Charles Umney, "Class Matters: Inequality and Exploitation in 21st-Century Britain" (Pluto Press, 2018)

Summary

What is class? In Class Matters: Inequality and Exploitation in 21st-Century Britain (Pluto Press, 2018), Charles Umney, an Associate Professor in Work and Employment Relations at the University of Leeds, offers a new marxist analysis of the meaning and impact of class. The book is written in dialogue with recent developments in class analysis, including theories that have placed culture at the heart of how class should be understood. Umney's book returns to class as more than just classification, rather seeing it as an essential means of understanding inequality and exploitation from a marxist perspective. The book explains core marxist concepts, such as alienation, and offers a vast range of examples of inequality and exploitation, whether the financialisation of the economy, new forms of work, or the role of the state and the media. The book will be essential reading for anyone interested in explaining our current social relations.

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Dave O'Brien

Dave O'Brien is Professor of Cultural and Creative Industries, at the University of Manchester.

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