Class

Abstract

In this chapter we focus explicitly on class identifications and how class is experienced subjectively. In contrast to pronouncements of the declining salience of class (Clark et al., 1993; Pakulski and Waters, 1996), it has been shown to be of importance in explaining continuing (even increasing) inequalities in social and economic space, in terms of access to material, cultural and social resources (Bourdieu, 1990; Savage, 2000; Sayer, 2005). Class identifications and the effects of being categorized by others as belonging to a particular class have also been shown to be of critical relevance in British society (Reay, 1998; Savage et al., 2001; Sayer, 2005; Skeggs, 1997). These are the focus of the present chapter. Just as in Chapters 2 and 6 we argue for the need to understand the fluidity of spatial boundaries, here we show how class identifications for individuals are not fixed but rather shift over time, and are narrated and change relationally (Somers, 1994).