The book incorporates three alternative conceptions of class. Erik Olin Wright''s structural Marxist account is set alongside John Goldthorpe''s occupational class schema, and the Registrar-General''s prestige and skill-related categories. The authors use their unique data on inequality and conflict in contemporary Britain to provide, for the first time, a rigourous comparison of Marxist, sociological and official class frameworks. The book ranges widely across such topics as sectionalism in the workforce; privatism of families and individuals; fatalism; gender and class processes; sectoral production and consumption cleavages. The authors conclude that class is still crucial in structuring economic, political and social life.

The book incorporates three alternative conceptions of class. Erik Olin Wright''s structural Marxist account is set alongside John Goldthorpe''s occupational class schema, and the Registrar-General''s prestige and skill-related categories. The authors use their unique data on inequality and conflict in contemporary Britain to provide, for the first time, a rigourous comparison of Marxist, sociological and official class frameworks. The book ranges widely across such topics as sectionalism in the workforce; privatism of families and individuals; fatalism; gender and class processes; sectoral production and consumption cleavages. The authors conclude that class is still crucial in structuring economic, political and social life.