Class Analysis and Social Transformation

Academic sociologists, politicians, journalists, and other writers for the past decade have been unable to agree on the relevance of social class is it an outmoded relic of the now-departed "modern age," or does it persist, its entrenched inequalities continuing to exert power over the shape of people's lives? Savage (sociology, U. of Manchester, UK) takes stock of the dispute and argues for a recasting of class analysis in ways that demonstrate its continuing relevance as a means of understanding contemporary social change. He uses the British experience as a case study. Distributed by Taylor & Francis. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)