The concept of social class according to Alfred Marshall

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The term "class? is considered a sociological concept. We must remember that our contemporary ideas of sociology and economics were not those of Marshall or any other social scientist who took part in the constitution of the different disciplines about a hundred years ago. Anyone who has encountered classical social sciences, like Marshall, Weber, or Schumpeter realizes that a narrow categorization of their works as "sociology" or "economics" would be unbalanced or even unjust. A reading of classical thinkers must first of all take the origins of its own interpretation into account (Gadamer 1990). In practice, it means that we try to understand and make use of Alfred Marshall's ideas in a process of interpretation.

Extraits

[...] I think that anyone who wants to make use of class must account for the formation of class as one kind of the general process of group formation (Bourdieu 1987). The most interesting revival of class analysis comes from Aage Sørensen. He has developed a Marxist-influenced concept of class and his idea is close to the original position held by Marx. Sørensen's theory is from a structural position identical to Marx's, with the exception that he abandons Marx's theory of exploitation. [...]

[...] ([1873] 1925: 103) Marshall focuses on the effects on man produced by his work, rather than what he produces or what he owns, and he discusses this in terms of one of his more central concepts, character. The hypothesis is that man's work influences his character. The working class, as any other class, is composed of individuals who are affected by work in a similar fashion. Depending on how man can use his faculties at work, he is classified. Marshall says: Man ought to work in order to live: his life, physical, moral, and mental, should be strengthened and made full by his work. But what if his inner life is almost crushed by his work? [...]

[...] The theory of rent is traced by Sørensen, via the idea of rent seeking (Buchanan 1980), back to Marshall. By building the theory of exploitation on a firm base, Marx's theory can be saved, without any major alterations. Sørensen's work, to my knowledge, is the only existing reasonable attempt to use a concept of class that is close to the ideas of Marx; that is to say, the structural inequalities in society produce classes. Sørensen's idea is that positions that generate rent are the condition for formation of classes. [...]

[...] This critique is no surprise to those who know Marshall's writings. He argued for a scientific method that combines inductively generated laws with deductions. To Marshall, economics was a science of the practice of man, and this may inform us about his interest also in inequality and class. An issue of debate between scientists interested in class, as well as scientists at large, concerns the issue of realism versus nominalism. Marshall is clearly a nominalist. The motto of Principles, Natura non facit saltum (nature makes no jumps) indicates this. [...]

[...] This is a profound assumption in Marshall's writings. He nonetheless says: "It is an universal rule of science that in seeking these fundamental laws, we should class together things that are similar in nature, and may be expected to obey similar laws" (1897: 96). This position, however, does not rule out an analysis based on class, because theories, or class concepts, are spread over a continuum in which nominalism and realism are the end poles. III / Marshall in Relation to Sociology and Labor Movements Needless to say, sociology at the time of Marshall was different from our time. [...]