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Class in the 21st century: Asset inflation and the new logic of inequality

Author

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  • Lisa Adkins

    (School of Social and Political Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, 4334The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia)

  • Melinda Cooper

    (School of Social and Political Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, 4334The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia)

  • Martijn Konings

    (School of Social and Political Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, 4334The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia)

Abstract

What becomes of class when residential property prices in major cities around the world accrue more income in a year than the average wage worker? This paper investigates the dynamic of combined wage disinflation and asset price inflation as a key to understanding the growth of inequality in recent decades. Taking the city of Sydney, Australia, as exemplary of a dynamic that has unfolded across the Anglo-American economies, it explains how residential property was constructed as a financial asset and how government policies helped to generate the phenomenal house price inflation and unequal capital gains of recent years. Proceeding in close conversation with Thomas Piketty's work on inequality and recent sociological contributions to the question of class, we argue that employment and wage-based taxonomies of class are no longer adequate for understanding a process of stratification in which capital gains, capital income and intergenerational transfers are preeminent. We conclude the paper by outlining a new asset-based class taxonomy which we intend to specify further in subsequent work.

Suggested Citation

  • Lisa Adkins & Melinda Cooper & Martijn Konings, 2021. "Class in the 21st century: Asset inflation and the new logic of inequality," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(3), pages 548-572, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:53:y:2021:i:3:p:548-572
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X19873673
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Rachel Ong ViforJ & Hiroaki Suenaga & Ryan Brierty, 2024. "Homeownership and subjective well-being: Are the links heterogeneous across location, age and income?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(5), pages 859-877, April.
    2. Jelke R. Bosma, 2022. "Platformed professionalization: Labor, assets, and earning a livelihood through Airbnb," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 54(4), pages 595-610, June.
    3. Martijn Konings & Lisa Adkins & Dallas Rogers, 2021. "The institutional logic of property inflation," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(3), pages 448-456, May.
    4. Tom Barnes, 2024. "Rethinking job loss in an age of assetisation: Lessons from the study of precarious older workers," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(3), pages 717-735, May.

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