{{Short description|Society in which no one is born into a social class}} {{Redirect|Classlessness|Internet routing in which class distinctions are ignored|Classless Inter-Domain Routing}}

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A '''classless society''' is a society in which no one is born into a social class like in a class society. Distinctions of wealth, income, education, culture, or social network might arise and would only be determined by individual experience and achievement in such a society. Thus, the concept posits not the absence of a social hierarchy but the uninheritability of class status. Helen Codere defines social class as a segment of the community, the members of which show a common social position in a hierarchical ranking.<ref name="rankwithoutclass">Codere, H. (1957). Kwakiutl Society: Rank without Class. ''American Anthropologist'', ''59''(3), 473–486. {{JSTOR|665913}}</ref> Codere suggests that a true class-organized society is one in which the hierarchy of prestige and social status is divisible into groups. Each group with its own social, economic, attitudinal and cultural characteristics, and each having differential degrees of power in community decision.<ref name="rankwithoutclass"/>

== Classlessness == The term '''classlessness''' has been used to describe different social phenomena.{{citation needed|date=January 2026}}

In societies where classes have been abolished, it is usually the result of a voluntary decision by the membership to form such a society to abolish a pre-existing class structure in an existing society or to form a new one without any. This would include communes of the modern period such as various American utopian communities or the kibbutzim as well as revolutionary and political acts at the nation-state level such as the Paris Commune or the Russian Revolution. The abolition of social classes and the establishment of a classless society is the primary goal of anarchism, communism and libertarian socialism.{{citation needed|date=January 2026}}

According to Ulrich Beck, classlessness is achieved with class struggle: "It is the collective success with class struggle which institutionalizes individualization and dissolves the culture of classes, even under conditions of radicalizing inequalities".<ref name="reframing">Beck, U. (2007). Beyond class and nation: Reframing social inequalities in a globalizing world. ''The British Journal of Sociology'', 58(4), 679-705. {{doi|10.1111/j.1468-4446.2007.00171.x}}</ref>{{failed verification|reason=Cited source never verifiably discusses classlessness nor the concept of a classless society.|date=January 2026}} Essentially, classlessness will exist when the inequalities and injustice outweighs societies’ idea of the need for social ranking and hierarchy.{{citation needed|date=January 2026}}

While Rolf Becker and Andreas Hadjar argue that class identity has weakened, in that "class position no longer generates a deep sense of identity and belonging",<ref name=individuals>Becker, R. and Hadjar, A. (2013), “Individualisation” and class structure: how individual lives are still affected by social inequalities. International Social Science Journal, 64: 211–223. {{doi|10.1111/issj.12044}}</ref>{{failed verification|reason=Cited source never verifiably discusses classlessness nor the concept of a classless society.|date=January 2026}} others maintain that class continues to affect lives, such as how children's success in education correlates with their parents' wealth.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/jan/10/will-hutton-class-unfair-society Of course class still matters – it influences everything that we do], Will Hutton, ''The Guardian'', January 10, 2010</ref>{{failed verification|reason=Cited source never verifiably discusses classlessness nor the concept of a classless society.|date=January 2026}}

== See also == {{div col|colwidth=15em}} * Bourgeoisie * Communist revolution * Communist society * Corporate power * Equality of outcome * False consciousness * Middle class * New class * Proletariat * Social equality * Social organization * Social status * Socialism * Stateless communism * Working class {{div col end}}

== References == {{Reflist}}

== Bibliography == *{{cite book|last=Beynon|first=Huw|year=2014|chapter=A classless society?|editor-first1=Huw|editor-last1=Beynon|editor-first2=Pandeli|editor-last2=Glavanis|title=Patterns of Social Inequality|publisher=Routledge|pp=36-53|isbn=9781315841854|doi=10.4324/9781315841854-4}} *{{cite book|editor-last=Devine|editor-first=Fiona|year=1997|title=Towards a classless society?|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9780203976838|doi=10.4324/9780203976838-17}} *{{cite book|last=Kingston|first=Paul W.|year=2000|title=The Classless Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GHOXA1pmY4YC|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=0804738041}}

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Category:Ideologies Category:Marxist theory Category:Social classes Category:Social systems