Max Weber's multidimensional view of social inequality and class

¶ … Society -- in Support of the Multidimensional View

The multidimensional view of society, as first advanced by the sociological theorist Max Weber, confirms the common Marxian viewpoint about the class-ridden or divided nature of modern society. According to Marx, society was divided into different classes such as the workers and the factory owners, the proletariat and the bourgeois property owners, and thus existed in a state of constant polarity or division. However, the more subtle multidimensional view of society suggested that there were multiple dimensions to the inequality that existed in a society that made social analysis more complex than property ownership, and financial dominance.

In the multidimensional view, societal notions of class have social and political elements of power as well. For example, class is economic but is also established by what one does for a living. The contribution groups make to the productive system of the society may be the same in monetary value, but two persons can make the same amount of money and have different levels of social and political capital -- for example, a doctor who is a neurologist might have more social cache than a man who has no education, but runs a lucrative construction company. A famous actor with no education might have less social respect, but more political power and influence over the media. Likewise, a relatively 'poor' schoolteacher might have at least marginally more social respect and political capital through his or her union than an administrative assistant of the same income level.

The multidimensional view of society also allows for the role that race can play within a class system. Someone who is the member of a historically discriminated against group might have less social clout or mobility because of social prejudice, regardless of occupation. Likewise, a woman might have more difficulty within a particular society because of gender-based discrimination, even though she comes from the same economic, social, and political background as her father and spouse.