Social class in American sociology.

Abstract

Despite the rapid development of social-class analysis within the last twenty-five years in American sociology, there is no agreement on the meaning of the term as a research tool. A series of analytical questions to be used in a survey of recent class materials is proposed to aid in the discovering of common ground. These questions revolve around definition, which may be in terms of economic power, status ascription, group life, cultural attributes, political power, or their combination; ascertainment, or class placement; defferences; social mobility; and the relationship of class to ethnic stratification.