社会阶级(class, social)
在同一社会中拥有相同社会经济地位的人群。该术语随着18世纪晚期的工业和政治革命而在19世纪初期得到广泛应用。关於阶级的最具影响力的早期理论是马克思的理论，他集中讨论了一个阶级如何控制和指导生产过程，而别的阶级则作为统治阶级的直接生产者和服务的提供者存在的理论。在这一理论指导下，阶级之间的关系被视为对抗性的。而韦伯（M. Weber）则强调保持阶级差别以保障政治权力、社会地位和阶级声望的重要性。尽管阶级理论存在分歧，但对於阶级在现代资本主义社会中的特点却有基本一致的观点。上层阶级因拥有大量的继承遗产（在美国，30%以上的财富集中在1%的财产拥有者手中，而2/3以上的财富集中在5%的人口手中）而与别的阶级相区别。工人阶级主要由手工劳动者和饮食、服务业的工人组成，他们只挣取中等或少量的工资，极少有机会继承财产。中产阶级则包括中等及上等执事人员，主要有技术和专业人员、管理人员、经理和自由职业者（如小型商店主、商人和农场主等）。下层阶级则包括长期处於失业状态、居住在城市周边的工人。参阅bourgeoisie。
English version：
class, social
Group of people within a society who possess the same socioeconomic status. The term was first widely used in the early 19th century, following the industrial and political revolutions of the late 18th century. The most influential early theory of class was that of Karl Marx, who focused on how one class controls and directs the process of production while other classes are the direct producers and the providers of services to the dominant class. The relations between the classes were thus seen as antagonistic. Max Weber emphasized the importance of political power and social status or prestige in maintaining class distinctions. Despite controversies over the theory of class, there is general agreement on the characteristics of the classes in modern capitalist societies. The upper class is distinguished above all by the possession of largely inherited wealth (in the U.S., more than 30% of all wealth is concentrated in the hands of the top 1% of property owners, and nearly two-thirds in the top 5%). The working class consists mostly of manual laborers and food- and service-industry workers who earn moderate or low wages and have little or no access to inherited wealth. The middle class includes the middle and upper levels of clerical workers, those engaged in technical and professional occupations, supervisors and managers, and such self-employed workers as small-scale shopkeepers, businesspeople, and farmers. There is also often an urban substratum of permanently jobless and underemployed workers termed the underclass. See also bourgeoisie.