[lbo-talk] Why Jews Hate Republicans, Part XVIV

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Thu Dec 9 16:22:35 PST 2004


John Lacny:
> . . . and no listing of CLASS as an explanatory factor.
>
> Sorry to be the old Marxist curmudgeon, but class analysis does indeed
count
> for something. Despite the large numbers of working-class whites (since
> race -- in this country such an important element of class -- is also a

Class is too broad of a concept to be of much analytical use. I prefer much smaller and better defined social groups. Observe that many groups, from organized religion, to unions, and civil society groups vie for and get the attention of people who support themselves for selling their labor. What is more, the type of work matters - professional workers have different affinities than manual or service workers, etc.

The genius of class notion in Marx's analysis was that it pointed to the notion of objectively defined social group (i.e. introduced the meso-level of analysis) in the theoretical landscape that saw only individuals (micro-level) and nations (macro-level). But today we can do a much more refined meso-level analysis, so jettisoning the concept of class is not the rejection of the social group influence. In fact I identified many such influences of various types.

Wojtek



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