On the Concept of Social Class

Abstract

‘On the Concept of Social Class’ concerns a key term of modern social theory, that of social class. The conceptual thinking that has emerged in this context typically describes social differentiation as stratification and stratification as social class. As a consequence, the term ‘social class’ is projected back into history, leading to descriptions of ancient cultures as class societies even though the term ‘class society’ is just two hundred years old. This overarching positioning of the term ‘social class’ has led to an overdetermination of this term, which in turn has nearly exhausted its usage. A long semantic tradition seems to have resulted in either theoretical confusion or ideological solidification. As such, the chapter suggests that the term needs to be conceptualized anew to regain a precise theoretical usage, but also to enable a better understanding of the development of the term. It seeks to develop this new conceptualization by looking at the semantic history of the term, which means looking at changes in the structure of society and, here, at the profound structural shift from stratificatory to functional differentiation. This sociohistorical perspective is used in order to understand why the notion of class society appeared in the 1800s and thereby to unravel the specificity of the term and with that the possibility of clearer theoretical usage.