This general introduction locates the GBCS papers on the elite, and their respondents, within a context. It emphasizes some of the key points made by the respondents in order to intervene in a discussion about what is at stake in doing sociological research on class. It draws attention to the differences between on the one hand status and stratification, and on the other class struggle perspectives, and hence the difference between a hierarchical gradational analysis and a relational one based on the struggle between groups over value. I begin to answer a question raised by many of the respondents in this special issue: ‘what is the question that the analysis of class is designed to answer?’ I also draw attention to some of the problems with Bourdieu’s ‘structuring architecture’, showing how the partial reproduction of Bourdieu presents fundamental problems, leading to a Great British Stratification Survey (‘GBSs)…
Introduction: stratification or exploitation, domination, dispossession and devaluation?
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accommodation, algorithmic, assets, capitalism, care, class, critique of economics, cultural values e.g. respectability, death, distinction, divisions of labour, economic value, embodiment, financial, social reproduction, gender, identity, ideology, the state, law, media, Media: Journal Article, personhood, property, race, Reader-Level: University UG +, religion, representation, resistance, sexuality, shame, struggle, values