Umeå universitets logga

The main objective of this dissertation is to study the subjective class identification and the importance of this identification for social attitudes and leisure habits. Class identification is a significant, yet often neglected, area of research in the study of social class and stratification. The aim of this thesis has been to explore in what way the Swedish citizens perceive their own place in the structure of stratification. This thesis is based on three Swedish surveys, collected between 1993 and 2000. The results show that a vast majority of the citizens think that Sweden is still a class society and can place themselves in this structure. The most important sources for this identification are the objective class position and the class position of the father during childhood and adolescence. Identification with the working class is to a higher extent connected with a view that the differences in living conditions are too high, that the differences in the possibility to advance in the Swedish society are unequal and that the gap in income should decrease. This standpoint is nearly as common for people who identify with the working class irrespective of a socialistic or non- socialistic position. The results also show that class identification is related to the level of participation in different leisure activities. Identification with the middle class is connected with a higher degree of participation in a variety of activities, especially in highbrow culture such as theatre and opera. In the conclusion it is discussed that the relevance of class identification in the future is highly dependent on how class in the political and ideological sphere is formulated and attached with different attitudes, and if class is expressed as a positive source in the construction of the social identity.