Class Inequality and Class Consciousness in Contemporary Latin America: A Comparative Study of the Structural Determinants of Class Self-Identification in Argentina and Chile (2009)

ELBERT, RODOLFO; PEREZ-AHUMADA ,PABLO

Nueva York

Congreso; LASA 2016. LASA del cincuentenario; 2016

During the last decades, scholarly research on inequality, identity formation, and conflict in Latin America tended to abandon the concept of class. Through different arguments and explanations, several scholars have claimed that class is no longer relevant for explaining both people?s identity and more general patterns of collective action. In this context, research on class consciousness and identity was either abandoned or relegated to case studies and single-country investigations. As a result, recent sociological research has not explored the political-economic mechanisms through which the class structures of different countries leads to national variations in class identity. In this paper we aim to fill this gap by developing a comparative study of subjective class identification in Argentina and Chile. To do so, we use quantitative data to develop a micro-analysis of the individual determinants of class identity in both countries, with a specific focus on class location and class trajectories (biographical and work trajectories). Based on this, we then develop a macro-analysis of the processes by which the political economy each county?for instance, the uneven development of Neoliberalism?has shaped different patterns of class identity.