The Class Structure of Capitalist Societies, Volume 2: Social Space and Symbolic Domination in Three Nations

The second volume of The Class Structure of Capitalist Societies continues the cross-national investigation of the shape and effects of class systems across capitalist nations begun in the first. This time, however, breadth of coverage is swapped for depth. Examining the results of a brand-new survey delivered in Sweden, Germany and the US, the volume maps the distribution of social powers and associated properties and lifestyles in unparalleled detail.

The analyses in Volume 2 are embedded in a novel sociological theory of international relations, sustained reflections on the relationship between national standing and class structure and extensive reconstruction of the histories of class in each of the three nations studied. The ultimate conclusion, however, is that not only is the fundamental structure of class today the same across the three cases, for all their unique cultural and historical features, but their translation into differences of taste, practice and symbolic violence, always cross-cut by gender, follow highly familiar patterns too.