Class Consciousness and Inter-Class Sentiments

THE CONCEPT of class consciousness seems to mean many things to sociologists, perhaps because they have not always agreed on the meaning of one of its elements--class.' In contemporary writing the term has been used in five different ways. These, in order of comprehensiveness, are: first, the manifestation of an awareness that a system of stratification exists in society; second, the willingness of a person to designate where he feels he belongs in this system; third, the manifestation of interests in common with others who feel they belong in the same aggregate; fourth, the possession of presumedly accurate knowledge of the interests of the class to which one feels he belongs, and as a consequence, a manifestation of interests similar to these; 2 and fifth, a feeling of solidarity with those who are identified as belonging to one's self-assigned class, and a feeling of estrangement from those not identified as belonging to one's selfassigned class.3 The first three usages are indicative more of class identification than of class consciousness. A number of scholars interested in studying class consciousness in American society have only really studied class identification and at times seem barely cognizant of the possibility that class consciousness can mean more than this. In discussing the general topic, Centers writes: