Social Inequality and Classes

Inequalities

• ADVA Center
  The ADVA center is concerned with equity and social justice issues in Israeli society and the equitable distribution of government resources. It analyzes equality and inequality in Israel in a way that integrates gender, ethnicity and nationality. Information and research reports are available in English and Hebrew. ADVA publishes The Israel Equality Monitor [table of contents only]. Source: Adva Center Tel Aviv, Israel.

• Alstyne, M.V. / Brynjolfsson, E.
  Communication Networks and the Rise of an Information Elite -- Do Computers Help the Rich Get Richer?
  Circumstances exist under which a telecommunications policy of universal access leads to an increase in the gap between the information "haves" and the "have-nots." A national information infrastructure which provides only channels and not incentives for information sharing might therefore lead to results which are reversed from those originally intended. This argument and several related propositions are explored through a formal theoretical model built on four simple assumptions: one cannot converse with everyone at the same time, information is not lost when shared, private information resources differ in quality, and agents can improve the quality of their information based on the quality of the resources to which they gain access. The model rigorously explains how inter-agent infrastructure can be used to help the "rich get richer" and also why "it's not just what you know but whom you know." This theoretical framework serves to explain several stylized events and offers several useful levers for exploring policy options. You can download this article in pdf format.

• Anelauskas, Valdas
  Discovering America As It Is
  A book by Lithuanian journalist and former anti-Soviet dissident Valdas Anelauskas in which he describes America as it is and warns about the menace it constitutes to the world. The author compares the United States to the former Soviet Union, and the countries of Western Europe. He finds the U.S. to be deficient in the area of social and economic human rights. He also describes the consequences of U.S. recent welfare reform, and gives what he considers to be the reasons that the U.S. government instituted this particular change in its social policy. Valdas Anelauskas was expelled from the USSR for his human rights activities. He settled in the United States and eventually became a dissident in America just as he was in the former Soviet Union. Ten years of observation of American reality has led Anelauskas to conclude that the U.S. extreme capitalist system represents an even greater threat than Soviet mock-communism to the well-being of the world.

• Benschop, Albert - Univ. of Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • Social Inequalities (Dutch) - Ch. 1: Sociale ongelijkheid als wetenschappelijk en politiek probleem.
  Ch. 6: Machtskansen in kapitalistische arbeidsverhoudingen

• Bluestone, Barry [1995] (New York: Twentieth Century Fund Press)
  The Polarization of American Society: Victims, Suspects, and Mysteries to Unravel
  A working paper that presents an overview of U.S. wage, income, and wealth trends for the past quarter century. It identifies some of the economic 'victims' and of the 'suspects' of this particular era in economic history. And finally it tries to pinpoint some mysteries that in order to understand what caused the end of the Glory Days.

• Bowles, Samuel / Gintis, Herbert
  • [2001] Schooling in Capitalist America Revisited
    In: Sociology of Education, 75(2): 1-18.

  • [2002] The Inheritance of Inequality
    In: Journal of Economic Perspectives, 16(3): 3-30.
    The authors demonstrate that there is a much higher level of intergenerational transmission of economic position that was previously thought to the the case. America may still be the land of opportunity by some measures, but parental income and wealth are strong predictors of the likely economic status of the next generation.

  • Dave Harris - On Bowles and Gintis (and ’reproduction theory’)

• Century Foundation
  Economic Inequality
  The gap between the rich and most other citizens is wider now in the United States than it has been at any time since the Great Depression. Whether you measure this gap in terms of income, wealth, standard of living, or opportunity, the result is the same. Poverty continues to rise and average income, after adjusting for inflation, remains stagnant. The projects of the Century Foundation are aimed at finding ways to enhance economic prosperity and equity for all citizens. The Century Foundation is exploring new approaches to controversial issues such as welfare, housing, immigration, antidiscrimination and other social policies. The site includes abstract of the publications of the foundation.

• Cuneo, Carl (Department of Sociology, McMaster University, Canada)
  Theories of Class and Stratification
  An on-line course on theories of social inequalities: Marx, Weber, Gramsci, Durkheim, Parsons, Davis-Moore, Dahrendorf, Carchedi, Poulantzas, and Wright.

• Economic Security Project
  The publication of a book, Economic Security for All: The Web Edition. This book presents detailed, reliable information concerning poverty in America -- both current and historical. It analyzes the causes of poverty and proposes specific measures for how we can best establish universal economic security. ESP encourages readers to help them constantly update, revise, and supplement this book by sending suggestions.

• Environmental Inequality
  Bibliography compiled by Andrew Szasz and Michael Meuser (University of California, Santa Cruz, USA).

• Executive PayWatch
  If you think America's corporate executives are out of control with their lavish salaries, bonuses, and stock options, you're right. Can they be stopped? Here are some facts you might not want to know. In 1965, CEOs made 44 times the average factory worker's salary. Today, that figure is 212 times. If the wages of factory workers had kept up, they'd now be paid an average of $90,000 a year. This site is aimed at those corporate bigwigs who have access to the washrooms with the golden toilets. Visit the Database and compare your salary to head honcho paychecks at some major corporations. The AFL-CIO has done a great job.

• Forbes 400 Richest People in America
  From Bill Gates ($58,4 billion) to Oprah Winfrey (a miserable $675 million) and even less fortunated beggars, Forbes Magazine has made its annual 400 Richest People in America feature available on the web. You can view the list by worth or alphabetically. There is also a Rich List Generator that allows the list to be searched by net worth, home state, age, industry, and marital status. Minimum requirements to make the list increased from $340 million last year to $415 million this year. Explanation of list methodology is also available.

• Forbes - The World's Richest People: "The Working Rich"
  The latest listing of the world's richest people. Bill Gates is still leading the list because he has been able to gather $51 billion in 1998. You can search the list and browse it alphabetically, geograpfically and by net worth. Each listing contains some biographical information and a link to the person's company when available. 1997 and 1996 listings are still available.

