1st Edition

The Class Structure of Capitalist Societies, Volume 2 Social Space and Symbolic Domination in Three Nations

By Will Atkinson Copyright 2022
    330 Pages 26 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    330 Pages 26 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The second volume of The Class Structure of Capitalist Societies maps the distribution of social powers and associated properties and lifestyles in unparalleled detail by examining the results of a brand-new survey delivered in Sweden, Germany and the US.

    Continuing the cross-national investigation of the shape and effects of class systems across capitalist nations, the analyses in Volume 2 are embedded in a novel sociological theory of international relations, sustained reflections on the relationship between national standing and class structure and extensive reconstruction of the histories of class in each of the three nations studied. The ultimate conclusion, however, is that not only that the fundamental structure of class today the same across the three cases, for all their unique cultural and historical features, but their translation into differences of taste, practice and symbolic violence, always cross-cut by gender, follow highly familiar patterns too.

    This volume will appeal to scholars and advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in sociology, politics and demography and is essential reading for all those interested in social class across the globe.

    1. Introduction

    Part I: The Cases in Context

    2. The Logic of Symbolic Domination

    3. Social Orders in the Space of States

    Part II: Genesis and Structure of Three Social Spaces

    4. Sweden: The Origins and Effects of Welfare Capitalism

    5. Germany: The Geometry of Power in the Powerhouse of Europe

    6. The US: A Space Like Any Other?

    Part III: Symbolic Difference and Domination

    7. Prologue: The Rare and the Common

    8. Symbols of Class

    9. Dispositions

    10. Symbolic Domination

    11. Conclusions

    Methodological Appendices

    Biography

    Will Atkinson is Professor of Sociology in the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies at the University of Bristol, UK.