Social Class in Europe: New Inequalities in the Old World

by Etienne Penissat, Alexis Spire, Cedric Hugree

Overview

Mapping the class divisions that run throughout Europe

Over the last ten years - especially with the 'no' votes in the French and Dutch referendums in 2010, and the victory for Brexit in 2016 - the issue of Europe has been placed at the centre of major political conflicts. Each of these crises has revealed profound splits in society, which are represented in terms of an opposition between those countries on the losing and those on the winning sides of globalisation. Inequalities beyond those between nations are critically absent from the debate.

Based on major European statistical surveys, the new research in this work presents a map of social classes inspired by Pierre Bourdieu's sociology. It reveals the common features of the working class, the intermediate class and the privileged class in Europe. National features combine with social inequalities, through an account of the social distance between specific groups in nations in the North and in the countries of the South and East of Europe. The book ends with a reflection on the conditions that would be required for the emergence of a Europe-wide social movement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781788736305
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	05/12/2020
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Cédric Hugrée, sociologist, studies social and educational inequalities in France and in Europe. He has written Sociologie des classes populaires (with Ph. Alonzo in 2010), a book that offers an overview of the scholars that created the "working class" category in France.

Etienne Pénissat, sociologist, works on social classes and trade unionism. He has edited several books published by Agone, including Réprimer et domestiquer. Stratégies patronales (2013) et Porte-parole, militants et organisations (2015).

Alexis Spire, sociologist, works on inequalities and tax compliance. He has published 8 books, four of them single authored, including Etrangers à la carte, (Grasset, 2005) and Résistance à l'impôt, attachement à l'Etat, (Seuil, 2018) about social classes and taxation policies.

Table of Contents

List of maps vii

List of tables viii

List of graphs ix

List of abbreviations x

Acknowledgements xii

Introduction 1

Considering Europe through the lens of social class 2

Transcending the clichés of national difference 8

Beyond income inequality 11

Classifying social classes 14

1 The Weakened Working Class 18

Portrait of a social group in competition throughout Europe 19

The map of the working class in Europe 27

Shared vulnerability in the European labour market 33

Income and consumption: the working class split in two 44

Conclusion 52

2 Delusions of Grandeur and Social Realities: The Middle Class 54

The middle class at work 56

Material comfort and cultural aspirations 68

The paradoxes of the political role of the middle class 76

3 Beyond the 1 Per Cent: The Plural Domination of the European Dominant Class 83

Denning the dominant class 83

The economic ascendancy of the dominant class 84

The three forms of cultural distinction of the dominant class 97

From social to political dominance 108

4 Dominance and Exclusion: The Interplay between Social Class and Nation 116

At the bottom of the European social space 118

The hegemony of the dominant class of the North and West 128

Circulation between classes and nations 141

5 Are Classes Mobilised at the European Level? 153

Class in conflict in and with the European Union 155

Class antagonism contained within national borders 159

An embryonic European social movement and its limitations 170

Conclusion 178

Conclusion 181

Appendix 1 Secondary Use of Four European Surveys 187

Appendix 2 Construction of Social Classes at European Level Using the ESEG Classification 190

Appendix 3 ESEG Classification (Detailed Level) and Social Class 195

Appendix 4 Constructing a European Social Class Space 197

Index 201

Editorial Reviews

If you are interested in the future of socioeconomic inequality, class structure and political mobilization in Europe, you should read this book. Cédric Hugrée, Etienne Penissat and Alexis Spire develop an innovative and powerful empirical-quantivative and conceptual-analytical framework in order to offer a transnational perspective on social class in Europe. I very much hope that this work will be followed by sociologists, economists and social scientists and of all stripes and others. A must-read!”
—Thomas Piketty

“Bringing the social theories of Pierre Bourdieu to bear on a trove of survey data, Social Class in Europe draws a bold and bright map of class structure, division and condition across the continent. It demonstrates how European unification has splintered the lower classes while solidifying the domination of the economic and cultural bourgeoisie. By documenting social polarization both within cities and countries as well as across regions (North/South, East/West), it provides an essential key to understand the class struggles and political strife roiling Europe in the 21st century.”
—Loïc Wacquant, author of Urban Outcasts: A Comparative sociology of Advanced Marginality and Punishing the Poor: The Neoliberal Government of Social Insecurity.

“A highly sophisticated and original attempt to combine a class analysis of Europe with a political critique of the institutions of the European Union. An important step forward for the left developing a European strategy.”
—Wolfgang Streeck, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne

From the Publisher