Introduction to the special issue: nuances of social class and socioeconomic status (Introducción a este monográfico: los matices del concepto de clase social y del nivel socioeconómico)

Abstract

The social psychological study of social class and socioeconomic status (SES) has burgeoned in the last 15 years and much progress has been made. Yet, researchers rarely explain their theoretical standpoint, clearly define social class and/or SES or justify their choice of how to measure it. This, we argue, is holding back progress. We suggest that social class should be considered a social category into which we are socialized that affords differing amounts of economic, social and cultural resources, while SES only captures one’s current access to various forms of capital. We briefly review literature that suggests that the meanings, understandings and thus operationalizations of social class and SES vary across groups and contexts. We then give an overview of the special issue, which documents the advances that can be gained from taking a more nuanced and theoretically informed approach to studying social class and SES.