Exploring forms of class-consciousness and resistance to stigmatising narratives.

What is it about?

This article looks at the extent to which a sample of working-class people actually identity with the label 'working class', as well as the extent to which they accept dominant discourses regarding fairness in society, and the dominant discourses around people who claim benefits.

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Why is it important?

Some sociologists have argued that class in contemporary Britain is no longer relevant, that the experience of class has become individualised or that working-class people lack the cultural resources to contest the ways in which they are classified. In this article we demonstrate that most working-class people engage in what Tyler has called 'classificatory struggle', resisting dominant stigmatising discourses. Although we attempt to nuance Tyler's work and explore how some forms of classificatory struggle might be reactionary (i.e. avoiding stigma by blaming other groups, such as migrants), much of the classificatory struggle we explore is premised on a much more progressive claim for equality.