Class

Geographers have long engaged with class as a form of socio-economic classification, a position in the labour market, or as a relationship to the means of production. Yet economic rents (consisting of income derived from ownership or control over a limited asset or resource) and asset inflation (especially in the form of housing price rises) are creating new class divides. Geographical work has sought to connect the proprietorial ethos of the ‘asset economy’ to increasing inequality and demonstrate that social mobility is now typically achieved through ownership rather than entrepreneurial effort. Within this body of research, inequality and class are shown to be (re)produced in line with broader patterns of social disadvantage, with consequences for life courses and life chances. At times, the novelty of an ownership class of rentier capitalists is emphasized, however postcolonial scholars argue that class cannot be understood outwith the historical subordination of people under various forms of imperialism. While class was traditionally linked to employment, the assetization of property and people was established in colonial practices.