• Forbes Company Lists
  List of the top ranking International companies. Companies can be searched by name, country, or industry type. Company listings contain contact information and Website addresses, and of course, the numbers: basic revenue, assets, market value, and stock price and earnings information.

• Forbes - International Billionaires: The World's Richest People
  200 billionaires and some not-quite-billionaires can be searched by any of seven variables, or browsed by net worth, country, or name.

• Freeman, Richard - Harvard University, USA
  Solving the New Inequality
  Includes responses from Frances Fox Piven, Heidi Hartman, Paul Krugman, Michael Piore, James Tobin, James Heckman, and Ernesto Cortes. The New Democracy Forum aims to reshape the political landscape in America.

• Hout, Michael [1996]
  Inequality at the Margins [doc]
  The Effects of Welfare, the Minimum Wage, and Tax Credits on Low-Wage Labor Markets.

• Income and Poverty
  An overview from Left Business Observer (LBO).

• Income Inequality and Income Mobility in the Scandinavian Countries Compared
  Working Papers in Economics and Finance. No 98: Income Inequality and Income Mobility in the Scandinavian Countries Compared to the United States.

• inequality.org
  A storehouse of information, comment and original thinking about the growing inequality of income, wealth and health. Inequality.org is a non-profit organization that questions conventional measures of progress and prosperity, and looks instead at the new economy's have-nots often ignored by mainstream media coverage. Created by journalists, writers, and researchers.

• Inequality in America
  A collection of articles from The American Prospect: A Journal for the Liberal Imagination. Edited by Paul Starr and Robert Kuttner.

• Kearl, Michael (Trinity University, Texas, USA)
  • Explorations in Social Inequality
    Kearl explores the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics: the imbalance between rich and poor. Short introductions and links to topics such as: the concept of social class, age and generational stratification, regional stratification, inequalities at the personal level, forces of change and maintenance of the status quo, international stratification systems.

  • Social Psychology of Inequality
    A very short illustration of attributions of why the poor are poor.

• Kluge, Goetz - Munich, Germany
  Entropy and Inequality Measures
  A site about measuring inequality of income or wealth. An engineer tries to explain, to compare and to interpret inequality coefficients for applications in areas, which are not the engineer's business. They keep sociologists and economists busy with a seemingly never ending discussion on how and when to use inequality measures. Kluge mainly focused on entropy measures. He recommends to use the Kullback-Liebler redundancy for computing economic and social inequalities. His D&R coefficient is based on that redundancy (as MacRae's coefficient is based on Theil's redundancy).

• Luxembourg Income Study (LIS)
  A cooperative research project with a membership that includes 25 countries on four continents: Europe, America, Asia and Oceania. The LIS project began in 1983 under the joint sponsorship of the government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the Centre for Population, Poverty and Policy Studies (CEPS) and is located at the CEPS/INSTEAD Institute in Differdange in Luxembourg. The site provides an introduction, newsletters, working papers, information on the annual workshops, income and poverty statistics, and extensive documentation concerning technical aspects of the survey data and the social institutions of income provision in member countries.

• Michigan Interdisciplinary Center on Social Inequalities, Mind & Body
  Investigators from multiple disciplines are brought together in an environment that promotes synergistic interaction. They focus on the consequences of social inequalities on the psychosocial states that are risk factors for many health and functional problems.

• Michigan Initiative on Inequalities in Health - University of Michigan, USA
  Promotes inquiry into the causes and consequences of societal inequalities in health and potential remedies, via an interdisciplinary program of discussion, research and teaching.

• Oxford Network for Social Inequality Research
  An interdisciplinary research centre, based at the Department of Sociology of the University of Oxford (UK). The goal is to foster theoretically informed, methodologically sound and policy-relevant research into social inequalities in contemporary societies.

• Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID)
  A longitudinal survey of a representative sample of US individuals and the families in which they reside. It has been ongoing since 1968. The data are collected annually, and the data files contain the full span of information collected over the course of the study. PSID data can be used for cross-sectional, longitudinal, and intergenerational analysis and for studying both individuals and families. You can download entire datasets, including the codebooks and questionnaires. Based at the University of Michigan (USA).

• Plotnick, Robert D. / Smolensky, Eugene / Evenhouse, Eirik / Reilly, Siabohan [1997]
  Twentieth Century Record of Inequality and Poverty in the United States
  In 20th century there is no clear trend in income inequality. Inequality was high and rising during the first three decades and peaked during the Depression. It fell sharply during World War II and remained at the lower level in the 1950s and 1960s. From the 1970s through the mid 1990s inequality steadily increased to levels not seen since World War II, though well below those during the first three decades. The rate of poverty exhibited a long run downward trend from about 60-70 percent in the earlier years of the century to the 12-14 percent range in recent years. There was considerable fluctuation around this secular trend. Changes in inequality were largely produced by demographic and technological changes, the growth and decline of various industries, changes in patterns of international trade, cyclical unemployment, and World War II. The primary drivers of the rate of poverty were economic growth and factors that produced changes in income inequality, particularly demographic change and unemployment. Public policy has reduced the market-generated level of inequality, but since 1950 has had little effect on the trend in inequality. See also the book version.

• Progress of Nations, The
  The nations of the world ranked according to their achievements in child health, nutrition, education, family planning, and progress for women. "The day will come when the progress of nations will be judged not by their military or economic strength, nor by the splendour of their capital cities and public buildings, but by the well-being of their peoples: by their levels of health, nutrition and education; by their opportunities to earn a fair reward for their labours; by their ability to participate in the decisions that affect their lives; by the respect that is shown for their civil and political liberties; by the provision that is made for those who are vulnerable and disadvantaged; and by the protection that is afforded to the growing minds and bodies of their children. The Progress of Nations, published annually by the United Nations Children's Fund, is a contribution towards that day."

