This paper contrasts two approaches that qualitative researchers can adopt
towards studying class and status divisions, drawing upon issues raised by
Gordon Marshall (1988) in his paper about working class consciousness. It is
suggested that researchers influenced by Marshall, and recent feminist
ethnographers, whose central concept is class, ultimately adopt a competitive
stance towards common-sense understanding and experience. Sociologists who seek
to describe how members of society understand their own activities, such as the
community studies tradition in anthropology, Pierre Bourdieu, and
ethnomethodology, often conceptualise class in terms of status. These different
ways of understanding qualitative data need to be understood in the context of
foundational debates in nineteenth century sociology about action and structure,
and indicate the continuing relevance of the Marx/Weber debate in discussions
about social class.
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