Can Class Analysis Be Salvaged?

Abstract

The ongoing retreat from class analysis can be attributed to the declining appeal of aggregate representations of class coupled with the virtual absence of any disaggregate alternatives. When local solidarities are ignored, the weakness of conventional aggregate models is easily misinterpreted as evidence of generic destructuration, and standard postmodernist formulations are accordingly difficult to resist. Although local structuration is often regarded as sociologically trivial, the available evidence suggests that such class analytic processes as closure, exploitation, and collective action emerge more clearly at the level of disaggregate occupations than conventional aggregate classes.