• Ravallion, Martin [1997] - World Bank
  Can high-inequality developing countries escape absolute poverty?
  In: Economic Letters 56:51-57.
  A site that examines the factors of positive growth, inequality, and poverty. At any positive rate of growth, the higher the initial inequality, the lower the rate at which income-poverty falls. It is possible for inequality to be sufficiently high to result in rising poverty, despite good underlying growth prospects at low inequality.

• Richard Cohen Films
  Production and distribution of highly praised documentary videos investigating human dignity, courage and social justice. Cohen is shining a light on that part of society of which most of us are unaware: the problems and struggles of people who seem hidden away from our daily lives. When most of us walk down a street and ignore the presence of some individual because that person does not seem to fit the way we tend to view our own lives. TAYLOR'S CAMPAIGN - hardworking people living in cardboard lean-tos, surviving by dumpster diving. When lawmakers threaten their rights and try to boot them out of town, a penniless truck runs for city council as a voice for tolerance. narrated by Martin Sheen. HURRY TOMORROW - 1975, cinema verite classic filmed on locked psychiatric ward in state hospital. An effort to ban this film resulted in statewide investigation of hospital conditions and patient deaths in California. DEADLY FORCE - 1980, gripping investigation of police accountability process in slaying of naked unarmed man. Divisive issue today.

• Sektion Soziale Ungleichheit und Sozialstrukturanalyse
  Social Inequality and Social Structure Analysis Section of the German Association for Sociology. It includes news, information on conferences, literature and some links.

• Third World Network (TWN)
  An international network of groups and individuals who seek greater articulation of the needs and rights of the peoples of the Third World, especially marginalized social groups; a fair distribution of the world's resources, and forms of development which are ecologically sustainable and fulfil human needs. TWN publishes regularly news features and books, as well as the monthly magazine Resurgence and the fortnightly newsletter on global macroeconomics Third World Economics.

• Treanor, Paul
  9 Characteristics of the New Inequality in Europe

• United for a Fair Economy (UFE)
  This project is part of a broad social movement of people concerned that the concentration of wealth is hurting our nation. Its goal is to revitalize America through a more fair distribution of wealth. It's an independent, non-partisan organization.

• U.S. Census Bureau
  • Income Statistics USA

  • Income Inequality

• Utip - The University of Texas Inequality Project
  A research group concerned with measuring and explaining movements of inequality in wages and earnings and patters of industrial changes around the world. They emphasize two techniques: the Theil's T statistic to compute inequality indexes from industrial data, and a combination of cluster analysis on rates of wage change and discriminant analysis to isolate the principal time patterns in changing wage structures. The site offers an Inequality Watch (new developments in the measurement of inequality), Measures of Inequality, Working Papers, Data, and inequality links.

• Wolff, Edward N. - New York University
  • [1995] How the pie is sliced. America’s Growing Concentration of Wealth

  • Top Heavy: A Study of the Increasing Inequality of Wealth in America.
    Wolff shows how the sharp increase in inequality since the late 1970s has made distribution of wealth in the United States more unequal than at any time since the Great Depression. See also his book [2002].

Classes

• capital-and-class - Mailing list Archive.
  It complements the journal Capital and Class. The intention is to have a forum for open discussion of research and techning issues around marxist political economy.

• Center for Working-Class Studies (CWCS)
  A multi-disciplinary teaching and research center devoted to the study of working-class life and culture. The Center's activities include an annual lecture series, biennial conference, and an on-line bibliography. The site includes a good collection of Working Class Links. Director: John Russo (Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio).

• History of the world's working class
  A colllection of articles related to the history of the working class. Provided by Hartford Web Publishing.

• Society For Cinema Studies Caucus on Class
  A caucus that focuses on the ways in which formulations of the concept of class supply analytic categories and methodologies for the study of moving-image culture. The Caucus is particularly concerned to critique film and media work insofar as they contribute towards the perpetuation rather than the eradication of oppressive, alienating, and exploitative divisions along class lines.

Publications: Articles and books

• Social Class
  Definitions, synonyms and other references for social class in the CASS Question Bank.

• Social Class & Stratification
  All sorts of social stratification are discussed here: social class, feudal systems, the nobility of land owners, social differentiation, caste systems, racial and religious grouping, social mobility etc. There are links to more indepth information on such individuals as Weber and Marx, plus other related topics. Source: The Hewett School, Norwich

• Benschop, Albert
  • [1987] Sociale ongelijkheid en klassen
    Een reconstructie van Max Weber’s bijdrage aan de theorie van sociale ongelijkheid en klassen. // An elektronic book on “Social inequality and classes - A reconstruction of Max Webers contribution to the theory of social inequality and classes”. It includes a comparison with the class theory of Marx. Dutch only.

  • [1990] De klassentheorie van Marx
    A monography on the theory of social classes of Karl Marx. Dutch only.

  • [1993] Klassen —Ontwerp van een transformationele klassenanalyse (Dutch)
    Design for a transformational class theory.

  • [1993] Classes - A transformational perspective (Summary)
    Klassen - Ontwerp van een transformationele klassenanalyse. Amsterdam: Het Spinhuis. 539 pages

  • [1995] Bibliography on Classes

• Boegenhold, Dieter - - University of Bremen, Germany
  Social Inequality and the Variety of Life-Styles: Material and Cultural Aspects of Social Stratification
  The main thesis is that currently expanding discussion of life-styles is not necessarily a substitution but a supplementation in the tradition of social stratification research.

• Bourdieu, Pierre [1984]
  Distinction
  Cambridge: Harvard University Press, ch. 5 (pp. 260-317).

• Breen, Richard
  • [2001] A Weberian Approach to Class Analysis
    In: Erik Olin Wright (ed.) [April 2001] Alternative Foundations of Class Analysis. Ch. 2.

  • [2005] Foundations of a neo-Weberian Class Analysis
    In: E.O Wright (ed.) [2005] Approaches to Class Analysis. Cambridge University Press.

