ABSTRACT
The theoretical dominance of Marx and Weber’s accounts of the meaning of class is reflected in the continuity between their perspectives and in virtually all subsequent attempts to understand the key concept of class. The purpose of this chapter is to consider Wright’s neo-Marxist theory of class and Goldthorpe’s neo-Weberian theory of class. These contemporary accounts of class were selected because they have influenced the development of class schemes that have been used in recent empirical research. More specifically, Wright’s contribution involved a revision of Marx’s model of class and has been operationalized successfully in sociological studies of the American, Swedish and British class structures (e.g. Wright 1985; Edgell and Duke 1991). By the same token, Goldthorpe’s contribution involved a revision of Weber’s model of class and has been used in recent studies of class in Britain and other modern industrial societies (e.g. Goldthorpe 1987; Marshall et al. 1988; Erikson and Goldthorpe 1992). Hence, Wright and Goldthorpe represent the two major theoretical traditions of class analysis, the Marxian and Weberian respectively. Others have written within these traditions, but their theories have not been tested in the field to the same extent as Wright and Goldthorpe (e.g. the neo-Marxists Carchedi 1977 and Poulantzas 1979, and the neo-Weberians Giddens 1979 and Parkin 1979).
