ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that social inequality in contemporary Germany is based on invisible social classes, which are reproduced through classification. In terms of education and profession, most Germans resemble their parents even though there has been an "educational expansion" and a "skills revolution" in the last quarter of the twentieth century. Any explanation of social inequality has to show how social classes and the dividing lines between them are produced in and through social practice. Each social class disposes of a specific and characteristic combination of capital. The goal and achievement oriented habitus type, comprising about 14 percent of the population, partly overlaps with the autonomous and ambitious type and is farthest from the passive and heteronomous type. Its core is characterized by self-confidence, optimism and a tendency to engage in organizations. Ethos exerts a significant influence on everyday practice, but in contrast to habitus it is more a consequence, rather than a presupposition, of practice.
