Introduction: class and community

The growth of social and economic inequality is the hallmark of our era. It is not only evident in the economic gulf between the Global North and the Global South; as has now been endlessly documented, income inequality is also growing within countries. Perhaps most surprisingly, since our theories of the development of the welfare state predicted otherwise, inequality is also growing – and rapidly – within the rich capitalist countries with the most advanced welfare states. The nations that are leading the trend are the United States and the United Kingdom.

Sociologists, social policy experts and economists have been describing social inequalities for a long time, sometimes merely reporting income or wealth disparities, or taking a Weberian approach that groups people according to their various resources, including not only their income and wealth but also their skills, assets, political influence and social status. Members of a class share common ‘life chances’, which locate them within a social structure of inequality. Markets in capitalist systems distribute life chances according to the resources individuals bring to bear; thus, the varying forms that resources take and the different levels of skills and other assets that individuals possess account for differences in the probability that an individual or group will procure goods, gain position in life and find inner satisfaction (Weber, 1964, p.424). In other words, inequality begets inequality.

The resulting metrics are familiar. Income and wealth inequality data are reported, as are associated measures of inequalities in education and housing and health and happiness, and also inequality in political influence. The evidence is overwhelming: we live in stratified societies, and that stratification is increasing. The slogan of the Occupy movement, ‘We are the 99%, they are the 1%!’, may not have been precisely accurate; but it was close enough, which is why it resonated as it did.

These measures of class stratification tell us a lot about our societies. It is obviously illuminating to know just how many people are rich or poor or in between, and just how rich or poor they are, and it also serves in the design and evaluation of public policies.