Class analysis, culture and inequality in the information society
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12877940 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Danny Butt (0000-0002-5708-9160, Waikato Institute of Technology, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2006 |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 5-23 |
| Publication date | 2006-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1740-8296 • E-ISSN: 2040-0918 |
| Publisher | Intellect (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1386/macp.2.1.5/1 |
| OpenAlex | W2020114877 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 27 |
This paper argues that class analysis contains important tools for understanding contemporary socio-economic inequality in the new media environment. For research seeking to promote the reduction of inequality, the Marxian class analytical tradition has two important features: (1) it identifies collectively-held interests in contrast to the methodological individualism of neo-classical economics, thus providing a basis for political action; and (2) it understands those interests as relational and socially constituted, and therefore processual and able to be changed. Class analysis has declined in effectiveness due to its failure to respond to critiques emanating from identity-based new social movements (e.g. feminism, anti-racism, etc.). These critiques have required universalist social theory such as classical Marxism to reflexively understand its cultural and historical specificity. I argue that such an understanding is becoming possible through analysis of the role of information in the economy. The evidence suggests that the economy is fundamentally a cultural/informational entity, rather than a base for a cultural/ideological superstructure. The paper sketches a revised class theory from a cultural perspective to yield a class analytical framework that will be useful for those excluded from the dominant networks of economic and cultural exchange
Class (philosophy · Class analysis · Cultural analysis · Economics · Epistemology · Feminism · Ideology · Individualism · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Social class · Social science · Sociology · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Elite Sociology and Global Capitalism · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Gender Studies · Law
How Social Movements Matter
Comparative Studies in Class Structure
The Global City
Economic Action and Social Structure
The Sources and Consequences of Embeddedness for the Economic Performance of Organizations
The Promising Future of Class Analysis
Introduction
Boy Talk
Information society, task mobility and the end of work
Empire
Gender and Economic Ideologies
Clubs to Companies
Mobility Disability
Social Networks and Prestige Attainment
Flexible Working Hours, Family Responsibilities, and Female Self-Employment
Women and Class Analysis
Social Capital
Postmodernism, Postindustrialism, and the Future
Making it Underground
The 'Cultural Turn' in Social Theory
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |