Stigma is not a self-evident phenomenon but like all concepts has a history. The conceptual understanding of stigma which underpins most sociological research has its roots in the groundbreaking account penned by Erving Goffman in his best-selling book Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity (1963). In the fifty years since its publication, Goffman's account of stigma has proved a productive concept, in terms of furthering research on social stigma and its effects, on widening public understandings of stigma, and in the development of anti-stigma campaigns. However, this chapter argues that the conceptual understanding of stigma inherited from Goffman, along with the use of micro-sociological and/or psychological research methods in stigma research often sidelines questions about where stigma is produced, by whom and for what purposes. As Simon Parker and Robert Aggleton argue, what is frequently missing from is social and political questions, such as 'how stigma is used by individuals, communities and the state to produce and reproduce social inequality' (2006, p. 17). This chapter expands on Parker & Aggleton's critique of the limitations of existing conceptual understandings of stigma, through and an examination of the anti-stigma campaign 'Heads Together'. This high-profile campaign launched in 2016 seeks to 'end the stigma around mental health' and is fronted by members of the British Royal Family (Heads Together, 2017). By thinking critically with and about this campaign, this chapter seeks to both delineate the limitations of existing conceptual understandings of stigma and to begin to develop a supplementary account of how stigma functions as a form of power (see Link and Phelan, 2014). It is the argument of this chapter that in order to better the role and function of stigma in society, we need to develop a richer and fuller understanding of stigma as a 'cultural and political economy' (Jessop, 2009). The final part of this introductory chapter, details the chapters to follow, and the contribution they collectively make to the project of rethinking the sociology of stigma. In rethinking the sociology of stigma this collection has been specifically motivated by: 1) how reconceptualising stigma might assist in developing better understandings of pressing contemporary problems of social decomposition, inequality and injustice; 2) a concern to decolonise the discipline of sociology by interrogating its major theorists and concepts; and 3) a desire to put class struggle and racism at the centre of understandings of stigma as a classificatory form of power.

In the last three years a new vocabulary of social class has emerged in Britain. The word "chav," alongside its various synonyms and regional variations, has become a ubiquitous term of abuse for the white poor. This article explores the emergence of the grotesque and comic figure of the chav within a range of contemporary British media focusing on the role played by disgust reactions in the generation and circulation of the chav figure through popular media. Concentrating on the figure of the female chav, and the vilification of young white working-class mothers, this article argues that the "chav mum" is produced through disgust reactions as an intensely affective figure that embodies historically familiar and contemporary anxieties about female sexuality, reproduction, fertility, and "racial mixing."The reason Vicky Pollard caught the public imagination is that she embodies with such fearful accuracy of several of the great scourges of contemporary Britain: aggressive allfemale gangs of embittered, hormonal, drunken teenagers; gym slip mums who choose to get pregnant as a career option; pasty-faced, lard-gutted slappers who'll drop their knickers in the blink of an eye . . . these people do exist and are every bit as ripe and just a target for social satire as were, say, the raddled working-class drunks sent up by Hogarth in Gin Lane. (James Delingpole 2006, p. 25) Disgust and contempt motivate and sustain the low ranking of things, people, and actions deemed disgusting and contemptible. (William Miller 1997, p. xiv)

The problem that the concept of 'class' describes is inequality. The transition from industrial to financial capitalism (neoliberalism) in Europe has effected 'deepening inequalities of income, health and life chances within and between countries, on a scale not seen since before the second world War' (Hall et al., 2014: 9). In this context, class is an essential point of orientation for sociology if it is to grasp the problem of inequality today. Tracing a route through Pierre Bourdieu's relational understanding of class, Beverley Skeggs' understanding of class as struggles (over value), and Wendy Brown's argument that neoliberalism is characterized by the culturalization of political struggles, this article animates forms of class-analysis, with which we might better apprehend the forms of class exploitation that distinguish postindustrial societies. Taking a cue from Jacques Rancière, the central argument is that the sociology of class should be grounded not in the assumption and valorization of class identities but in an understanding of class as struggles against classification. In this way, sociology can contribute to the development of alternative social and political imaginaries to the biopolitics of disposability symptomatic of neoliberal governmentality.

The benefit system has created a benefit culture. It doesn't just allow people to act irresponsibly, but often actively encourages them to do so (David Cameron, Conservative Prime-Minister, 2011) We are not the party of people on benefits. We don't want to be seen [as], and we're not, the party to represent those who are out of work (Rachel Reeves, Labour Shadow Minister for Work and Pensions, in Gentleman, 2015

This article argues that celebrity is an increasingly significant means by which reactionary class attitudes, allegiances and judgements are communicated. In contradistinction to claims that the concept of social class has lost its analytic value in the context of contemporary consumer society and the growing ideological purchase of meritocracy and choice, the article contends that class remains central to the constitution and meaning of celebrity. A central premise of this article is that celebrity culture is not only thoroughly embedded in everyday social practices, but is more radically constitutive of contemporary social life. This claim is examined through a consideration of the ways in which celebrity produces and sustains class relations. The article argues that a new category of notoriety or public visibility has emerged and is embodied in the figure of the workingclass female celebrity within celebrity culture and wider social life.There is nothing new about celebrity culture. It is an intrinsic feature of a world structured by digital and mechanical reproduction. However, what has been visible over the last few years in Britain is a modulation of representations of celebrity figures in entertainment and news media through reality TV series, newspapers and gossip magazines. In a somewhat cynical turn, certain celebrities have been depicted increasingly as exploitative, aspirational parvenus whose public performances we should respond to not with desire, admiration or benign interest, but rather with a pleasurable blend of contempt, envy, scepticism and prurience. This shift of representational emphasis involves the oppressive and punitive foregrounding of class, whereby selected celebrities are understood to be ineluctably anchored to an essential class identity, regardless of the extent to which their social and financial circumstances have been transformed as a result of their conspicuousness or notoriety.