Class Counts Student Edition

by Erik Olin Wright

• ISBN13: 9780521663090
• ISBN10: 0521663091
• Edition: Student
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-07-03
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This textbook provides students with a lively and penetrating exploration of the concept of class and its relevance for understanding a wide range of issues in contemporary society. Erik Olin Wright treats class as a common explanatory factor and examines three broad themes: class structure, class and gender, and class consciousness. Specific empirical studies include such diverse topics as class variations in the gender division of labour in housework; friendship networks across class boundaries; the American class structure since 1960; and cross-national variations in class consciousness. The author evaluates these studies in the light of expectations within the Marxist tradition of class analysis. This Student Edition of Class Counts thus combines Wright's sophisticated account of central and enduring questions in social theory with practical analyses of detailed social problems.

Table of Contents

Preface to student edition	ix
Preface to original edition	xiii
Acknowledgments	xx
Class analysis	1	(40)
Part I Structural analyses of classes	41	(72)
Class structure	43	(13)
The transformation of the American class structure, 1960-1990	56	(11)
The fall and rise of the American petty bourgeoisie	67	(12)
The permeability of class boundaries	79	(34)
Part II Class and gender	113	(70)
Conceptualizing the interaction of class and gender	115	(10)
Individuals, families and class analysis	125	(21)
The noneffects of class on the gendered division of labor in the home	146	(13)
The gender gap in workplace authority	159	(24)
Part III Class structure and class consciousness	183	(66)
A general framework for studying class consciousness and class formation	185	(31)
Class consciousness and class formation in Sweden, the United States and Japan	216	(33)
Part IV Conclusion	249	(28)
Confirmations, surprises and theoretical reconstructions	251	(26)
References	277	(5)
Index	282	(2)
Index of subjects	284