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The conditional politics of class identity: class origins, identity and political attitudes in comparative perspective
[journal article]
Abstract The sources, meaning and political implications of class identity are conditional on national context, reflecting the relative importance of cultural (status-related) versus economic (resource-related) influences on class identification. Unlike Danes, the majority of Britons continue to identify as ... view more
The sources, meaning and political implications of class identity are conditional on national context, reflecting the relative importance of cultural (status-related) versus economic (resource-related) influences on class identification. Unlike Danes, the majority of Britons continue to identify as working class. This difference between the two societies is robust across the span of 50 years of survey data analysed. It is unrelated to national variations in inequality, reflecting instead the far larger influence of an ascriptive source of identity, class origins, in Britain compared with Denmark, where current class remains the primary influence. The two societies in turn differ in the extent to which class identity is associated with economic or cultural politics. In Denmark, working class identification is associated with endorsement of redistribution, in Britain it is associated with opposition to immigration. High levels of working class identification in Britain therefore provide an augmented constituency for the radical right rather than the left.... view less
Keywords
social class; class consciousness; right-wing radicalism; migration; redistribution; social status; political attitude
Classification
General Sociology, Basic Research, General Concepts and History of Sociology, Sociological Theories
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Free Keywords
class identity; class origins; ISSP 1997-2001; ISSP 2009
Document language
English
Publication Year
2022
Page/Pages
p. 1178-1205
Journal
West European Politics, 45 (2022) 6
Issue topic
Working-Class Politics
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2022.2039980
ISSN
1743-9655
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed