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Qualitative Sociology and Social Class

This paper contrasts two approaches that qualitative researchers can adopt towards studying class and status divisions, drawing upon issues raised by Gordon Marshall (1988) in his paper about working class consciousness. It is suggested that researchers influenced by Marshall, and recent feminist ethnographers, whose central concept is class, ultimately adopt a competitive stance towards common-sense understanding and experience. Sociologists who seek to describe how members of society understand their own activities, such as the community studies tradition in anthropology, Pierre Bourdieu, and ethnomethodology, often conceptualise class in terms of status. These different ways of understanding qualitative data need to be understood in the context of foundational debates in nineteenth century sociology about action and structure, and indicate the continuing relevance of the Marx/Weber debate in discussions about social class.