Class in Australia

This book is a powerful and vibrant study of the complex realities of class in modern Australia. It brings to light the intersection of class with gender, race, and the ongoing dispossession of First Nations peoples, and dispels the myth that class division is not relevant to the contemporary age.

Class is central to Australians' lives but it is rarely analysed or even talked about. In this book Threadgold and Gerrard have pulled together the foremost thinkers on class, intersectionality and prejudice in Australia.

From colonial inequality to Upper Middle Bogan, this captivating volume dives deep into how class has shaped our nation. Through studies of the unemployed, warehouse workers, unions and school students, this book presents the finest analysis of class that Australian sociology has to offer. Read it to get a richer understanding of poverty, a stronger sense of social status, and a nuanced analysis of how gender, race and sexuality intersect with class.

This is a must-read collection for anyone interested in the topic of class in Australia. This collection digs deeps and engages with relevant and timely discussions about class using both an historical and contemporary lens. For anyone who is teaching, studying, or writing about class as theory or method, this book will open up rich and productive conversations. Class is an enduring problematic, both as a descriptor, heuristic device or theoretical framework. This collection aptly responds to this problematic, engaging with class across multiple intersections including gender, race and space. It taps into class as symbolic and ephemeral whilst also highlighting the material, tangible divisions that it produces.

Class in Australia is a timely provocation to social scientists to rethink class, offering a series of deep reflections on the complexities and opportunities of class-based analysis. An inspiring collection of authors brings new questions, conceptual frameworks and methodologies to class analysis. Acknowledging that the dynamics of settler colonialism are central, this collection is positioned to invigorate familiar approaches focusing on education, migration, and labour, gender, sexuality, and cultural representations. The new class analysis starts here.