achievement

What is to be done?

Conclusions

Widening inequalities and debates on `class': discussion and conclusions

Introduction From the `underclass' debate to social exclusion

Widening inequality Back to definitions: the approach developed in this book

The possibility of countervailing processes

Bibliography

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