This paper sets out an alternative theory of the relationship between culture and class, arguing that such a theory must focus on the intrinsic connection of production to the symbolic order. The proposed approach is based on, and brings together, a critical reinterpretation of Marx, the analyses by Bourdieu and others on forms of capital, the growing body of research on the processes of political encompassment, and recent work in sociolinguistics on objectification. Focusing on ethnography in Spain, particularly the transformation of the Galician fishing communities, the paper reconceptualizes the role of labor in class formation in order to generate an alternative account of class identity.
