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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 transformations; the permeability of class boundaries; class and gender; class consciousness. The specific empirical studies include such diverse topics as the sexual division of labour 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.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• List of figures(p. xix)
• List of tables(p. xxi)
• Preface(p. xxvii)
• Acknowledgments(p. xxxiv)
• 1 Class analysis(p. 1)
• 1.1 The parable of the shmoo(p. 4)
• 1.2 The concept of exploitation(p. 9)
• 1.3 A note on exploitation as the appropriation of surplus(p. 14)
• 1.4 Class and exploitation(p. 17)
• 1.5 The problems of the "middle class" among employees(p. 19)
• Authority(p. 20)
• Skills and expertise(p. 22)
• A map of middle-class class locations(p. 23)
• 1.6 People not in the paid labor force(p. 26)
• 1.7 Marxist versus Weberian class analysis(p. 29)
• 1.8 The empirical agenda of the book(p. 37)
• Class structure(p. 37)
• Class and gender(p. 39)
• Class structure and class consciousness(p. 41)
• Part I The class structure of capitalism and its transformations
• 2 Class structure in comparative perspective(p. 45)
• 2.1 The basic contours of the class structure(p. 46)
• The property dimension(p. 46)
• Employees(p. 52)
• 2.2 Class and gender(p. 58)
• 2.3 Class and race(p. 67)
• 2.4 Type of employing organization(p. 69)
• 2.5 Summing up(p. 73)
• Methodological appendix(p. 74)
• The samples(p. 74)
• Operationalization of class structure variable(p. 74)
• Reliability of estimates of distributions compared to official statistics(p. 75)
• Cross-national comparability of measurements(p. 79)
• The problem of operational arbitrariness(p. 80)
• How to measure class structure with relatively few questionaire items(p. 87)
• 3 The transformation of the American class structure, 1960-1990(p. 91)
• 3.1 Contrasting expectations of post-industrial and Marxist theory(p. 93)
• 3.2 Methodological strategy(p. 95)
• 3.3 Results(p. 97)
• The 1960s(p. 101)
• The 1970s(p. 101)
• The 1980s(p. 102)
• Could these results be spurious?(p. 102)
• Refined sectoral analysis(p. 104)
• 3.4 Interpretations and implications(p. 108)
• Methodological appendix(p. 111)
• Operationalization of economic sector variable(p. 111)
• Measuring class structure(p. 112)
• 4 The fall and rise of the American petty bourgeoisie(p. 114)
• 4.1 The theoretical status of self-employment(p. 120)
• 4.2 Time series analysis of self-employment in the United States(p. 127)
• Basic time series results(p. 127)
• The effects of unemployment(p. 129)
• 4.3 Sectoral decomposition of changes in self-employment(p. 130)
• 4.4 Conclusions and unresolved issues(p. 139)
• Methodological appendix(p. 142)
• Annual time series analysis of self-employment for the United States(p. 142)
• Shift-share decomposition of changes in self-employment(p. 144)
• Part II The permeability of class boundaries
• 5 Class-boundary permeability: conceptual and methodological issues(p. 149)
• 5.1 Theoretical issues(p. 149)
• Permeability in the Marxist and Weberian traditions(p. 149)
• Static and dynamic permeability(p. 151)
• 5.2 Class structure variables(p. 152)
• Operationalizing class structure(p. 152)
• The permeability-event matrix(p. 154)
• 5.3 Permeability variables(p. 157)
• Alternative approaches to analyzing permeability(p. 157)
• The dimensional-permeability variables: Property, Authority and Skill(p. 158)
• The locational-permeability variable: Worker(p. 161)
• The diagonal cells: quasi-independence matrix(p. 162)
• The problem of symmetry(p. 163)
• 5.4 Models(p. 163)
• Methodological appendix: a brief introduction to loglinear models(p. 165)
• 6 The permeability of class boundaries to intergenerational mobility(p. 169)
• 6.1 Theoretical expectations(p. 171)
• Relative permeability of class boundaries(p. 171)
• Cross-national variations(p. 173)
• Hypotheses(p. 175)
• Gender and class-boundary permeability to intergenerational mobility(p. 176)
• 6.2 Relationship to prior mobility research(p. 178)
• Analytical strategies(p. 179)
• Conceptualizations of class structure(p. 182)
• The comparative design(p. 182)
• 6.3 Results(p. 183)
• The relative permeability of class boundaries among men(p. 183)
• Mobility across the working-class boundary among men(p. 184)
• Cross-national variations among men(p. 186)
• The problem of farmers(p. 190)
• Gender and class-boundary permeability(p. 192)
• 6.4 Implications of the results for mobility research(p. 195)
• 6.5 Conclusions(p. 199)
• Methodological appendix(p. 201)
• Variables(p. 201)
• Measurement problems(p. 201)
• 7 Cross-class friendships(p. 203)
• 7.1 Orienting hypotheses(p. 203)
• Class interests (Marxian variant)(p. 204)
• Class interests (Dahrendorf variant)(p. 205)
• Class habitus (Bourdieu)(p. 206)
• Interaction opportunity(p. 206)
• The Weberian tradition(p. 207)
• Relation to previous research(p. 207)
• 7.2 Results(p. 208)
• The relative permeability of the three class boundaries(p. 208)