• Dahrendorf, Ralf [1959]
  Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society
  Stanford: Stanford University Press

• Heath, Anthony F. / McMahon, Dorren [2000]
  Ethnic Differences in the Labour Market: The Role of Education and Social Class Origins
  Working Paper Number 2000-01, Department of Sociology, University of Oxford, UK.
  An exploration of processes of inclusion and exclusion that concentrates on two questions. How far can class origins and qualifications account for ethnic minority disadvantage in Britain? Do they operate in the same way for the ethnic minorities as they do for the white majority? With respect to social inclusion, the results show that class origins and education qualifications can largely account for the overall disadvantages suffered by Irish men who have migrated to Britain, and for about half of the overall Caribbean and Pakistani disadvantage. With respect to social exclusion, social origins and qualifications account for a much smaller proportion of the overall ethnic disadvantages.

• Giddens, Anthony [1982]
  Class Structuration and Class Consciousness (Summary).

• Goldthorpe, John H. [1980]
  Social Mobility and Class Structure in Modern Britain (chapter 1).

• Goldthorpe, John H. [2003]
  Progress in Sociology: The Case of Social Mobility Research
  Sociology Working Paper Number 2003-08, Department of Sociology, University of Oxford, UK.
  Is it possible to demonstrate a cumulative growth in sociological knowledge and understanding? When he reviews the development of social mobility research, the answer is 'yes'. But why should it be that sociologists concerned with social mobility have been more inclied than others to work within the kind of context in which a cumulative growth of knowledge is favoured.

• Goldthorpe, John H. / McKnight, Abigail [2003]
  The Economic Basis of Social Class
  Sociology Working Paper Number 2003-05, Department of Sociology, University of Oxford, UK.
  An explanation of Golthorpe's theory of social class and the (Erkison-Goldthorpe-Portocarero) class schema for use in empirical research.

• Goldthorpe, John H. / Chan, Tak Wing [2004]
  Social Stratification and Cultural Consumption: Music in England
  Sociology Working Paper Number 2004-04, Department of Sociology, University of Oxford, UK.
  Survey data are used to test three arguments on the relationship between social stratification and cultural consumption: homology, individualisation and omnivore-univore arguments. These arguments have been advanced and stress in particular the importance of maintaining the Weberian distinction between class and status. Concentrated on musical consumption latent class models are applied to identify types of musical consumer. The social character of these types are examined through a regression analysis that includes a range of demographic and stratification variables. As would be anticipated from a Weberian standpoint, type of musical consumption proves to be more closely associated with status, and also with education and income, than with class, although the relationship is sometimes rather complex. The results provide little support for the homology or individualisation arguments. They are more consonant with the omnivore-univore argument, although a number of qualifications to this are also suggested.

• Goldthorpe, John H. / Chan, Tak Wing [2005]
  The Social Stratification of Theatre, Dance and Cinema Attendance Sociology Working Paper Number 2005-04, Department of Sociology, University of Oxford, UK.
  The relationship between social inequality and patterns of cultural taste and consumption is the subject of a large and complex debate. Examined are three main, and rival, positions that have been taken up in this debate: the ‘homology’,the ‘individualisation’ and the ‘omnivore–univore’ arguments. Two distinctive types of consumer are regarded as omnivores and univores. The former have relatively high rates of attendance at all kinds of the events, including musicals and pantomimes as well as plays and ballet, while the latter tend to be cinema-goers only or, non-consumers of theatre and dance. The authors show that these two types of consumer are socially stratified. Omnivores are of generally higher social status than univores and also have usually higher levels of education and higher income than do univores. The results support to the omnivore–univore argument as against its rivals, but also indicate that different aspects of social inequality impact on different forms cultural consumption in varying degree and probably through largely separate processes.

• Gouldner, Alvin [1979]
  The Future of Intellectuals and the Rise of the New Class (Summary).

• Grusky, David [2005]
  Foundations of a neo-Durkheimian Class Analysis
  In: E.O Wright (ed.) [2005] Approaches to Class Analysis. Cambridge University Press.

• Kalra, Paul [1997]
  The American Class System: Divide and Rule - Review Kit.

• Klocke, Eric /Batzell Dean, Zero Z.
  Children on the Titanic: Tragedy & Class
  In 1912 the Titanic, the largest ocean liner in the world, collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank with the loss of over two-thirds of the people on board. One of the phrases that comes to mind in connection with the sinking of the Titanic is "Women and children first". In the imagination of many people men gallantly refrained from entering the limited number of lifeboats in order to allow women and children to escape. Nontheless, one had a better chance of surviving the sinking as a first-class man than as a third-class child. There were 105 children on the Titanic's maiden voyage. But there is surprisingly little information from the surviving of children of the Titanic, in proportion to the evidence available as a whole. In this non-linear essay the authors demonstrate that class -- both social class and the class system on vessels of the time -- shaped the lives and deaths of the children on the Titanic. See also these links on Titanic.

• Levy, Charles Simon [San Diego State University, USA]
  • Karl Marx and Alexis De Tocqueville - Their Views on Class and its Relation to the United States

  • Classism and Conservative Social Policy - How Core American Values Influence Class Prejudice in Welfare Reform Programs.

• Miller, Larry L. (Univ. of Massachusetts Dartmouth, USA)
  Ugug and Dudu invent class conflict: the significance of classless societies for Marxist theories of class struggle and transition
  An exploration of the significance of theorizing classless societies and the transition from classless to class forms of society for the development of Marxist theory.

• Pakulsky, Jan
  • [April, 2001] Anti-class analysis: social inequality and post-Modern trends
    In: Erik Olin Whright (ed.) [April 2001] Alternative Foundations of Class Analysis. Ch. 6.

    [2005] Foundations of a Post-Class Analysis
    In: E.O Wright (ed.) [2005] Approaches to Class Analysis. Cambridge University Press.

