ABSTRACT
Class is a contested concept, in the social sciences as well as in everyday life. It has political connotations which make its use in a scientific context a delicate task. It has been declared obsolete many times over by scholars of modern and post-modern society, particularly those studying Western welfare-capitalist nations. For example, in the late 1950s Ralf Dahrendorf wrote that the occupational role of the industrial worker had lost ‘its comprehensive moulding force for his personality’ (1959: 272); and in 1982 Andre Gorz bade farewell to the working class. However, these declarations were somewhat premature. Even though class cannot explain all aspects of human behaviour, it has been shown time and again to explain a significant amount of the variations in human actions and attitudes.
