ABSTRACT
For the last few decades class has been the elephant in the room. It clearly exists as a potent and prevailing social distinction, but is rarely explicitly articulated or acknowledged as such. As Andrew Sayer (2005) notes, it is an embarrassing and unsettling subject which often might be considered rude or insensitive to mention. Many prefer to see class as an old-fashioned concept associated with a bygone age. Decline in the UK manufacturing base has destabilised traditional working-class communities, with industrial capitalism giving way to a new globalised economy in which a general rhetoric of ‘classlessness’ flourishes. Yet at the same time there has been a sharp polarisation of wealth in Britain, with research documenting how the rich and poor continue to live in very different worlds (Wheeler et al. 2005). In this chapter I draw on an emerging body of theoretical work to argue that class as a social indicator is more important than ever.
