The Handbook of Class and Culture offers a comprehensive and interdisciplinary examination of the relationship between class and culture in contemporary society. Bringing together scholars from a range of disciplines, the volume explores how class shapes cultural production, education, social policy, identity, representation, labour, technology and political life, while also demonstrating how cultural practices influence the experience and understanding of class.
Organised into seven thematic sections, the handbook moves from foundational theoretical perspectives to contemporary debates surrounding media representation, cultural industries, higher education, social policy, intersectionality and emerging futures. Contributors engage with major thinkers including Marx, Gramsci, Williams and Bourdieu while addressing pressing contemporary issues such as artificial intelligence, environmental crisis, social mobility, inequality, digital labour, political activism and the rise of authoritarian populism.
A central argument running throughout the volume is that class and culture cannot be understood as separate domains. Instead, class is lived, represented and contested through cultural forms, institutions and everyday practices, while culture itself is shaped by material inequalities and relations of power. Across a diverse range of case studies and theoretical approaches, the contributors examine how class becomes visible or invisible through language, media, education, policy, cultural participation and social identity.
The handbook pays particular attention to the intersections between class and gender, race, disability, sexuality and geography, demonstrating how multiple forms of inequality interact within contemporary societies. It also explores the continuing significance of class in shaping life chances, access to resources, cultural participation and political possibility at a time of growing economic inequality and social fragmentation.
Combining theoretical analysis with empirical research, this handbook will be of interest to researchers, postgraduate students and advanced undergraduates in sociology, cultural studies, education, media and communication studies, political economy, social policy and related fields. It will also be relevant to educators, policymakers, cultural practitioners and others seeking to understand the continuing role of class in contemporary social and cultural life.
