ABSTRACT
The purpose of this introductory chapter is to show how the determinants of class formation changed over the course of the nineteenth century in Britain in unexpected and often quite drastic ways. Such determinants were sometimes crucially affected by geography (see Bedarida, 1979). The problem is to assess exacdy how space intervened in class formation. Clearly a framework of analysis is needed. The framework used here and in Chapter 7 is the simple model of capitalist society first put forward by Urry (1981). Urry distinguishes between three spheres of social relations which go to make up a capitalist society, namely relations in the sphere of production, relations in the sphere of state apparatuses and relations in the sphere of ‘civil society’ (that is, relations within and between households). Urry’s main innovation is that, unlike many previous Marxist writers, he makes civil society an equal partner, with the economy and the state, in the determination of class formation.
