Political Economy of Classism: Towards a More Integrated Multilevel View

Operating within the Marxist tradition, radical economists have utilized a macro-social level structural analysis focusing on modes of production, social relations of production, and class exploitation. But what of classism, the class bigotry and oppression experienced in the everyday lives of working people and their families, at work, in their communities, and in other social spaces? This paper seeks to expand our understanding of the political economy of class by sketching out a multilevel analysis of class oppression as a social system that encompasses macro, meso, and micro levels, and includes both structures and human agency. It will examine how people come to occupy their class roles; how they learn their particular class outlook, mannerisms, behavior, and culture; and how the personal and social dynamics of class oppression are related to the larger macrostructures of class oppression and exploitation.