Reworking Class

The twelve essays in this volume propose new directions in the analysis of class. John R. Hall argues that recent historical and intellectual developments require reworking basic assumptions about classes and their dynamics. The contributors effectively abandon the notion of a transcendent class struggle. They seek instead to understand the historically contingent ways in which economic interests are pursued under institutionally, socially, and culturally structured circumstances.In his introduction, Hall proposes a neo-Weberian venue intended to bring the most promising contemporary approaches to class analysis into productive exchange with one another. Some of the chapters that follow rework how classes are conceptualized. Others offer historical and sociological reflections on questions of class identity. A third cluster focuses on the politics of class mobilizations and social movements in contexts of national and global economic change.

Reworking Class offers a convincing argument and an impressive array of examples showing that the concept of class can be resuscitated, especially in historical analyses., In sum, while social movement scholars will not find specific guidelines for conducting class-based research, they will have gained new insights and entered into a stimulating conversation about constructing and de-constructing our understandings of class. This is an informative and interesting volume to browse through with the understanding that connections drawn to social movement theory will be mostly of our own making. Eclectic in viewpoint and theoretically engaging, Reworking Class offers no clear redefinition of class but instead contributes to the dialogue by highlighting the core issues in the debate., This book would provide a useful set of readings for graduate courses on social class and historical sociology., This collection contains much of interest and value... This new 'turn', back to history, is to be warmly welcomed.

John R. Hall is Professor of Sociology at the University of California at Davis and Visiting Professor and Director of the University of California Study Centre at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of several books, including Sociology on Culture, Apocalypse Observed, and Cultures of Inquiry. Patrick Joyce is Professor of History at the University of Manchester, England.