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Abstract
Social status is a concept dear to sociologists, although there exist various difficulties in dealing with it. It is quite clear that it has something to do with prestige and even with privilege, which may explain why in the camp of Marxist sociology the concept itself enjoys little esteem. It would, however, be much too simple to think this to be the whole story. Marxists apply a different concept, familiar to us all: that of class.In some respects, the two concepts exhibit common features, although it is an almost trivial range which is covered by them both.
It is not the intention of this contribution to elaborate the differences between the two concepts, but one aspect seems to bear on what follows, so it should be mentioned. Both concepts share an intrinsic methodological function: they chop up societies into chunks of people, drawing borderlines according to preestablished rules. But drawing borders can have consequences which are sometimes detrimental. Such consequences will be one of the main concerns of this paper, in which our emphasis will remain with the concept of status exclusively, for, as will become apparent, this is alone of ample complexity.