ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the major theoretical approaches to class and social inequality during the 20th century. Overall, the theoretical development over the last century was to get away from the economist roots of sociology. Classic theories (with the notable exception of Max Weber) often argued that society can be characterised by one major principle – division of labour, class structure or culture. Marx had argued that class, based on the ownership of the means of production, was the major division within capitalist societies. The theoretical strand that followed Durkheim argued that modern societies are characterised by the functional division of labour rather than by class. Great efforts were made to integrate both perspectives by Pierre Bourdieu and milieu theory, but it remained open whether one of the two structural principles should be regarded as primary. Arguing from the perspective of sociology of inequality, the major aim of this chapter is to show how the concept of a one-dimensional class society was increasingly replaced by a more complex and multi-dimensional understanding of social inequality.
