Louis-André VALLET, Chapter on Class, in Gangl M., Platt L., Polavieja J.G., van de Werfhorst H.G. (Eds), The Oxford Handbook of Social Stratification, Oxford, New York, Oxford University Press & Oxford Handbooks Online, 2025

This chapter provides a broad overview of the class concept in sociology and social stratification research. It begins by describing the contributions of three founding fathers of sociology—Marx, Weber, and Durkheim—to the theorization of class. Then it focuses on four modern conceptions of class that can be considered the most influential ones: the neo-Marxist class analysis system proposed by Erik Olin Wright; the neo-Weberian class conception and schema elaborated by John H. Goldthorpe; the neo-Durkheimian filiation with the microclass perspective of David Grusky and his coauthors; and the class concept based on the notion of capital in Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology. The final section assesses the relative merits of these four approaches, devoting special attention to their operationalization and their empirical value in large-scale studies and comparative research. The conclusion argues that the class concept, if it takes account of recent trends in the labor market and the labor force, is still central for describing and understanding the social structure of societies in the twenty-first century.