ABSTRACT
Despite recent pronouncements about the death of class, Chapter 1 has shown that class divisions and identities are alive and well. What we have witnessed in the last few decades has been not the death of class, then, but rather the passing of one type of class society with another materialising to take its place (Eley and Nield 2000). Fraser (1995) has argued that this ‘new’ class society is based on a politics of recognition as well as the politics of material inequality. This sociological resurrection of class having been noted, the purpose of this chapter is to provide a review of the various ways in which sociologists have theorised social class as well as its relevance to understanding housing provision and consumption.
