Class Schemes of Modern Society in Western Sociology
How to Cite
Zhvitiashvili A.S. 2017. Class Schemes of Modern Society in Western Sociology — Sociologicheskaja nauka i social’naja praktika. Vol. 5. No. 1. P. 7-23. DOI: https://doi.org/10.19181/snsp.2017.5.1.4990 (in Russ.).
Abstract
This article presents the main types of class schemes of modem society in Western sociology. Class compatibility with society individualization is shown, to which a variety of sociologists addresses to deny the concept of classes. Authors of class schemes rehabilitate the concept “class” and state the class polarization in society. There are three class schemes: dual, plural and mixed. Some of the authors’ ideas of class schemes are objectionable. This concerns understanding of the precariat as a class. Critics of this approach help clarify the class concept and class structure outlines of modern Western society. Class analysis in modern Western sociology is not limited to economic explanation of class formation and introduces the possession of non-economic forms of capital as an important criterion of class divisions. The authors of class schemes show the changing nature of upper and lower social classes. In the upper class, the role of owners of non-economic forms of capital increases, while the lower class consists of people who are either in unstable situation in the employment system or excluded from the economically active population. Precariat and underclass appearance shows the weakening of social integration mechanisms and the strengthening of social differentiation processes. Misbalance between both types of social and structural processes threatens the stability of society. Loss of confidence in the future creates in people a sense of “uncertainty”, turning into resentment, because of which G. Standing’s “new dangerous class” is formed. Comparative analysis of class schemes indicates the growth of the class structure dysfunction of modern society.
Keywords:
modern society, individualism, classes, class schemas, types of class schemas, dual type, plural type, mixed type, precariat
References
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Standing G. 2011. The Precariat — The New dangerous class. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
WrightE. O. 1985. Classes. London: Verso.
Bek U. 2000. Obshchestvo riska. Na puti k drugomu modern. [Risk Society. On the way to another modernity]. Transl. from. Germ. V. Sedel’nika, N. Fedorovoy; posl. A. Filippova. Moscow: Progress-Traditsiya. 480 p. (In Russ.).
Giddens E. 1999. Sotsiologiya [Sociology]. Transl. from En.; Ed. by V. A. Yadov; L. S. Gur’evoy, L. N. Posilevicha. Moscow: Editorial URSS. 703 p. (In Russ.).
Kastel’ R. 2009. Metamorfozy sotsial’nogo voprosa. Khronika naemnogo truda. [Metamorphosis of the social question. Chronicle of wage labor]. Transl. from Fr.; Ed. by N. A. Shmatko. Saint Petersburg: Aleteyya. 574 p. (In Russ.).
Shkaratan O. I. 2012. Sotsiologiya neravenstva. Teoriya i real’nost’. [Sociology of inequality. Theory and reality.]. Moscow: Izd. dom Vysshey shkoly ekonomiki. 526 p. (In Russ.).
Toshchenko Zh. T 2015. Prekariat — novyy sotsial’nyy klass. [Prekariat — a new social class]. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya. № 6. P. 3—13. (In Russ.).
Bison I. 2011. Education, Social origins and career (im)mobility in contemporary Italy: A holistic and categorical approach. European Societies. Vol. 13. № 3. P. 481—503.
Frase P. 2013. The Precariat: A Class or a Condition? [online] New Labor Forum. May 29. URL: // http:www.newlaborforum.cuny.edu/2013/05/29/the-precariat-a-class- or-a-condition/ (accessed 29.02.2017).
Giddens A. 1979. Central problems in social theory. Action, structure and contradiction in social analysis. London: The Macmillan Press.
Goldthorpe J. H., Llewellyn C., P. Clive. 1987. Social Mobility and Class Structure in Modern Britain. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Savage M., Devine F., Cunningham N., Taylor M., Li Y., Hjellbrekke J., Le Roux B., Friedman S., Miles A. 2013. A New Model of Social Class? Findings from BBC’S Great British Class Survey Experiment. Sociology. № 47 (2). Р. 219—250.
Scambler G. 2014. Taking social class seriously. [online]. GrahamScambler. Feb. 11. 2015. URL: // http: www.grahamscambler.com/taking-social-class-seriously/ (accessed 04.07.2015).
Seymour R. We Are All Precarious — On The Concept Of The ‘Precariat’ And Its Misuses. [online]. New Left Project. 2012. URL: // http: www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article comments/we are all precarious on the concept of the precariat and its misuses (accessed 05.05.2015).
Standing G. 2014. The Precariat and Class Struggle [O precariado e a luta de classes. Revista Critica de Ciencias Sociais. № 103. Р. 9—24]. Guy Standing [personal website]. URL: //http:www.guystanding. com/files/documents/Precariat and Class Struggle final English.pdf(accessed 03.03.2015).
Standing G. 2011. The Precariat — The New dangerous class. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
WrightE. O. 1985. Classes. London: Verso.
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Harvard
Zhvitiashvili, A. S. (2017) ’Class Schemes of Modern Society in Western Sociology’, Sociologicheskaja nauka i social’naja praktika, 5(1), pp. 7-23. doi: https://doi.org/10.19181/snsp.2017.5.1.4990.
Section
THEORY AND METHODOLOGY
