A Critical Literature Review of Social Class in American Sociology”
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A CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEW OF SOCIAL CLASS IN AMERICAN SOCIOLOGY Brandon L Mouser Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in the Department of Sociology, Indiana University May 2012 Accepted by the Faculty of Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. ______________________________ Peter J. Seybold, PhD, Chair ______________________________ Najja N. Modibo, PhD Master’s Thesis Committee ______________________________ Robert W. White, PhD ii For Sebastian and Tristan, in hopes you will inherit a better world… iii Acknowledgments I would first like to thank my thesis chair, Peter Seybold, and committee members, Najja Modibo and Bob White, for all their encouragement, support, and advice. Having such an outstanding committee is what made this project possible in the first place. There is simply not enough room on this page to convey how much I respect and admire these individuals. Next, in addition to my committee, I would like to personally thank the Sociology Department here at IUPUI, especially those professors with whom I have studied and worked directly, including the department chair, Neale Chumbler, Robert Aponte, David Bell, Carol Gardner, Ain Haas, Linda Haas, Devon Hensel, Tamara Leech, David Strong, Colin Williams, Pat Wittberg, and the late Suzanne Steinmetz, who first inspired me to study sociology. This department has always been very supportive of my scholarship, and provided me a great opportunity to study sociology with so many talented, wonderful people in the graduate program. Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank the love of my life, Michelle Mouser, for being so supportive, and for empowering me to pursue an academic career. iv Abstract A CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEW OF SOCIAL CLASS IN AMERICAN SOCIOLOGY Brandon L Mouser A theoretical understanding of stratification and inequality is necessary to understand social phenomena in general. Unfortunately, professional sociology in the United States has historically promoted a limited theoretical understanding of stratification that tends to ignore economic realities, social structures, institutional mechanisms, power relations, and other important factors such as racial discrimination in reproducing social class. In fact, mainstream sociology has replaced class-based theories altogether with the concept of socio-economic status (SES) and, at the same time, all too often embraces problematic theories that justify inequality. This critical literature review of social class in American sociology attempts to: 1) provide a more comprehensive history of sociological theory in the United States regarding stratification and social class, 2) expose the sociological factors affecting these social theories and concepts, and 3) deconstruct and critique mainstream social theories that offer weak explanations of stratification. Peter J. Seybold, PhD, Chair v Table of Contents Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Method .................................................................................................................................3 A Problematic Development ................................................................................................5 Effects of American Ideology ..............................................................................................7 Effects of Social Location ..................................................................................................12 Effects of Social Institutions ..............................................................................................14 Classical Theories ..............................................................................................................19 Karl Marx ...........................................................................................................................20 Emile Durkheim .................................................................................................................32 Max Weber .........................................................................................................................39 W.E.B. Du Bois .................................................................................................................50 Thorstein Veblen ................................................................................................................53 Pitirim Sorokin ...................................................................................................................57 Kingsley Davis, Wilbert Moore, & Melvin Tumin ............................................................64 W. Lloyd Warner ...............................................................................................................67 Peter Blau & Otis Duncan..................................................................................................77 E.P. Thompson ...................................................................................................................86 Anthony Giddens ...............................................................................................................90 Erik Olin Wright ................................................................................................................97 Pierre Bourdieu ................................................................................................................102 Discussion ........................................................................................................................110 References ........................................................................................................................117 vi Curriculum Vitae vii INTRODUCTION Class matters. Stratification, or structured inequality and the resulting categories of social class, is a central feature of American society; it lies at the heart of our culture, economy, and everyday life (Schwalbe 2008: 4). Depending on one’s perspective, it is either a divine blessing or a hellish curse. It can grant us freedom or take it away, increase our chances or reduce them to nil. It even defines our neighborhoods and shapes our cities. A refined understanding of class is therefore necessary to understand social phenomena in general. Class also hurts. Inequality is without a doubt the primary cause of many—if not most—of our contemporary social problems: poverty, hunger, crime, disease, psychological maladies, political dysfunction, and human misery in general. Put simply, the ‘lower classes’ throughout the world are left to face these social problems and lead a lower quality of life, while the ‘upper classes’ typically remain insulated and lead a much higher quality of life. Thanks to unequal distributions of wealth, income, and power, a disproportionate amount of resources are being devoted to a small minority of people at the expense of the majority. This makes inequality both an analytic and a moral problem (Schwalbe 2008: 9). Current research has indicated that there is a growing gap between the upper and lower classes, especially in the United States: “The United States may see itself as the City on a Hill, but many of its citizens labor in dismal swamps” (Greenhouse 2008: xv). There has been a significant decline in the status and treatment of American workers over the past thirty years (Greenhouse 2008: 4). Since 1979, for 80 percent of workers real wages have only risen by one percent, despite the fact that worker productivity has 1 increased nearly 60 percent (Greenhouse 2008: 5). At the same time, the number of foreclosures and bankruptcies has tripled (Greenhouse 2008: 5). One-quarter of workers in the United States—over 33 million—now live below poverty line, earning less than ten dollars per hour (Greenhouse 2008: 7). Three-quarters lack health benefits or paid sick leave (Greenhouse 2008: 7-8). In 2005, for the first time since the Great Depression, the nation's personal savings rate fell below zero (Greenhouse 2008: 6). One would be quite naïve to conclude that this has nothing to do with social class. The decline of American labor is certainly not a product of struggling business. Corporate profits actually increased 13 percent between 2001 and 2007 (Greenhouse 2008: 9). While income for the middle and lower classes has steadily deteriorated, income for the upper class increased 80 percent, with the top one-fifth now receiving well over half of all after-tax income (Greenhouse 2008: 40). Income for the top one-percent increased nearly 228 percent (Greenhouse 2008: 40). The average CEO today earns more than 369 times as much as the average worker (Greenhouse 2008: 41). In the words of Warren Buffet: “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning” (Greenhouse 2008: 41). The degradation of the lower classes has been caused by a deliberate dismantling of the social contract which was maintained between capital and labor throughout the mid-Twentieth Century (Greenhouse 2008: 38). Rampant inequality is rooted in capitalism’s ever- increasing power over politics in the United States, which has reduced the need for mass support, resulting in a ‘disconnect’ between profits and wages and an effort by companies to shift costs and risks onto their workers (Greenhouse 2008: 37-38). 2 METHOD The primary goal of this