Class Struggle Analysis: A Critique of Class Structure Analysis

Abstract

Initiated during the 1970s as a critique of mainstream stratification analysis, Neo-Marxist class-structure analysis seems to have reached an impasse by the late 1980s. In order to develop class analysis further, many analysts have called for a shift in orientation from the drawing of a static class structure map to the study of class struggle dynamics. Responding to this call, this paper develops a class struggle analysis for the study of politics and history. This analysis has three components: (1) The conditions of class struggle, focusing on class structure, protoclass, and movement organization; (2) The processes of class struggle, examining the struggles over class, consciousness, organization, goals, strategy, and boundary; and (3) The consequences of class struggle, investigating both the micro-level of subjective experience and the macro-level of class and structure. By bringing class struggle back into stratification theory, this new emphasis opens new research frontiers and sharpens the power of class analysis.