Class Counts
Subtitle: Comparative Studies in Class Analysis (Studies in Marxism and Social Theory)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press; Maison des sciences de l'homme
Published: November 28, 1996
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 621
ISBN-13: 9780521553872
Subjects: Social classes; Sociology; Social Stratification; Social Science; Politics/International Relations; Sociology - General; Social Science / Sociology / General; Class consciousness; Social mobility
First sentence: The empirical research in this book covers a wide range of substantive topics: from friendship patterns and class mobility to housework and class consciousness.
Description: Class Counts combines theoretical discussions of the concept of class with a wide range of comparative empirical investigations of class and its ramifications in developed capitalist societies. What unites the topics is not a preoccupation with a common object of explanation, but rather a common explanatory factor: class. Four broad themes are explored: class structure and its transformation; the permeability of class boundaries; class and gender; and class consciousness.

The specific empirical studies include such diverse topics as the sexual division of labor in housework, gender differences in managerial authority, friendship networks in the class structure, the expansion of self-employment in the United States in the past two decades, and the class consciousness of state and private-sector employees.

The results of these studies are then evaluated in terms of how they confirm certain expectations within the Marxist tradition of class analysis and how they pose challenging surprises.