class capacity

class capacity

the organizational and cultural resources which are at the disposal of a CLASS. For example, a relative decline in WORKING-CLASS capacity over the last two decades can be explained not only in terms of declining numbers, but also in terms of an undermining of its organizational bases and communications networks with the decline of heavy industry and large factories and with the breakup of traditional working-class communities, etc. See also CLASS FORMATION.

Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2000