The reshaping and dissolution of social class in advanced society (original) (raw)

In 1958 Robert Nisbet declared to a meeting of the American Sociological Association in Seattle that: "the term social class is by now useful in historical sociology, in comparative or folk sociology, but that it is nearly valueless for the clarification of the data of wealth, power, and social status in the contemporary United States and much of Western society in general." 1 Why then should an argument now be mounted in support of a similar view? The reason is that the concept has a plasticity in the face of evidence and a resilience to disconfirmation that would be the envy of many a materials scientist. 2 Indeed Nisbet's declaration seems to have energized and expanded the "class industry" rather than to have consigned it to the conceptual graveyard to rest peacefully alongside "mores" "the folk-urban continuum" "functional prerequisites" and "the unit act." The two main "enterprises" in that industry are multinational in character, one extending from Madison, Wisconsin to establish branch plants in more than a dozen countries throughout Europe, Asia, and Australasia, the other centering on Oxford and linking with similar operations in Northern Europe, Japan, and Australia? In a restless effort to accommodate increased societal complexity, they have expanded the number of classes to such an extent that whereas twenty years ago students had to decide whether there were two or three classes, they now have to decide whether there are seven or twelve. In our view, each of these represents an effort, however genuine, to manufacture class where it no longer exists as a meaningful social entity. Adding another article to an already overflowing "classological" literature requires considerable justification. That justification lies both in the radical nature of the claims we make, the growing interest in the issue in the sociological community, and its political implications. We argue that in advanced societies there has been a radical dissolution of