Class Identity Across Spatial and Temporal Social Contexts

• In Event: Race, Gender, and Class Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 8) Identities: Race, Class, and (Other) Inequalities

Abstract

While founding scholars examined class as a set of social positions intrinsically tied to and shaped by economic structure, market economy and occupational boundaries (Durkheim 1893; Marx 1963; Weber 1946), recent social researchers typically take a gradational approach by employing socioeconomic status (SES) as the analytical lens to study class stratification and inequality (Lareau 2008). Some researchers have studied subjective class identity and found that perceived class affiliation can be a valid and sometimes more reliable measure of social belonging, attitudes, and behavior than SES (Manstead 2018; Rubin et al. 2014; Soria 2018). However, what has undergone surprisingly little scrutiny in this literature is attention to large social contexts. This may be especially important for studying class formation in the U.S. considering the histories of deindustrialization, technological advancement, uneven regional development, and increased economic inequality over the last several decades. Thus, we question whether there is an environmental logic of class identity across time and space.

Using a relational perspective, this study examines how class identity is informed by SES and, more importantly, whether it is contingent on residence region, historical period, and generational cohort. Using data from the 1977-2022 General Social Survey (GSS), we conduct a multilevel study by treating the broad social context as the key analytic unit within which individuals are nested. Our preliminary results reveal: 1) class identity fluctuates significantly across geotemporal contexts and 2) these contexts also shape the salience of SES on class identity. This study makes several important contributions. Our multilevel models are a novel approach to estimating class identity by assessing individual characteristics, especially SES, and placing people back in their social environments. Second, we show that social class identity is fluid at a structural level, providing more nuanced insights into class formation.

Authors

• Jing Li, Rice University

• Lauren J. Harvey, Rice University