Class
Concept · Politics, stage 1: Learn the vocabulary
Class divides a society into groups defined by their position in its economic order. Marx defined classes by their relation to the means of production: those who own productive property, and those who must sell their labour in order to live. Weber and later sociologists added dimensions of status and market position, producing the finer gradations used in most contemporary research. Theorists disagree over how far class explains political behaviour compared with nation, religion, region, race or sex.
Why it matters
It is the concept that lets a theory treat conflict between groups as built into an economic structure rather than as the sum of individual choices.
Part of
Sources
- Karl Marx Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Exploitation Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyOn the claim that what one class takes from another is unjust, and the objections to it.
- Social class Wikipedia
