HAS CLASS ANALYSIS A FUTURE? MAX WEBER AND THE CHALLENGE OF LIBERALISM TO GEMEINSCHAFTLICH ACCOUNTS OF CLASS

Class has often been presumed dead or on the point of extinction (Nisbet 1959). Many of the propositions of class theory have proved false or inadequate, not least Marx’s and Engels’ celebrated expectation of proletarian revolution in the advanced capitalist world. And yet the language of class continues to be widely used in popular culture and political action as well as social theory.