Savage, M. (2000) Class Analysis and Social Transformation (Open University Press)

The word 'class' is one that I use quite often, which is perhaps surprising considering the demise of its use in the social sciences. My own understanding of class pertains to social attitudes which I associate with certain occupational groups. Yet my ideas on class have never been clear or particularly considered. It was this sense of uncertainty that led me to Savage's book, which is supposed to step beyond the yeah and nay of questions concerning whether the whole idea of social class remains relevant in contemporary Britain. In exploring this issue, I found Savage's analysis to be broad and incisive.

Savage examination of the theories of Marx and Weber, which have dominated class analysis in Britain since WWII, is prefaced by a brief discussion of why class analysis is peculiar to social sciences in the UK. Reasons include the 'political arithmetic tradition' of surveying social inequalities in terms of class divisions, the pivotal role of class in establishing social sciences as a pertinent discipline and the crucial role of class analysis in "linking academic debates to political programmes" (p.5). In addition, discourse about changes in British society post-WWII have generally been couched in class terms (see Halsey, 1995).

But things have changed. Academic expertise and knowledge is now less central to capitalist reproduction (Bauman, 1998) and sociology has seen a shifted its analysis towards the individual.  Savage lists three contemporary response:

1. Goldthorpe and his colleagues - defenders of class analysis;

2. Giddens (1990) and others who see class analysis as outdated;

3. Crompton (1998) and this book, which repositions class analysis.

Marx
Contemporary Marxists have tended to move away from social class as the central facet of their intellectual analysis, towards "the recognition that the capitalist system as a whole exerts particular systemic power over its members" (p.12). The emergence of critical theory, which has included a explicit critique of social reductionism as well as emphasising the place of discourse in constructing social fields, has also seen many socialist academics shun Marxist and neo-Marxist concepts of class altogether. The exception is rational choice Marxism, but analysts employing this method eschew Marx's labour theory of value. At the same time, race, ethnicity, gender and other similar concepts have emerged has equally plausible as a basis for constructing explanations for social divisions.

Weber
The "neo-Weberian tradition constitutes the most internally coherent approach to class analysis currently on offer." (p.15), but Savage argues that these theories "fail to provide a robust foundation for class analysis." (p.15) But one of the problems with Weberian analysis is that it is deductive, and hence it is not founded on any notion of class as an ontological reality.

Weberian derived research focuses on how classes do or do not become collectives, and can be broadly divided into that concerned with structuration (Giddens) and class formation (Goldthorpe). With regards to the latter, class measurements may conform to the criteria set forward by researchers, but the deductive basis for class criteria raises questions with regards to the empirical nature of the classes being study, and their relevance to broader concerns and the sociological imagination. Consequently, neo-Weberian class analysis has failed to substantially interact with other research traditions.

"What both Marxist and Weberian perspectives on class lack is any clear theoretical explanation as to why and how class matters." (p.20)

"The British tradition of class analysis, which defined the importance of class as linked to its wide social and cultural currency, has failed, both conceptually and empirically" (p.40)

Class measurement
Registrar Generals class schema
Hall-Jones Scale - used by Glass (1954)
Hope-Goldthorpe scale
Nuffield class schema (Goldthorpe et al, 1980)

Class consciousness
Class consciousness - Lockwood (1958)
Lockwood: Structure-Consciousness-Action (S-C-A model)
Goldthorpe: rational action theory

"...the term 'class' has considerable popular currency, and it seems that people use it both to identify themselves in class terms and also to make sense of political conflict. However, class does not seem to be a deeply held personal identity, nor does 'class belonging' appear to invoke strong senses of group or collective allegiance." (p.37) Rather, class is often used by individuals to differentiate themselves (ordinary people) from the elites above and the moral suspect underclass below.

Understanding class
Three paradigms.

1. Lockwood. Tried to develop non-reductive typology of images of society, but exaggerated the consistency of people’s world views, and deterministic if not illustrative.

2. Edward Thompson's historical accounts of class consciousness. But  methodologically ungrounded.

3. Cultural studies. Ideas about social cultural change in Britain interesting, but ultimately nostalgic and thus unable to withstand rigorous questioning.

Savage argues that it is "...possible to reclaim a culturalist approach to class analysis" (p.41) taking into accounts the limits and problems defined above.

