The book presents findings and analysis from six years of research on class structure and class identity in Soweto, South Africa’s most populous and politically-important township. This is placed within the context of heightened socio-economic inequalities in nearly all countries around the world.

The authors looked at a number of areas. How do Sowetans understand class and how do they locate themselves and each other within the broad divisions of class outline? What are the markers and indicators that influence their perceptions of class and does the terminology of class affect these perceptions through dilution into indigenous languages. Setting out class structure and class identity, with its extremes of unemployment, strike action and ongoing insurrectionary unrest among the urban poor, the book draws on a large, wide-ranging representative survey and extensive qualitative fieldwork. It makes an original contribution to the sociology of class and to the politics of contemporary South Africa.