From occupational to existential class: How to analyze class structure in hybrid societies (The case of Serbia).
2021
In this article, we propose a model to analyse the class structure of hybrid post-socialist societies in
South-East Europe (SEE), using the case of Serbia. We argue that, in such hybrid societies, social
inequalities are generated by several mechanisms of similar strength: exploitative market
mechanisms (based on economic capital) and different types of social closure mechanisms (based on
political and social capital). Their influences are intertwined and cannot be analytically isolated or
reduced to a common foundation. Therefore, occupational class analysis in these societies can have
only limited explanatory power. In an attempt to overcome these challenges, we were forced to modify
the instruments of several established approaches to class analysis. These modifications
included (1) a reconceptualisation of Bourdieusian notions of political, social, and cultural capital, (2) a
different operationalisation of social space, (3) identification of specific mechanisms of generating
social inequalities, (4) paying attention to both practical and discursive classifications of lifestyles in
the establishment of symbolic boundaries, and (5) relying on differential association analysis for
identifying class boundaries. Our analysis's final result is a model that enables studying general social
inequality, i.e. generalised social advantage/disadvantage, in SEE post-socialist societies.
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