IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/124534.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Wealth and class analysis: exploitation, closure and exclusion

Author

Listed:
  • Waitkus, Nora
  • Savage, Mike
  • Toft, Maren

Abstract

Wealth inequalities are increasingly prominent in contemporary societies but they have not been systematically addressed by sociological class analysis. However, class analysis should have a lot to offer: in the literature on wealth inequality, wealth is often approached as a unidimensional distribution – a quantity one can possess more or less of, crystallized in notions of the Top 1%. In this theoretical intervention, we discuss ways in which class analysis can address the gravity of wealth inequality by returning to the origins in the thinking of Marx and Weber, where capital accumulation and property organization were given central stage. Drawing on more recent contributions from Bourdieu, and integrating insights from political economy, theories of racial capitalism and feminist perspectives, we outline ways to enrich class theory through attention to housing, finance, business and debt. Our intervention allows class analysis to embrace accumulation, exploitation, closure and exclusion; making it fit for purpose to address 21st-century social changes.

Suggested Citation

  • Waitkus, Nora & Savage, Mike & Toft, Maren, 2025. "Wealth and class analysis: exploitation, closure and exclusion," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 124534, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:124534
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/124534/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Òscar Jordà & Katharina Knoll & Dmitry Kuvshinov & Moritz Schularick & Alan M Taylor, 2019. "The Rate of Return on Everything, 1870–2015," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(3), pages 1225-1298.
    2. Erikson, Robert & Goldthorpe , John H & Hällsten, Martin, 2012. "No way back up from ratcheting down? A critique of the 'microclass' approach to the analysis of social mobility," Working Paper Series 6/2012, Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research.
    3. Nora Waitkus & Lara Minkus, 2021. "Investigating the Gender Wealth Gap Across Occupational Classes," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(4), pages 114-147, October.
    4. Marion Fourcade & Kieran Healy, 2013. "Classification situations: Life-chances in the neoliberal era," Post-Print hal-03470535, HAL.
    5. Ellora Derenoncourt & Chi Hyun Kim & Moritz Kuhn & Moritz Schularick, 2024. "Wealth of Two Nations: The U.S. Racial Wealth Gap, 1860–2020," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 139(2), pages 693-750.
    6. Hällsten, Martin & Pfeffer, Fabian T., 2017. "Grand advantage: family wealth and grandchildren's educational achievement in Sweden," Working Paper Series 2017:3, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    7. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6cbt691h0h8o9q5rf0apko0pda is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Fabian T. Pfeffer, 2018. "Growing Wealth Gaps in Education," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(3), pages 1033-1068, June.
    9. Ansell, Ben, 2014. "The Political Economy of Ownership: Housing Markets and the Welfare State," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 108(2), pages 383-402, May.
    10. Gurminder K. Bhambra, 2020. "Colonial global economy: towards a theoretical reorientation of political economy," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 307-322, November.
    11. Fourcade, Marion & Healy, Kieran, 2013. "Classification situations: Life-chances in the neoliberal era," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 559-572.
    12. Oscar Smallenbroek & Florian R. Hertel & Carlo Barone, 2024. "Measuring Class Hierarchies in Postindustrial Societies: A Criterion and Construct Validation of EGP and ESEC Across 31 Countries," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 53(3), pages 1412-1452, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Waitkus, Nora & Savage, Mike & Toft, Maren, 2024. "Wealth and class analysis: exploitation, closure and exclusion," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 124635, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Philipp M. Lersch & Emanuela Struffolino & Agnese Vitali, 2022. "Wealth in Couples: Introduction to the Special Issue," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(4), pages 623-641, October.
    3. Desiree Fields, 2022. "Automated landlord: Digital technologies and post-crisis financial accumulation," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 54(1), pages 160-181, February.
    4. Ejiogu, Amanze & Ambituuni, Ambisisi & Ejiogu, Chibuzo, 2021. "Accounting for accounting’s role in the neoliberalization processes of social housing in England: A Bourdieusian perspective," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    5. Vargha, Zsuzsanna, 2015. "Note from the editor: Insurance after markets," economic sociology. perspectives and conversations, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, vol. 17(1), pages 2-5.
    6. Grätz, Michael, 2019. "When Less Conditioning Provides Better Estimates: Overcontrol and Collider Bias in Research on Intergenerational Mobility," Working Paper Series 2/2019, Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research.
    7. Kracman, Kimberly, 2022. "Code as constitution: The negotiation of a uniform accounting code for U.S. railway corporations and the moral justification of stakeholder claims on wealth," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    8. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/4ff88coju39nk8b11b5ghfc1ff is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Dean Curran & Alan Smart, 2021. "Data-driven governance, smart urbanism and risk-class inequalities: Security and social credit in China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(3), pages 487-506, February.
    10. Lacan, Laure & Lazarus, Jeanne, 2015. "A relationship and a practice: On the French sociology of credit," MaxPo Discussion Paper Series 15/1, Max Planck Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies (MaxPo).
    11. Sendirella George & Erin Twyford & Farzana Aman Tanima, 2024. "Authoritarian Neoliberalism and Asylum Seekers: the Silencing of Accounting and Accountability in Offshore Detention Centres," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 194(4), pages 861-885, November.
    12. Cooper, Christine, 2015. "Entrepreneurs of the self: The development of management control since 1976," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 14-24.
    13. Mejias, Ulises A. & Couldry, Nick, 2019. "Datafication," Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Berlin, vol. 8(4), pages 1-10.
    14. Amy J. Cohen & Jason Jackson, 2022. "Governing through markets: Multinational firms in the bazaar economy," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(2), pages 409-426, April.
    15. Berlinski, Elise & Morales, Jérémy, 2024. "Digital technologies and accounting quantification: The emergence of two divergent knowledge templates," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    16. Gilbert, Christine & Guénin, Henri, 2024. "The COVID-19 crisis and massive public debts: What should we expect?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    17. Gilbert, Christine & Everett, Jeff & de Castro Casa Nova, Silvia Pereira, 2024. "Patriarchy, capitalism, and accounting: A herstory," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    18. Elliott, Rebecca, 2021. "Insurance and the temporality of climate ethics: accounting for climate change in US flood insurance," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 107925, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    19. Alicia Eads & Laura Tach & Lauren Griffin, 2023. "Intra-household Financial Inequality, Gender Equality, and Marital Dissolution," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 373-393, June.
    20. Michael Grätz, 2022. "When less conditioning provides better estimates: overcontrol and endogenous selection biases in research on intergenerational mobility," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 3769-3793, October.
    21. Kornberger, Martin & Pflueger, Dane & Mouritsen, Jan, 2017. "Evaluative infrastructures: Accounting for platform organization," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 79-95.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    capitalism; class; theory; wealth;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:124534. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.