Social transformation and mobility
Savage goes on to consider class in terms of culture and individuation, and makes some interesting comments about Bourdieu's (1984) concept of 'cultural capital' and the relevance of his ideas to the British class situation. He also explores the idea of class in the context of the way the organisation of work is changing, particularly in respect to the contemporary meaning of 'career'.

Savage's analysis of social transformation in the present context is particularly interesting. He exposes the widely held view that hard work, education and responsibility provide the basis for universal opportunity as a myth, arguing that these qualities are reproduced in individuals in a class-based way. Class therefore remains a salient barrier to opportunity, alongside other factors such as ethnicity. This would seem to concur with recent data indicating a relative slow down in class mobility.

Savage also explores other barriers created by the impact of organisational centrality in the career-based 'professional' middle classes. These include the increased insecurity associated with managerial and professional work, which may deter women with families who require greater security of work and income. Savage also points to the central place of social skills in the portfolio of contemporary professional and managerial competences, which are derived largely from white, male (secular) models, thus potentially excluding people on the grounds of gender, ethnicity or indeed religion.

The dissolution of the working
Savage does not claim that working class occupations have disappeared, or that they have undergone a process of embourgoisement. Nor does he revel in the kind working class nostalgia evident in the writings of Richard Hoggart and Raymond Williams. Rather, he argues that "the link between dominant notions of individuality and citizenship, which in Britain are closely associated with the working class, has in recent years been sundered, with profound social and cultural implications" (p.152)

Central to this change has been the corrosion of the links between individuality, dignity and the working classes, as working class work has become constructed as servile, and thus no longer bestowing the mastery or autonomy on workers that it once did. Savage asserts that the working class "retains a ghostly presence at the heart of British culture." (p.155), particularly in the way people appeal to  values such as ordinariness and unpretentiousness. Working class identities may exist in narrative form but are largely based on memories of old class identities.

Middle-class formation in contemporary Britain
The middle class historically emerged as a servile class in Britain, but as employment has become restructured, the meaning of 'work' and 'career' have turned around. In the present, "...individuality is the property of the professional and managerial middle classes, while working class independence is but a memory, albeit a powerful and nostalgic one." (p.156). Middle-class formation is closely intertwined with organisation and culture, with the responsible professional having become one of the most salient contemporary class identifiers. Indeed, Savage asserts that professionalism "...has taken over from manual labour as the dominant motif of contemporary individuality" (p.158).

Savage then reiterates some of the other key features of the new middle class, such as the concept of 'organisational centrality', and the division of middle classes into core and liminal, the latter including those who have moved from  manual or routine white collar work to middle class employment, which he claims "establishes the tension at the heart of middle class culture." (p.159). This tension arises from the fact that the core and liminal groups are not middle class blocs, but are rather individuals seek to establish a lifestyle that is ordinary yet simultaneously exclusive, and whose gaze is horizontal rather than vertical. This the source of much contemporary middle class dynamism.

"While people have routinely been aware of class cultures they had more scope to act on and change them ... the remaking of the culture of individualisation transforms the cultural landscape [and] allows the creation of a society which reproduces social inequality at the same time as deflecting the attention of its key agents sideways rather than upward or downward, so making the issue of social inequality largely 'invisible' and somehow 'uninteresting'. If there is still a role for class analysis it is to continue to emphasize the brute realities of social inequality and the extent to which these are constantly effaced by a middle class, individualised culture that fails to register the social implications of its routine actions." (p.159)

Bibliography
Bauman, Z. (1998) Work, Consumerism and the New Poor (London: Open University Press)
Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction (London; Routledge)
Crompton, R. (1998) Class and Stratification - 2nd Edition (Cambridge: Polity)
Giddens, A. (1990) The Consequences of Modernity (Cambridge: Polity)
Glass, D. V. (1954) Social Mobility in Britain (London: Routledge)
Goldthorpe, J. H. and Llewellyn, C. and Payne, C. (1987) Social Mobility and the Class Structure in Modern Britain: 2nd Edition (Oxford|: Clarendon)
Halsey, A. H. (1995) Change in British Society - 4th Edition (Oxford University Press)
Lockwood, D. (1958) The Blackcoated Worker (London: Allen and Unwin)
Skeggs, B. (1997) Formations of Class and Gender (London: Sage)
Thompson, E. P. (1963) The Making of the English Working Classes (London: Gollancz)

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