Four Aspects of Class in Modern Societies: Working, Property, Daily Social Communication and Ideology

This study aims to discuss whether class exists as a social contingency in modern societies by examining the social formations of the class in capitalist societies and versatile reflections of these formations within the approaches of classic theoreticians (Marx and Engels) and contemporary commentators (Paulantzas, Miliband, Mills, Wright, Goldthorp) of the class theory. In this context, class status is examined with a sociological approach and its interaction with the other dynamics of the social life is relationally presented. Social patterns that guide the class relations are analyzed in accordance with the mutual interactions notion rather than with an identification/determination axis. The study has conceptualized the social formations that can be in interaction with the relational integrity of the social status in modern societies, as in direct connection with the social processes such as working life and rhythm, property ownership processes, everyday life and its flow, ideology and worldviews. The appearances of the class in modern societies are examined in terms of both macro-scale structural regularities and micro-scale daily flows. Therefore, the dimensions of the class discussion have expanded with multiple perspectives and relational influences. The study aims to prove that “class” problem is a social occurrence that still preserves its ontological existence in modern societies and to open a new discussion in this regard.