Social class

Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures.

Not all societies have social classes. Scientist have found no proof for hierarchical power structures during Stone Age.

Determinants of class

In societies where classes exist, one's class is determined largely by:

• occupation
• education and qualifications
• income, personal, household and per capita
• wealth, including the ownership of land, property, means of production, et cetera
• family background.

Other pages

• Bohemianism
• Caste
• Constitution
• Constitutional economics
• Clergy
• Household income in the United States
• Social status

Further reading

• Marx, Karl & Engels, Frederick; The Communist Manifesto, (1848). (The key statement of class conflict as the driver of historical change).
• Savage, Mike; Class Analysis and Social Transformation (London: Open University Press, 2000).
• Sennett, Richard & Cobb, Jonathan; The Hidden Injuries of Class, (Vintage, 1972) (classic study of the subjective experience of class).
• Wlkowitz, Daniel J.; Working with Class: Social Workers and the Politics of Middle-Class Identity (University of North Carolina Press, 1999).
• "Class, Status and Party", Max Weber, in e.g. Gerth, Hans and C. Wright Mills, From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, (Oxford University Press, 1958). (Weber's key statement of the multiple nature of stratification).
• Wright, Erik Olin; Class Counts: Comparative Studies in Class Analysis (Cambridge University Press, 1997)

Other websites

• Class Action:
• http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/IL06Ag01.html Dargin, Justin, The Birth of Russia's New Energy Class. The Asia Times (Dec. 6, 2007)
• Dictionary of the history of ideas: Class
• Charles Dunoyer And The Theory Of Industrialism and Comte And Dunoyer After The 1830 Revolution: The Impact Of Their Ideas in The Radical Liberalism Of Charles Comte And Charles Dunoyer by David M. Hart.
• Marxist and Austrian Class Analysis (PDF) by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
• Classical Liberal Roots of the Marxist Doctrine of Classes (PDF document), Classical Liberal Roots of Marxist Class Analysis (MP3 audio file), lecture by Ralph Raico.
• Rethinking Cultural and Economic Capital - Jan Rupp