Rethinking class analysis: some reflections on current issues and possible new forms of empirical research

Abstract

1 This equally applies to the recent efforts of Savage et al [2013] to devise a new classification. Mills [2014, and 2015] has provided a trenchant critique of their approach which bears considerable similarity to earlier classifications devised by market researchers [see Acorn, 2015]. My thanks go to David Dawkins of Probit Research for his assistance with this.

Socio‐political fracturing: Inequality, stalled social mobility and electoral outcomes

“…As analyses of the Brexit vote show us, the divisions between the working and middle classes are impenetrable in the context of a post‐Fordist economy (Inglehart & Norris, ; Penn, ). If we seek definition on the basis of jobs, income or wealth, we risk eliding the variations in economic, social or cultural capital that exist and continue to configure opportunities for upward social mobility within and across different groups.…”

(Re)discovering the lost middle: intergenerational inheritances and economic inequality in urban and regional research

“…Academic literature, government and wider media outlets have concerned themselves with metadiscussions relating to current levels of economic inequality. In doing so, they have often reported analyses that identify if social mobility is increasing for the average citizen, paying little attention the impact of structured inequality such as gender, ethnicity, age and disability (Penn, 2016). However, nobody is average (see Rose, 2016) so the pursuit of average outcomes has led to the neglect of the wide range of heterogeneous outcomes that individuals experience as social mobility is governed by a dual interaction between equality of opportunity and equality of outcome (see Small and Feldman, 2012).…”