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This book re-evaluates New Left and Marxist texts from the 1980s, in order to explore problems facing the study of 'class' which have emerged within Australian and international theories. The author contrasts the popular ideas of Connell, Bourdieu and the 'Death of Class' thesis, with those of lesser known texts, concluding that no single definition can account for the various historical meanings of class. Instead, loosely following Castoriadis, the concept of class can best be understood as creatively imagined and institutionalised. Paternoster proposes that class is best studied through historical phenomenology, which can be used to link political economy, cultural sociology and anthropological ethnographies. This approach allows the contributions of Marxist and New Left authors to be reintegrated with contemporary theories. Doing so highlights the significance of labour populism, while cautioning against the ahistorical applications of texts such as Bourdieu's Distinction.
Reimagining Class in Australia will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including sociology, history, political economy and anthropology.
List of contents
Introduction.- Chapter 1:Imagining class in Australian history.- Chapter 2: The New Left and Marxism.- Chapter 3: Connell and Irving's Class Structure in Australian History.- Chapter 4: Andrew Wells' Constructing Capitalism and political economy.- Chapter 5: Andrew Metcalfe and working class consciousness.- Chapter 6:The Death of Class and its afterlife.- Conclusion: Reimagining Class.
About the author
Henry Paternoster is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Melbourne.
Summary
Offers a new critique and appraisal of the successes and failures of Marxist class analysis of Australia during the 1980s
Considers how contemporary Australian society can be understood from a historical perspective as shaped by class analysis
Engages with works by Raewyn Connell and Terence Irving, Andrew Wells, and Andrew Metcalfe