• Parkin, Frank [1979]
  Marxism and Class Theory: A Bourgeois Critique (Summary).

• Payne, Geoff, Payne Judy & Hyde, Mark [1996]
  'Refuse of All Classes'? Social Indicators and Social Deprivation
  In: Sociological Research Online 1(1).
  An attempt to exploite the indices of poverty and social deprivation in the field of class analysis. This is demonstrated by an examination of pattersn of social deprivation in 1991 Census data, using the Townsend, Jarman, Dreadline Britain and the new DoE Local Conditions Indices. For the explanation for the empirical findings they use two main strands of class analysis: the Weberian idea that deprivation and occupational class both derive from market situtations, and the consumption sector theory.

• Poulantzas, Nicos [1978]
  Political Power and Social Classes
  New York: Verso, pp. 123-41, 255-62, 275-89, 296-307. You might want to take a look at the Nikos Poulantzas Society.

• Rose, David [1995]
  Official Social Classifications in the UK
  In: Social Research Update, Issue 9.
  How can we use the official social classification according to occupation and industry for class analysis? Rose describes the history of social classification in the UK and explains the possibilities and limitations of the official class schemes.

• Simons, Jack & Ray [1968]
  Class & Color in South Africa 1850-1950

• Sørensen, Aage

  • [1991] On the Usefulness of Class Analysis in Research on Social Mobility and Socioeconomic Inequality
    In: Acta Sociologica, 54(2): 71-87
    A critical review of the two main uses of the concept of class in stratification research: John Goldthorpe’s analysis of social mobility from a class formation perspective and Erik O Wright’s analysis of income inequality in the labor market. The main problem with both efforts is the lack of a satisfactory theory of how class generates inequality within the labor market. The logic of Gold thorpe‘s argument assumes that class causes inequality generating separate class interests in the labor market, but he does not provide such a theory. Wnght provides such a theory. However, his several class schemes either provide explanations for inequality that can be derived from standard internal labor market theory that does not satisfy the requirement of class theory; or, they are based on a concept of exploitation that is unsatisfactory for the identification of class categories within the labor market. For Sørensen it is not clear why Marxist theory needs a class theory of how inequality is generated within the labor market: standard neo-classical economic theory seems consistent with Marx’s own conception of the capitalist economy.

  • [2000] Toward a Sounder Basis for Class Analysis
    In: American Journal of Sociology, 105(6):1523-1559
    Two main class concepts are proposed: class as life conditions, based on a person’s total wealth, and class as exploitation, based on a person’s control over assets that produce economic rent. Sørensen shows that the class concept based on rent-producing assets accounts for recent developments in capitalism.

  • [2001] A Ricardian Approach to Class Analysis
    In: Erik Olin Wright (ed.) [April 2001] Alternative Foundations of Class Analysis. Ch. 5.

  • [2005] Foundations of a Rent-based class analysis
    In: Erik Olin Wright (ed.) [2005] Approaches to Class Analysis. Cambridge University Press.

• Swift, Adam [2000]
  Class Analysis From a Normative Perspective
  Working Paper Number 2000-02, Department of Sociology, University of Oxford, UK.
  Distinguishing between an explanatory and a normative interest in social stratification, this paper considers the relation between class analysis and the value of equality. Starting from the familiar distinction between (in)equality of position and (in)equality of opportunity, and noting the extent to which mobility research focuses on the latter, it suggests that class positions can themselves be characterised in terms of the opportunities they yield to those occupying them. This enables the clear identification of the kinds of inequality that research findings presented in terms of class categories, and using odds ratios, do and do not tell us about. The significance of those findings from a normative perspective is then discussed, and their limitations are emphasized - though the paper also explains in what ways they are indeed of normative relevance.

• Weininger, Elliot [2005]
  Foundations of Bourdieu’s Class Analysis
  In: E.O Wright (ed.) [2005] Approaches to Class Analysis. Cambridge University Press.

• Wenger, Morton G. [1977]
  Status Group and Stand: The Final Solution to the Question of Class in American Sociology

• Wright, Erik Olin - Dept. of Sociology, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
  • [1978] Class, Crisis and the State. London: New Left Books
    On chapter, Class Boundaries and Contradictory Class Locations [pp. 61-83] has been reprinted in: Anthony Giddens / David Held [1982] Classes, power, and conflict, University of California Press, p. 112-129.
  • [1979] Class Structure and Income Determination New York: Academic Press
  • [1985] Classes London: Verso
  • [1990] The Debate on Classes London: Verso
  • [1994] Interrogating Inequality London: Verso
  • [1997] Class Counts: comparative studies in class analysis. Cambridge University Press.
  • [April 1999] Working Class Power, Capitalist Interest, and Class Compromise
  • [July 1999] Foundations of Class Analysis: A Marxist Perspective
  • [October 1999] Real Utopian Proposals for reducing Income and wealth Inequality
  • [November 1999] Metatheoretical Foundations of Charles Tilly's Durable Inequality
  • [January 2000] Class, Exploitation and Economic Rents: reflections on Sørensen’s “Toward a Sounder Basis for Class Analysis”
  • [February 2001] Reflections on Marxism, Class and Politics
    Interview by Chronis Polychroniou.
  • [April 2000] The Glass Ceiling Hypothesis: a comparative study of United States, Sweden and Australia
  • [September 2000] The Shadow of Exploitation in Weber's Class Analysis
  • [April 2001] Foundations of Class Analysis in the Marxist Tradition
  • [April 2001] Interview with Erik Olin Wright by Mark Kirby [pdf] or html
    
  • [April 2001] Alternative Foundations of Class Analysis
    Includes contributions by Erik Olin Wright (editor), Richard Breen, David Grusky, Loic Wacquant, Aage Sørensen and Jan Pakulski.
  • [March 2001] Complex Egalitarianism: a review of Alex Callinicos, Equality
  • [July 2002] The Shadow of Exploitation in Weber’s Class Analysis (Revised version)
  • [2005] Foundations of a neo-Marxist Class Analysis
    In: E.O Wright (ed.) [2005] Approaches to Class Analysis. Cambridge University Press.
  • [2010] American Society: how it really works (with Joel Rogers) New York: W.W. Norton
    See also Wright’s Introduction and Conclusion.

