Class structure, class consciousness and class formation in Sweden, the United States and Japan

Class Counts ◽  
2000 ◽  
pp. 216-248
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Class Formation ◽  
Class Consciousness ◽  
Class Structure ◽  
Structure Class

Class formation and capitalism. A second look at a classic

1996 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 180-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret R. Somers
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Final Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Class Formation ◽  
Class Consciousness ◽  
Full Extent ◽  
Second Look ◽  
The Individual

Studies of class-formation have long been dominated by an espitemology of absensethe study of the absence of Marx's predicted revolutionary class consciousness among the Western working class. Katznelson's and Zolberg's pathbreaking Working-Class Formation: Ninetenth-century Patterns in Western Europe and the United States (1986) posed a major challenge to this tradition. Instead of being seen as deviant or exceptional, moreover, the individual cases of class formation are analysed as variations that can only be explained by each nation's pattern of historicalprimarily politicalformation. An instant classic, Working-Class Formation has not to date been surpassed by subsequent studies. This essay reviews the strenghts and the weaknesses of this classic volume, suggesting in the final analysis that it does not quite realize the full extent of its radical implications.

Democracy and Excellence: Concord or Conflict?

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 535-537
Author(s):  
Laura Stephenson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Class Structure ◽  
The People ◽  
Democratic Societies ◽  
The Relationship

Democracy and Excellence: Concord or Conflict?, Joseph Romance and Neil Reimer, eds., Westport CN: Praeger, 2005, 166, pp. xiv.This volume is the product of a question, asked by Neal Reimer, about the relationship between democracy and excellence. Reimer provides background for this relationship in the first chapter, noting that it can be framed as government by the people versus standards of the good, true and beautiful. Conflict can arise between the two ideas because democracy prioritizes equality of citizens—but excellence depends upon the recognition of differentiating merit. While democracy provides citizens freedom from a limiting class structure, the lack of structure can make citizens indifferent to pursuing a noble vision of the state. Reimer argues, however, that there is a fundamental harmony between democracy and excellence and that examples of excellence in democratic societies (such as the United States) are many. It is possible and likely that democratic societies will attain excellence in practice.

Red History, Blue Mood: Labor History and Solidarity in an Age of Fragmentation

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 35-47
Author(s):  
Jefferson Cowie
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Labor History ◽  
The United States ◽  
Class Formation ◽  
Political Fragmentation ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Control ◽  
Class Community

Beginning with labor historians’ efforts to create a synthesis of the field in the 1980s, this essay explores the problem of working-class political fragmentation and the intellectual problems that posed for the generation of “new” labor historians. Looking to culture, class, community, and control as their themes, historians overlooked deeper problems in American class formation as well as the monumental complexity of discussing the history of class in the United States.

Social Capital in Britain

1999 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 417-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER A. HALL
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Capital ◽  
Educational Reform ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Class Structure ◽  
Post War ◽  
British Case ◽  
The Impact

Recent findings show an apparent erosion in the United States over the post-war years of ‘social capital’ understood as the propensity of individuals to associate together on a regular basis, to trust one another, and to engage in community affairs. This article examines the British case for similar trends, finding no equivalent erosion. It proposes explanations for the resilience of social capital in Britain, rooted in educational reform, the transformation of the class structure, and government policy. It concludes by drawing some general lessons from the British case that stress the importance of the distributive dimensions of social capital and the impact that governments can have on it.

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