Changing forms of economy and class

Dealing adequately with themes as fundamental as economy and class takes incredibly systematic theoretical work. This complexity is compounded when adding in issues of changing historical context, contemporary social consequence and intersecting ontological formations "” issues that writers associated with Arena have over the last fifty years sought to think through with considerable intensity. With these demands, adequately theorizing economy and class becomes a massive task. It needs to draw upon different disciplines, from anthropology and cultural theory to political economy, eco - nomic history and contemporary financial analysis. More than that, as I will argue, understanding basic themes such as economy and class requires a generalizing theory of the social. Unfortunately, however, mainstream approaches to economy and class have turned either to acting as if economy and class no longer need theorizing, or to naturalizing the meaning of both terms as simple empirical descriptors "” though for apparently very different reasons in relation to each of these themes.