• xrefer
  Social Class and Class Struggle
  Both from the Oxford Paperback Encyclopedia. Oxford University Press. Included are links to other references for these topics such as the Macmillan Encyclopedia 2001, the Bloomsbury Guide to Human Thought, and the Oxford Companion to Philosophy.

• Young, T.R [1992/9]
  Class Structure and Class Process: Chaos and Non-Linear Class Dynamics

Stratification

• Beck, E. M., et al. [1978]
  Stratification in a Dual Economy: A Sectoral Model of Earnings Determination
  American Sociological Review 43:704-20. (Summary)
  A review of stratification approaches: (1) Functional Approach: Workers are placed within the socioeconomic order through a competitive process in which skills and abilities of differing value and scarcity are carefully identified, evaluated, and matched with societal needs (Parsons; Davis and Moore). (2) Human Capital: the rational worker invests in training which will maximize the economic return (earnings) on investments while free competition among firs for labor skills guarantees a price for that labor. (Becker, Mincer)

• Davis, Kingsley / Moore, Wilbert [1945]
  Some Principles of Stratification [1945] (Summary).
  Davis and Moore are interested in the relationship between stratification and the rest of the social order. Stratification is defined as the unequal rights and perquisites of different positions in a society. They are interested in the system of positions in society (structuration of positions) and not the individuals occupying those positions (recrutement or allocation of individuals on these structured positions). Their approach is strictly functionalist in that they argue that is a society is to survive, then a functionally efficient means of fitting talented individuals to occupations must develop. Stratification supplies this mechanism.

• Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) User Guide
  Presented by the U.S. Department of Labor. There are other classification systems.

• Slavery Resources from Yahoo!

• Social Change Reports - GSS Reports (General Social Survey).

• Social Stratification and Mobility Survey (SSM)
  A collection of personal histories concerned with social status and inequality with national representative samples in Japan. With findings from the 4th. survey (1985) by Tanaka Sigeto.

• Sørensen, Aage B. (Harvard University, USA)
  • Social Analysis: Social Stratification
    Introduction to knowledge and ideas about the nature, causes, and consequences of social stratification in modern society. The course examines the basic dimensions of social and economic inequality in society, and presents the most important theoretical perspectives on the causes of social stratification. Considers the openness of modern society in terms of the degree of inequality of opportunity by family background, race, and gender.

  • [1996] The Structural Basis of Social Inequality
    In: American Journal of Sociology, 101(5): 1333-1365
    A discussion of the concept of rent and its use in analysis of inequality in society. Rents are resources that provide advantages for incumbents of social positions that are independent of the characteristics of the incumbents. Inequalities created by rents generate interests in the protection and the acquisition of advantages that can be said to form objective interests attached to positions in social structure. Rent is the basis for the formation of classes, in the general meaning of concfift groups.

  • [2000] Toward a Sounder Basis for Class Analysis
    In: American Journal of Sociology, 105(6):1523-1559
    Two main class concepts are proposed: class as life conditions, based on a person’s total wealth, and class as exploitation, based on a person’s control over assets that produce economic rent. Sørensen shows that the class concept based on rent-producing assets accounts for recent developments in capitalism.

• Tumin, Melvin [1953]
  Some Principles of Stratification: A Critical Analysis (Summary).

Poverty — Hunger

• Arbor Nutrition Guide
  A massive amount of links to governmental, academic and political nutrition related sites.

• Armoede.be
  A comprehensive portal on poverty in Belgium. (Dutch only).

• Bread for the World
  An American Christian movement that seeks justice for the world's hungry people by lobbying the decision makers.

• Çagatay, Nilüfer [2001]
  Gender, Poverty and Trade [pdf]
  An examination of the impact of trade liberalization on gender inequalities and on the impact of gender inequality on trade performance.

• Center for the Study of Urban Poverty (CSUP) - University of California at Los Angeles, USA.
  The primary mission of the CSUP is to link university resources and expertise with those of federal, state, and local and community-based agencies and organizations concerned with issues related to urban poverty and social service delivery.

• Center on Urban Poverty and Social Change - Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, USA
  The Center seeks to address the problems of persistent and concentrated urban poverty and is dedicated to understanding how social and economic changes affect low-income communities, and how living in these communities affects the well-being of their residents. The site includes research program, publications titles, and links to other resources.

• Citizen's Guide to Food Recovery
  A resource guide on food recovery programs, published the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). It describes some of the prominent food recovery activities already taking place, and suggests how a community, a business, or an individual can support existing programs or begin new efforts. It also outlines key considerations relating to legal issues and food safety.

• Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) - Norway
  The CMI, based in Bergen, Norway, specializes in social science research and advisory work on development and human rights issues in developing countries. It informs on projects on poverty and structural inequalities; population in development; human rights in North-South perspective; democratisation, institutional change and economic reform; institutions and natural resource management; aid and trade relations.

• Comparative Research Programme on Poverty (CROP)
  International Social Science Council, in collaboration with UNESCO.
  The program is founded on the logic that reliable data and sound theories provide a basic tool for poverty alleviation. It provides information on research projects, publication lists, a handbook of international poverty research, and some links.

• Congressional Hunger Center - USA
  Aims to lead, speak and act on behalf of the hungry, the poor and the victims of humanitarian crises, domestic and international.

• Crusade Against Hunger (FICAH)
  Voluntary initiative by the American food industry to alleviate hunger and malnutrition. In the United States, FICAH supports urban garden programs, youth services, food banks and job training programs, helping our neighbors back into the mainstream. Overseas, FICAH funds carefully selected, self-help, food related projects which tackle some of the root causes of hunger and poverty.

