Edited by leading British sociologists of stratification, this book advances contemporary debates in class analysis. It draws on current theoretical debates in sociology and considers the implications of the cultural turn for the study of class. It brings together the very latest empirical work on contemporary topics such as culture, identities and lifestyles undertaken by researchers from Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Australia. It will be required reading for those committed to pushing the boundaries of class and stratification in new and exciting directions around the world.

This collection considers the growing interest in the issue of culture in sociology and its implications for the study of class relations. Presenting recent empirical research conducted in Britain, Europe, America and Australia on class and the intersection between class, gender and race, it celebrates the emergence of new ways of knowing about social inequalities.

This long-awaited second edition of the highly successful text on urban sociology retains the distinctive character and focus of the original, while taking fully into account recent theoretical debated and new empirical research. Expanded and thoroughly revised throughout, it incorporates the substantial new literature on urban inequality, urban culture, urban politics, and globalization.

Mike Savage and Andrew Miles provide a comprehensive introduction to the working class in Britain in the years after 1840. This textbook:
* Includes a provocative, timely and clear defence of class analysis
* Breaks new ground in showing how social mobility and urban change affected working class formation
* Demonstrates how the history of the working class is politically reconstructed
* Shows how class and gender interact in mediating social and political change

This study places the British middle classes in their historical and regional contexts in order to explain how they exercise a powerful impact in British society. It develops a theoretical perspective on the middle classes, criticizing theories of the service class, and draws upon the works of Ohlin-Wright and Bourdieu to develop a theoretical realist perspective which is sensitive to the variety of ways in which middle class formation takes place. It argues that the British middle class have been split between a cohesive and well-established professional middle class, and an insecure and...

When the Coalition Government came to power in 2010 in claimed it would deliver not just austerity, as necessary as that apparently was, but also fairness. This volume subjects this pledge to critical interrogation by exposing the interests behind the policy programme pursued and their damaging effects on class inequalities. Situated within a recognition of the longer-term rise of neoliberal politics, reflections on the status of sociology as a source of critique and current debates over the relationship between the cultural and economic dimensions of social class, the contributors cover an...

This book brings together studies of cultural institutions in Manchester from 1850 to the present day, giving an unprecedented account of the city's cultural evolution. These bring to light the remarkable range of Manchester's contribution to modern cultural life, including the role of art education, popular theatre, religion, pleasure gardens, clubs and societies. The chapters show the resilience and creativity of Manchester's cultural institutions since 1850, challenging any simple narrative of urban decline following the erosion of Lancashire's industrial base, at the same time...