ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes a hypothesis on the influence of a specific historical-cultural context on the discrepancies connecting three variables: skills required for work, income, and cultural consumption. The historical-cultural context encompasses group patterns of behavior, aspirations, and value systems rooted not in the technical-economic system but in past experience and social relations. The problematics of class relations are extremely important in considering social classes. Even a cursory knowledge of sociological literature suggests that empirical studies on the class-stratum structure have concentrated on sets of characteristics. In the new research all the characteristics of social position in every class and, analogously, all the important intra- and interclass relations should be the object of a systematic analysis. The problems of interclass and intraclass relations have remained in the background. Intraclass integration is important because it has the potential for overcoming the internal differentiation of the working class evidenced by inequalities among its socio-occupational groups.
