This session will provide a general overview of class theory, from its classical formulations and up to its more recent versions. The session will be organised around core themes, rather than focusing on individual theorists or schools:

1. Classical theory of class
2. Challenges to class theory: The differentiation of class structure
3. Challenges to class theory: A polarized class structure?
4. Challenges to class theory: Intersections class, gender, ethnicity

Each section will be presented with a 45 min lecture, which will aim to present the context  for the problematic and then go into the various ways in which the problem is dealt with by theorists of class.

The first section focuses on the early stages of industrial capitalism, in which the first versions of sociological class theory is formulated as part and parcel of the more general problem of coming to terms with “modernity”. A hallmark of this concerns the theorisation of class as a constitutive social division in modern societies.

The second part deals with the context of the rise of the join-stock ownership form, the  growth and increased bureaucratisation of the capitalist firm, and the rise of the public sector welfare state. These developments caused problems for classical theories of class, because they involved the genesis of what was called “new middle classes” - groups of experts, leaders and welfare professions that would seem to be neither capitalists nor traditional workers.

The third section deals with contemporary changes in class structure, associated with, on the hand, the increasing wealth of the “1 %”, and on the other hand, the emergence of the “precariat”. These developments seem to present us with an almost opposite problem to that discussed in the second session. The session then deals with how class theory has dealt with this polarisation.

The fourth session deals with an issue that is almost as old as class theory, but seems to attract increasing attention, which is the intermeshing of social class with other forms of inequality, notably “race”/ethnicity and gender. The session will discuss keyways in which theories of class deals with this complex problem.

The session of day 2 will focus social distances between social groups, documenting objective and symbolic boundaries that form the basis of individuals’ living and working conditions in  European countries. A common denominator in the lectures is the Bourdieusian social space  approach, which will be applied to contemporary contexts, but also sought reevaluated. Recent transformations of wealth inequalities, education strategies and Europeans labour markets requires rethinking the role of cultural capital, which lay at the heart of Bourdieu’s  analyses of the manufacture of class boundaries, and also the relations between class, gender,  and race, spatial differentiations within a national social space, and conditions of work and employment.

Inspired by Pierre Bourdieu’s social space theory, the lectures will also draw on contributions a recently published book, “Class Boundaries in Europe” (Hugrée & al 2022), which provides an overview of class relations, covering topics such as class polarisation, cultural reproduction, political orientations and globalisation.”

The session of day 3 will focus on a broader range of topics at the junction between social inequality and social inclusion, including a discussion of theory, concepts and problems  addressed in different discourses of inequality, social inclusion, and welfare. The session provides an overview and insights into recent empirical research on inequality in health, education, participation and citizenship, and childhood. This session will also allow for comment from the participants on topics of general interest at the end of the session.

Håkon Leiulfsrud, Professor of Sociology, NTNU – Trondheim. Leiulfsrud´s research has  focused on social theory and topics on comparative class, welfare and inequality research including work and industrial relations, family and more recently explorations on “durable inequalities” in childhood and education.

Johs. Hjellbrekke, Professor of Sociology, University of Bergen. Hjellbrekke’s research has focused on elites, classes and social mobility.

Magne Paalgaard Flemmen, Professor of Sociology, University of Oslo. Flemmen’s research is especially concerned with the cultural and political dimensions of class divisions.

Joakim Caspersen, Research Professor/Head of Research at NTNU Social Research. Caspersen's research has focused on a broad range of issues related to social inclusion in education and special pedagogy.

Zenia Hellgren, Lecturer in political and social theory/Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Political and  Social Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra – Barcelona. Her research interest is primarily about policies and practices of inclusion and exclusion in diverse societies, and their implications for citizenship and social membership.

Cedric Hugrée, is Research Fellow at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) within the Centre de recherche en sociologie et sciences politiques de Paris (CRESPPA, Paris 8/CNRS). His work focuses on higher education inequalities in France and class inequalities in Europe.

Harri Melin, is Professor Emeritus in Sociology at University of Tampere. Melin´s work focus on social class, labour unions, industrial relations, Eastern Europe and the Nordic Model.

Emil Oversveen, is Research Fellow in Sociology at NTNU and working at the think tank, Manifest. Oversveen´s research interest is in social inequality health, technology and social  theory.

Etienne Penissat, is Research Fellow at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) currently associated with the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales and the École  Normale Supérieure. His research focuses on social class, social categorisations, and workers’ collective action in France and Europe.

Annick Prieur, Professor, Department of Sociology and Social Work, Aalborg University. Her primary research interests are different forms of social differentiation – according to class, gender, ethnicity and sexuality – as well as processes of social marginalisation and forms of social control.

Alexis Spire is Research Director at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) currently associated with the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. His research focuses on the transformation of the state, on consent to taxation, and on inequalities in France and in Europe.

Yasmine Siblot, Professor of Sociology, Univ. de Paris 8, is a specialist on the sociology of the dominated classes, working classes and migration in Europe (France / Portugal), on gender within the working classes, developing politicization, public services and the sociology of trade unions.

Class Theory: Challenges and promises

10.00-10.30: Welcome

10.30-11.15: Classical theory of class and contemporary discussions. Magne P. Flemmen

11.15-11.30: Coffee break

11.15-12.00: Challenges to class theory: The differentiation of class structure Magne P. Flemmen

12.15-13.45: Lunch

13.45-14.30: Challenges to class theory: A polarized class structure? Håkon Leiulfsrud & Johs. Hjellbrekke

14.30-14.45: Coffee break

14.45-15.30: Challenges to class theory: Intersections class, gender, ethnicity. Annick Prieur.

15.30-15.45: Coffee break

15.45-17.30/17.45: Paper session

Thinking about class boundaries in Europe

10.00-11.00: Social Class in Europe. Hugrée, Penissat & Spire (New book).

11.00-11.15: Coffee break.

11.15-12.15: France: The Dynamics of internal changes within a persistent class structure. Hugrée & Siblot.

12.15-13.45: Lunch.

13.45-14.45: Norway: Stability, transformation & escalation. Magne P. Flemmen & Johs Hjellbrekke

14.45-15.00: Coffee break.

15.00-16.00: The Nordic Class Structure in a Comparative Perspective. Harri Melin.

16.00-16.15: Coffee break.

16.15-17.45: Paper session

Social Class, Social Inequality and Welfare

10.00-10.30: Social Inequality in Health- Recent trends and developments Emil Oversveen

10.30-11.00: Official discourses of welfare and inclusion in the Nordic countries Joakim Caspersen.

11.00-11.15: Coffee break.

11.15-12.15: Durable inequalities in education and childhood: A comparative case study. Håkon Leiulfsrud.

12.15-13.45: Lunch

13.45-14.30: Power, discrimination and representation. An intersectional approach to the incorporation of immigrants and ethnic minorities in European societies. Zenia Hellgren. 

14.30-14.45: Coffee break.

14.45-15.30: Open session

15.30-16.30: Discussion and Conclusion

10.00-12.00: Seminar based on student papers

12.00-13.00: Lunch

13.00-16.00: Seminar based on student papers

16.00-16.30: Course evaluation