• CRY - Child Relief & You
  An independent organization thant wants to restore to Indian children their basic right to food, shelter & education - in short, a future!

• Feminization of Poverty. The
  Presskit made by the International Labor Organization (ILO) for Beijng 1995 WCW.

• Food for the Hungry
  A Christian-motivated development agency promoting sponsorship programs for the relief of world hunger and poverty. It want to feed physical and spiritual hungers of the world's poorest people. They have ongoing programs in more thant 25 countries.

• Free The Children
  An international youth movement that tries to establish programs and activities that will reduce the poverty and exploitation of children throughout the world, especially those in bonded, hazardous and exploitative child labour. Don^#146;t forget to inspect the information on the Child Labour page of Unicef.

• Global Energy Network International (GENI)
  The mission of GENI is to accelerate the attainment of the optimal sustainable energy solutions in the shortest possible time for the peace, health & prosperity of everyone.

• Homelessness in the UK
  Information of use to homeless people, professionals that work to help them and other interested people. Presented by the Resource Information Service (RIS).

• Hunger Project
  A not-for-profit global strategic organization committed to the sustainable end of world hunger.

• Hunger Site, The
  A site that provides simple, effective, feel-good ways to address an urgent, specific humanitarian need: the eradication of world hunger. Since its launch in June 1999, the site has established itself as a leader in online activism, helping to feed the world’s hungry and food insecure.

• HungerWeb
  A project of the Alan Shawn Feinstein World Hunger Program at the Watson Institute of International Studies at Brown University. Its aim is to help prevent and eradicate hunger by facilitating the free exchange of ideas and information regarding the causes of, and solutions to, hunger. It contains both primary information, made available by the World Hunger Program and its partners, and links to other sites where information of relevance to hunger can be found.

• Institute on Race & Poverty
  A strategic research center based at the Univ. of Minnesota Law School in Mineapolis (USA). The institute focusses attention on the unique dynamic created by the intersection of racial segregation and poverty. The Institute addresses the problems of poor people of color using a particular analytical and conceptual paradigm that avoids the mistake of focusing only on racism or only on poverty. The Institute’s goals are to create scholarship, commentary, and dialogue to promote a better understanding of the issues confronting communities which face the combined challenges of racial segregation and poverty.

• Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) - University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
  A national, university-based center for research into the causes & consequences of poverty in the United States. Available on the web site are IRP publications, research interests & opportunities, and links to other poverty-related Internet resources.

• Joint Center for Poverty Research (JCPR)
  A national and interdisciplinary academic research center that seeks to advance our understanding of what is means to be poor in America. Presenting news on research, conferences, events and publications; information on funding opportunities and programs.

• Kids Can Make A Difference
  KIDS is a program of iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) the world’s largest non-profit global network that enables teachers and youth to use the Internet and other technologies to collaborate on projects that enhance learning and make a difference in the world. The site contains an educational program inspiring kids to end hunger and poverty in their communities, their country, and their world. It is a program for middle- and high school students that focuses on the root causes of hunger and poverty, the people most affected, solutions, and how students can help. The major goal is to stimulate studente to take some definite follow-up actions as they begin to realize that one person can make a difference. Developed by Stephanie Kempf.

• Michigan Program on Poverty and Social Welfare Policy
  Promoting interdisciplinary applied research on poverty and social welfare policy and trying to translate research findings to public policy decision.

• Myths about Poverty
  On November 24, 1989 the Canadian House of Commons unanimously passed a resolution that: "this House seek(s) to achieve the goal of eliminating poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000." Read what the resolution had to say about the subject and see some of the myths that the Anti-Poverty Organization has dispelled. Source: National Anti-Poverty Organization.

• National Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO) - A Voice of Canada's Poor.
  The goal of the NAPO is the elimination of poverty in Canada. To raise public awareness about poverty it produces a lots of facts about poverty in Canada.

• National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP)
  The NCCP identifies and promotes strategies to reduce the young child poverty rate and to improve the life chances of young children still living in poverty. The site contains media resources, newsletter, state and local info, poverty research and programmes for welfare reform. It also contains a very useful page with Child Poverty Facts.

• NewsGroups related to poverty and hunger
  • alt.org.food-not-bombs
  • soc.rights.human
  • soc.org.nonprofit

• Onderzoeksgroep Armoede, Sociale uitsluiting en de stad (OASES)
  A research group on “Poverty, Social Exclusion and the City”, at the University of Antwerpen, Belgium. It concentrated on the study of mechanisms of social exclusion and the relations between social and spatial dimensions of society.

• Poverty and Hunger Resources - idealist.org

• Poverty and Social Exclusion - UNESCO
  MOST (Management of social transformations) is a UNESCO programme that promotes international, comparative and policy-relevant research on contemporary social transformations and issues of global importance. MOST produces and exchanges knowledge via international research networks, expert groups, meetings, conferences, workshops, publications, discussion forums and the MOST Clearing Houde.

• Poverty and Wealth
  A collection of articles presented by The American Prospect.

• Poverty Clock
  A clock that illustrates how quickly poverty grows. Created by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The digital clock ticks off the increase in the number of people who are living on less than a dollar day around the world. Every number on the clock indicates another person living in poverty. They will most likely be undernourished, uneducated and undervalued by the societies in which they live. The clock was first activated in january 1995 during the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen, Denmark, and was later sent to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China. The clock stands as a stark reminder that deprivation and suffering continue. Poverty eradication, however, is an achievable goal. "One hundred and fifty years ago the world launched a crusade against slavery. Today we must launch a world crusade against mass poverty" (James Gustave Speth, UNDP Administrator). The number of people living in absolute poverty is increasing by nearly 25 million a year. The number of people currently living in absolute poverty is roughly 1.3 billion (this calculation is based on the World Bank and the United Nations definition of absolute poverty: those people whose incomes are no more than $370 a year).

• PovertyNet - Worldbank
  Resources and support for people working to understand and alleviate poverty. The site is maintained by the Poverty Reduction Group, part of the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network at the World Bank.

• Poverty Resources - Yahoo!

• PovertyVision
  A portal of the poverty.

• Real Change News- Seattle's Homeless Newspaper
  A Seattle-based monthly paper that covers issues of class and poverty from the perspective of homeless people and their advocates. The paper has a monthly print circulation of 27,000, and exists to be a voice of the poor and to provide immediate, flexible employment to those selling the paper on the street. This is what you'll get: Voice of the Homeless (the past two issues in full); Citizin's Participation Project (your means of staying in touch with poverty issues without being on ten mailing lists); Archives (two years' worth of homeless history indexed by subject); Hobson's Choice (an interactive game that simulates homelessness). A great and passionate site: homeless not helpless.

• Refugee and Homeless Homepage - UK
  Some statistics on the growing homeless population in London, estimates on the numbers of refugees in London and the health problems they face. Also contains information on current research on homelessness and refugees in the UK, a survey of the literature on the subject, and links or addresses of UK organizations involved with Homelessness and Refugees. Edited by Dr. Nicholas Robinson.

• Social Disadvantage Research
  Current research, papers and plans from the University of Oxford, UK. Includes work on the geographical mapping of poverty indicators.

• Social Watch
  An international citizin's coalition monitoring implementation of the world governments' commitments to eradicate poverty and achieve gender equity. The site informs with coutry and thematic reports, and on social development indicators. In English, Spanish and Portuguese.

• Stanford Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality
  The center seeks answers to two questions: (1) Why is the United States so unequal and poverty-stricken? (2) What can or should be done about it? It monitors trends in poverty and inequality, to support scientific analysis of poverty and inequality, to develop science-based policy on poverty and inequality, to disseminate data and research on poverty and inequality, and to train the next generation of scholars and policy analysts.

• Sticky Wicket- Poverty's Home Page
  An introduction to the thoughts and feelings of the homeless and poor. It's big on welfare and community issues and contains the Cyber Herald, which is published weekly on such news and events, plus a really engaging Thoughts for Today section.

• Suffer the little children
  Meet our world's children: enslaved in sweat shops, degraded as sex toys, ravaged by war, crippled by poverty. An exploration of the plight of children in four countries: Guatemala, Rwanda, Cambodia, and India -- as well as in Canada, the backyard of the creaters: Laura Bobak and Errol McGihon (Ottawa Sun). Impressive facts and figures, and some astounding photo's.

• U.S. Census Bureau
  
  • Poverty
    The U.S. Census Bureau presents the latest figures on poverty in the USA. In 1990 more than 1 in 5 Americans — 52 million — lived in a poverty area. In 2001 there were 32,9 million people in the USA living below the poverty thresholds.

  • Poverty Data Sources
    The Census Bureau reports income and poverty estimates from several major national household surveys and programs.

• UNDP - Human Development Report - United Nations Development Programme.

• USDA National Hunger Clearinghouse
  A project of the World Hunger Year, which will connect thousand of groups working on hunger, food, nutrition, and agricultural issues. The database contains information on thousands of organizations across the United States that are working on hunger, poverty, nutrition, agriculture and food issues.

• Wealth and Poverty
  Maps, tables and notes for an anthropology course offered at Oregon State University, USA.

• Weingart Center Association
  The Weingart Center provides homeless individuals with the basic skills necessary to stabilize their lives, secure income and find permanent housing. It produces a series of in-depht briefing guides, which answer the most commonly asked questions on topics related to homelessness and poverty.

• World Food Habits Bibliography
  An excellent bibliography assembled by Robert Dirks (Illinois State University, USA). The resources for the anthropological study of food habits are organized by regions and countries, and by topics

• World Hunger & Poverty
  The UMCOR program (from the United Methodist Committee on Relief) supplies food for the hungry and helps poor countries to move forward with development.

  World Hunger Notes
  An online publication of the World Hunger Education Service (WHES)

• World Hunger Program (WHP)
  The WHP at Brown University (USA) combines research, education, and recognition to address long-term problems of hunger. It has the long-term prevention of hunger as its primary goal. It offers a unique combination of interdisciplinary research, scientific and educational resources, research exchanges that share knowledge among scholars, policy makers, community program professionals and the public, and annual awards. It also provides some interesting hunger-related courses thaught at Brown University.

• World Hunger Year (WHY)
  World Hunger Year believes that hunger and poverty in a world of abundance are unacceptable. Their mission is to work for just policies creating a more secure world and to support innovative programs creating sustainable livelihoods for all. WHY promotes self-reliance, food security and economic justice through research and education for policymakers, the media and the general public and through collaboration with and support for grassroots organizations. The "WHY Forum" is World Hunger Year's online discussion group, a Web-based "threaded message board" designed for the discussion of hunger and poverty issues from the grassroots to the policy level. You can read and participate in discussions with anti-hunger advocates around the world. The site also contains information on all the programs of the WHY, news on hunger and poverty, and last but certainly not least: "how you can help fight hunger and poverty". And there's a page with hunger & poverty Links.

• World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) - United Nations
  Statements by United Nations, Inter-governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and governments; press releases and official documents. The UN's global development network (UNDP) helps countries implement sustainable development principles, connecting national and local initiatives to knowledge, experience and resources from around the world.

• World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine
  A worldwide event to know hunger that allows you to do someting to fight hunger in our world. Worldwide, 925 million people are hungry. Every day, as many as 11,000 children under age 5 die due to hunger-related causes. That’s one kid every 8 seconds. Here is a chance to do something about it.

Editor	dr. Albert Benschop Social & Behavioral Studies University of Amsterdam
Created	June, 1996
Last modified	10th January, 2013