Rewealthization in 21st Century Western Countries: The Defining Trend of the Socioeconomic Squeeze of the Middle Class

Louis Chauvel (), Eyal Bar-Haim (), Anne Hartung () and Emily Murphy

No 821, LIS Working papers from LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg

Abstract: Over the last three decades, the wealth-to-income ratio (WIR) in many Western countries, particularly in Europe and North America, increased by a factor of two. This represents a defining empirical trend: a rewealthization (from the French repatrimonialisation) – or the comeback of (inherited) wealth primacy since the mid ‘90s. For the sociology of social stratification, “occupational classes” based on jobs worked must now be understood within a context of wealth-based domination. In this paper, we first illustrate important empirical features of an era of rising WIR. We then outline the theory of rewealthization as a major factor of class transformations in relation to regimes stabilized in the post-WWII industrial area. Compared to the period where wealth became a secondary resource for a middle-class lifestyle afforded by education and labor income for both men and women, rewealthization has steepened the vertical climb to resource “abundance” (feng) in society while masking social reproduction.

Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2021-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-hme
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Journal of Chinese Sociology 8, no. 4 (2021): https://doi.org/10.1186/s40711-020-00135-6

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