Postmodernist Antipathy: A Critical View on Postmodernist Approaches of Class(lessness)

This study aims at outlining and dealing critically with postmodernist perspectives on social classes. The point which is emphasized here is that in contrast to contemporary class theories, different perspectives on postmodernizm, on the one hand assumes that importance of classes in advanced capitalist societies has diminished and on the other assert that class categories and social inequalities are increasingly structured by consumption rather than by production. In connection with this point, in this study, firstly, contemporary class perspectives are outlined and assessed. This assessment brings the idea that social inequalities class has a central importance. Secondly, an outline of postmodernist class approaches is presented. In this part of the study, it is emphasized that some postmodernist accounts of class put forward the ideas of embourgeoisement and classlessness; some others have focused on consumption rather than production as the key aspect of class formation. Another issue which is dealt with here is that both trends of postmodernism reject the idea that class is an important source of identity. The conclusion part of this study suggests that these different trends should be read as critique of contemporary class theories but at the same time they are abstracted from empirical evidence.