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Social Inequality and the Sociology of Life Style: Material and Cultural Aspects of Social Stratification - Focus on Economic Sociology
American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The, Oct, 2001 by Dieter Bogenhold
On balance, positions of social inequality can be differentiated and classified in the sense of social differences without having to rely on one of the various sociological connotations of class.(8) In one sense, class or rather class-situation is just a result of the distribution processes in ongoing labor market processes. To use Luhmann's terms: class is the "distribution of division" (Luhmann 1985:129) and classes are heuristic classifications (see Rose and Reilly 1997).
The degree to which contemporary societies are egalitarian is a question that must be researched empirically. Glancing at the differing empirical results within the German discussion, Mayer and Blossfeld (1990) claim that a trend towards a greater rigidity in social inequalities is evident and increasing. Blossfeld and Shavit (1993) showed in their evaluation of educational opportunities in 13 different countries that rapid educational expansion did not reduce inequalities of educational opportunities. They concluded:
As a consequence of educational expansion societies can produce a higher average level of educational attainment from one birth cohort to the next, without changing the educational opportunities of children from different social strata.... Thus, the modernization theorists' hypothesis that educational opportunities must be turned on its head: expansion actually facilitates to a large extent the persistence of inequalities in educational opportunity. (1993:22)
For more in the same direction, see most of the contributions in Shavit and Muller (1998).
If it is correct that the hierarchy of material inequality between people has remained relatively stable, then what is hiding behind the discussion of life styles? My argument is that this change in the discussion reflects the asymmetry between social situations that are conditioned by distribution on the one hand and by corresponding cognitive relevant structures among actors, on the other. This has not only resulted in a relative decoupling between locations on the vertical-material stratification scale and choice of behavior (Nieuwbeerta 1995) but numerous patterns of consumption and leisure activities are also to be found that cannot be directly derived from positions on the stratification scale. A relative dissociation is to be found between social distribution structures. Increasing inequalities in industrial societies and growing unemployment in many contemporary societies do not necessarily lead to political action and unique class consciousness.
Clark and Lipset (1991) observed that "new forms of social stratification are emerging" (1991:397). In fact, social reality seems to be becoming so increasingly diverse and complex that it has to be studied in a different way. There are new lines and topics of social conflict, new social movements have appeared, ethnic differences have become more obvious, as well as gender issues. If life style research is the answer, what is the question? The question is to what extent should we take the cultural determination of life-forms beyond the material and/or structural survey of life-chances into account? It is a question of the relationship between life-chances and life styles.