• The relative permeability of boundaries between working-class and nonworking-class locations(p. 210)
• Country interactions(p. 213)
• 7.3 Conclusions(p. 216)
• Methodological appendix(p. 218)
• The friendship-ties matrix(p. 218)
• Objections to the structure of the data(p. 218)
• The problem of asymmetric friendships(p. 220)
• The problem of sample size(p. 221)
• Distinguishing supervisors from managers for friends' class locations(p. 221)
• 8 Cross-class families(p. 223)
• 8.1 Theoretical issues(p. 223)
• 8.2 Results(p. 225)
• Patterns of cross-class families(p. 225)
• The relative permeability of the three class boundaries(p. 227)
• The relative permeability of boundaries between working-class and nonworking-class locations(p. 228)
• Country interactions(p. 229)
• 8.3 Comparing the three forms of class-boundary permeability(p. 230)
• Methodological appendix(p. 235)
• The family-class composition matrix(p. 235)
• Housewives(p. 235)
• Part III Class and gender
• 9 Conceptualizing the interaction of class and gender(p. 239)
• 9.1 The debate over class primacy(p. 239)
• 9.2 Forms of interconnection of class and gender(p. 242)
• Gender as a form of class relations(p. 243)
• Gender relations and class relations as reciprocally affecting each other(p. 243)
• Gender as a sorting mechanism into class locations(p. 245)
• Gender as mediated linkage to class locations(p. 246)
• Gender as a causal interaction with class in determining outcomes(p. 247)
• 10 Individuals, families and class analysis(p. 249)
• 10.1 The debate on women and class(p. 251)
• 10.2 An alternative approach: direct and mediated class locations(p. 257)
• 10.3 A strategy for studying the effects of direct and mediated class locations(p. 260)
• Hypotheses(p. 261)
• 10.4 Results(p. 263)
• The effect of class composition on class identity(p. 264)
• Multivariate results(p. 268)
• 10.5 Implications(p. 269)
• 10.6 Conclusions(p. 275)
• Methodological appendix(p. 277)
• Variables(p. 277)
• Assumptions underlying the empirical strategy(p. 278)
• 11 The noneffects of class on the gendered division of labor in the home(p. 281)
• 11.1 Theoretical expectations(p. 283)
• Proletarianization and gender equality(p. 284)
• Sexism and class culture(p. 285)
• Class and power within the family(p. 286)
• Autonomy of gender relations(p. 287)
• 11.2 Results(p. 287)
• Overall distributions(p. 288)
• Variations in husbands' housework across class locations(p. 291)
• Multivariate equations(p. 296)
• 11.3 Implications(p. 300)
• Methodological appendix(p. 304)
• Variables(p. 304)
• Data, methods and analytical strategy(p. 312)
• Analytical strategy(p. 314)
• 12 The gender gap in workplace authority(p. 318)
• 12.1 Analytical strategy for studying the 'gender gap'(p. 320)
• 12.2 Empirical agenda(p. 323)
• The extent and cross-national patterning of the gender authority gap(p. 323)
• Explaining the gender gap in having authority within countries(p. 324)
• The gender gap in the amount of authority(p. 327)
• Explaining cross-national variations(p. 332)
• 12.3 Results(p. 335)
• Gross gender differences in having authority(p. 336)
• Net gender differences in authority with compositional controls(p. 341)
• Self-selection models(p. 345)
• The gender gap in the amount of authority(p. 347)
• Explaining cross-national variations(p. 351)
• 12.4 Conclusions(p. 359)
• Methodological appendix(p. 361)
• Variables used in logit models(p. 361)
• The problem of cross-national comparability of authority measures(p. 368)
• Sample restrictions(p. 369)
• Method of analysis for the amount-of-authority scale(p. 369)
• Part IV Class structure and class consciousness
• 13 A general framework for studying class consciousness and class formation(p. 373)
• 13.1 Micro and macro-levels of analysis(p. 374)
• 13.2 Basic concepts(p. 378)
• Class structure and class location(p. 379)
• Class formation(p. 379)
• Class practices(p. 381)
• Class struggle(p. 382)
• Class consciousness(p. 382)
• Limitation, selection and transformation(p. 387)
• 13.3 The micro-model(p. 388)
• 13.4 The macro-model(p. 394)
• 13.5 Putting the micro and macro-models together(p. 401)
• 13.6 Using the models in empirical research(p. 405)
• 14 Class consciousness and class formation in Sweden, the United States and Japan(p. 407)
• 14.1 Measuring class consciousness(p. 407)
• 14.2 The empirical agenda(p. 411)
• Class locations and class consciousness(p. 411)
• Class formation(p. 413)
• Class consciousness(p. 416)
• 14.3 Results: overall relationship between locations in the class structure and class consciousness(p. 417)
• 14.4 Results: the macro-analysis of class formation(p. 419)
• Sweden(p. 423)
• The United States(p. 424)
• Japan(p. 425)
• Summary of the comparisons of the three countries(p. 428)
• 14.5 Explaining the differences in class formations(p. 429)
• State employment(p. 430)
• Unionization(p. 433)
• Japan(p. 439)
• 14.6 The micro-analysis of class consciousness(p. 440)
• Additive country effects(p. 441)
• Cross-national comparisons of micro-equations(p. 444)
• 14.7 A brief note on class, race, gender and consciousness(p. 446)
• 14.8 Conclusions(p. 449)
• Methodological appendix(p. 450)
• 1 Methodological issues in constructing the class-consciousness scale(p. 450)
• 2 Strategy for measuring ideological class formations(p. 453)
• 3 Variables used in multivariate models(p. 456)
• 4 Generating single coefficients for groups of variables(p. 458)
• 15 Class, state employment and consciousness(p. 459)
• 15.1 Conceptualizing state employment(p. 461)
• 15.2 Orienting hypotheses(p. 464)
• 15.3 Results(p. 470)
• Class differences within sectors(p. 475)
• Sector differences within classes(p. 478)
• Sector differences within classes controlling for attributes of individuals(p. 480)
• 15.4 Implications(p. 484)
• Methodological appendix(p. 487)
• 1 Dependent variables: prostatism and anticapitalism(p. 487)
• 2 Independent variables(p. 489)
• 3 Statistical tests(p. 490)
• 16 Temporality, class structure and class consciousness(p. 492)
• 16.1 Structural and processual approaches to class and consciousness(p. 493)
• 16.2 A model of trajectory, structure and consciousness(p. 496)
• 16.3 Conceptualizing and measuring class trajectory(p. 499)
• 16.4 Results(p. 505)
• Class interest consciousness(p. 507)
• Class identity(p. 507)
• Class identity effects on class interests(p. 510)
• Comparing Sweden and the United States(p. 512)
• Class and gender in national differences in consciousness(p. 513)
• 16.5 Conclusions(p. 515)
• Part V Conclusion
• 17 Confirmations, surprises and theoretical reconstructions(p. 519)
• 17.1 Conceptualizing "locations" in the class structure(p. 522)
• Traditional understanding(p. 522)
• Initial reconstructions(p. 523)
• Empirical confirmations(p. 524)
• Surprises(p. 526)
• Further possible reconstructions?(p. 527)
• 17.2 Class structure and its variations in advanced capitalist societies(p. 528)
• Traditional understanding(p. 528)
• Confirmations(p. 529)
• Surprises(p. 530)
• Reconstructions(p. 531)
• 17.3 Individual lives and the class structure(p. 532)
• Traditional understanding(p. 532)
• Confirmations(p. 533)
• Surprises(p. 533)
• Reconstructions(p. 534)
• 17.4 Effects of class structure: class consciousness and class formation(p. 536)
• Traditional understanding(p. 536)
• Confirmations(p. 537)
• Surprises: direct and mediated class locations(p. 538)
• Surprises: class consciousness and class formation(p. 538)
• Reconstructions: direct and mediated class locations(p. 539)
• Reconstructions: class consciousness and class formation(p. 540)
• 17.5 Class and other forms of oppression: class and gender(p. 541)
• Traditional understanding(p. 541)
• Confirmations(p. 543)
• Surprises(p. 544)
• Reconstructions(p. 544)
• References(p. 547)
• Index(p. 566)

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Informed theoretically by a Marxist mindset and methodologically by a commitment to quantitative methods, this book is a report of "class analysis." Wright examines four elements: class structure (consisting of 12 classes distinguished by their relation to the means of production, their authority, and their skills), class formation (how members of a society become organized into these 12 classes), class struggle (the pursuit of economic interests unique to and shared by members of each social class), and class consciousness (the recognition by those in any class of their class-based interests.) His analysis is based on surveys done in 16 industrial societies and provides results on the permeability of class boundaries; the complex relations between gender and class, and class consciousness. Parts of this book present elaborate analyses of data, which will require close study by students. However, such study will be profitable because this book summarizes nearly 20 years of sustained research on the central issue in sociology, viz., the nature and effects of social inequality. The text is supplemented with nearly 40 figures and 100 tables. Upper-division undergraduates and above. D. Harper; University of Rochester

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Erik Olin Wright was born in Berkeley, California on February 9, 1947. He won first place in mathematics at the 1964 National Science Fair with a project on Möbius strips. He received a bachelor's degree in social studies from Harvard University in 1968 and studied history for two years at Balliol College, Oxford. During the Vietnam War, he received a deferment from military service to attend a training school in Berkeley for Unitarian ministers. He also worked as a student chaplain at San Quentin State Prison. He received a doctorate in sociology in 1976 from Berkeley and became a professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin. He spent his entire teaching career there.

He was a Marxist sociologist who studied the complexities of social and economic classes and explored alternatives to capitalism. He wrote more than 15 books including Envisioning Real Utopias and How to Be an Anti-Capitalist for the 21st Century. He died from acute myeloid leukemia on January 23, 2019 at the age of 71.

(Bowker Author Biography)