Marx's three modes of class analysis: A critical reconstruction

Owing to the considerable ambiguity in his writings, there exists no consensus in the scholarly literature as to how Marx's theory of class should be interpreted. This article contends that there are three distinct modes of class analysis in Marx: a structural mode concerned with identifying the fundamental class locations of the capitalist mode of production, a sociological mode concerned with investigating the effects of class on various socio-economic phenomena and a political mode concerned with the relationship between class and politics. Distinguishing between these different modes, we claim, helps address several of the long-standing problems with Marxist class theory while also clarifying its distinct theoretical strategy and explanatory aims. Rather than an index of social privilege, class in a Marxist sense should primarily be understood as a category of compulsion that explains why people engage in the social practices necessary for reproducing the capitalist mode of production.