Review of: Cédric Hugrée, Etienne Pénissat and Alexis Spire (2020) Social Class in Europe: New Inequalities in the Old World

Abstract

In the debates over European integration, class is often an overlooked variable. This reflects the fact that the concept has been increasingly marginalised within social sciences over the last decades. But the limited use of class in the assessment of the effects of European Union (EU) integration is also the result of a certain methodological nationalism of socio-political disciplines -that is, the tendency to employ "an approach that conflates the society with the state and national territory and takes it as the unit of analysis" (Pradella, 2014: 181). Methodological nationalism is also incentivised by the fact that statistical indicators are usually collected "at and for the national level" (Erne, 2019: 366).In Social Class in Europe three sociologists bring a refreshing perspective to the debate. The authors start from the view that "in the context of financialisation of the economy and the triumph of free trade, relations between social classes are largely determined at the European level and no longer simply within a national framework" (p. 181). Therefore, they propose an analysis of class relations from a European perspective, using various EU statistical surveys.Inspired by the work of Pierre Bourdieu, the authors define class not only in broad economic terms, but according to a multidimensional approach which considers "the combination of economic and cultural capitals that construct both the socially and economically dominated positions of certain social groups and the forms of separation, distinction and cultural boundaries between them" (p. 13). Three main social groups are then identified: the working class, the middle class and the dominant class. These three classes are of course characterised by a degree of within-group heterogeneity; in fact, in the French edition of the book the authors employ the plural to describe them (les classes populaires; les classes moyennes; les classes supérieures). Classes are then further operationalised through occupational status, information which is usually available in the main EU statistical surveys, albeit only for those who are in employment. Thus, for instance, unskilled white-collar workers and manual workers are assigned to the working class, while occupations like teachers and nurses are placed in the middle class. Finally, most of the intellectual and scientific professions are allocated to the dominant class, which also includes senior managers and chief executive officers (CEOs) of companies.The authors then analyse in three separate chapters the picture emerging for each social class. The analysis highlights the similarities emerging within each class, regardless of the country of residence. The working class clearly emerges as the class which has been the most negatively affected by the market-driven process of European integration, and which has suffered the most throughout the Great Recession. Across the EU, those belonging to this class are the most likely