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In social stratification research, the most frequently used social class schema are based on employment relations (EGP and ESEC). These schemes have been propelled to paradigms for research on social mobility and educational inequalities and applied in cross-national research for both genders. Using the European Working Conditions Survey, we examine their criterion and construct validity across 31 countries and for both genders. We investigate whether classes are welldelineated by the theoretically assumed dimensions of employment relations and we assess how several measures of occupational advantage differ across classes. We find broad similarity in the criterion validity of EGP and ESEC across genders and countries as well as satisfactory levels of construct validity. However, the salariat classes are too heterogeneous and their boundaries with the intermediate classes are blurred. To improve the measurement of social class, we propose to differentiate managerial and professional occupations within the lower and higher salariat respectively. We show that implementing these distinctions in ESEC and EGP improves their criterion validity and allows to better identify privileged positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commentaries introduce some important challenges to our provocation, and in other ways, take our critique even further and in new directions. Rather than addressing each commentary sequentially, we structure our response to the commentaries around a few key critical themes that emerged across the group. These are: a) The need to retain post-industrialism as a conceptual framework for understanding urban processes, spaces, lives and change; b) for also differentiating between de-industrialisation and post-industrialisation; and c) for carefully deconstructing (and listening to) who, how, and why post-industrialism is used (i.e., whose voices, stories, histories are included or excluded? What political intentions lie behind the use of post-industrial and related terms such as 'left-behind?'), with specific attention to the structures and experiences of race, class, and gender. In other words, the focus needs to be on the discursive and symbolic power, politics, and cultural sensitivities when the notion of post-industrialism is evoked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By deconstructing the human–machine interface across China's economic history, this commentary on Luger and Schwarze's paper highlights the critical need to explore gender dynamics in post-industrial cities through the human–machine interface. We suggest two new concepts, subjectivity and deep interface, which may offer a way forward for us to move deeper into post-industrial cities for a more intricate understanding of the enduring inequalities shaping these urban landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses articles in the issue by relating them to the Battle of Orgreave in South Yorkshire, England in 1984 and its impact on the village's industrial history. He describes the history of the conflict between members of the National Union of Mineworkers and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's government. He examines the points raised in the articles on theorising cities that are no longer industrial or defined by an industrial past and on understanding democracy through the city.

This commentary provides a sympathetic critique to Luger and Schwartz's contention that the concept of 'post-industrial' lacks continued utility in a world of urban (and regional) change. Drawing on the authors' use of stigma and narrative, I argue the post-industrial concept remains relevant, though scholars must attend to who is mobilizing the concept, and to what ends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Luger and Schwarze's critical unsettling of postindustrial is a presciently welcome one. For some years now, I—and others—have become increasingly uncomfortable with referring to and describing the locations of our research as "postindustrial." The main focus of this commentary is on the facets of Luger and Schwarze's (2024) arguments as they relate to nonmetropolitan deindustrializing urbanisms in the North Atlantic in an attempt to develop how we better conceptualize, understand and do justice to and with such spaces. The main thrust of the contribution is for the affective intensities and traumas of deindustrialization to be brought into closer analytical dialog with the profusion of processes associated with, in particular, "organized abandonment" and "neoliberal urbanism." If classed experiences and knowledge shape these dialogs, there remains hope for urban studies to contribute to an emergent multiethnic class politics around commonalities of contemporary as well as historical class violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this response to Luger and Schwarze I concur that the meaning and application of the "post-industrial" is imprecise. In particular, I argue that current manifestations of the concept background the role of racism at generating the landscapes often solely attributed to deindustrialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on an article on the value of the post-industrial concept for urban studies. He discusses the significance of a careful conceptualisation of post-industrial and the distinctions between related concepts, as well as the importance of the objects of study in examining critiques of post-industrialism in relation to gender and race and other structuring forces. He explores key arguments that can be taken from deindustrialisation to further refine the post-industrial concept.

In this forum paper, we question the lasting utility of the framework and language of urban post-industrialism. We suggest that, while such conceptual metaphors are useful to understand economic, social and cultural change at specific times, post-industrial may obscure more nuanced explorations of the realities of today's multi-faceted, planetary, and digitally-mediated urban processes and socio-spatialities. Post-industrial speaks primarily to dramatic and violent changes that happened in the twentieth century, and continue to happen today, but, we suggest, the story is more complex. Specifically, we bring forward a few critiques of the post-industrial, that a revitalized agenda might begin to move beyond. Firstly, is that industrialisation is always-ongoing, and not something that can be fixed into place. Where it is absent, it continues to haunt. Second, is that over-use of post-industrial as a descriptor and critical lens can lead to territorial, class, racial/ethnic, political, and world-regional stigmatizations. In particular, it can reinforce colonialist hierarchies of prototype Northern/Western cities versus those in the majority world, and certain assumptions about linearity and path dependencies about industrial trajectories. Thirdly, we suggest post-industrial frameworks can calcify gender binaries and obscure counterhegemonies and fluidities, especially given the realities of global urban industrial labour today. Finally, we propose that moving beyond the post-industrial might open more radical space for vibrant art and politics, from cross-spectrum alliances and solidarities (like revitalized labour movements), to joyful artistic expression that transcends rust, decay, and ruin. We do not propose throwing away post-industrialism, but rather, to invite other possibilities to coexist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gijs Mom's book, Pacific Automobilism, fills a void in the field of transport and mobility history by focusing on the regions beyond the Pacific. The book explores the car as an "adventure machine" and examines its significance in different societies, including the American fascination with cars and the rise of car usage in China and India. Mom's book is divided into two parts, tracing the historical development of the car and society from 1970 to the 1990s and exploring the impact of car culture in the Asia-Pacific region. The book provides a comprehensive account of mobility history and offers a mix of theoretical frameworks and archival research. While the book's length may be challenging, it presents a fascinating and exciting read for those interested in the history of automobilism. [Extracted from the article]