‘Winners’ and ‘Losers’ in Social Transformations

The language of ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ is frequently deployed in the discussion of social transformations, but such analyses are less straightforward than they seem. Disagreements exist about which groups might reasonably be designated as ‘winners’ and ‘losers’, what the criteria are for identifying a gain or a loss, what time frames are appropriate for the calculation of gains and losses, and what sort of relationship exists between ‘winners’ and ‘losers’. We argue that the language of ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ carries with it the danger of oversimplification of lines of social cleavage, particularly because of the difficulties to which it gives rise concerning the position of intermediate groups. Secondly, we suggest that it is crucial to set out the criteria by which gains and losses are to be identified if the designation of ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ is to be at all viable as an analytical framework. Thirdly, we argue that it is important to distinguish between short-term fluctuations and longer-term trends in the analysis of changing patterns of distribution. And fourthly we argue that judgements about the nature of the relation between ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ need to be made explicit. Monitoring the uneven effects of social transformations is a central task of contemporary sociology, and it is important that the analytical framework provided by the language of ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ is employed carefully in order to be able to capture the full complexity of these processes.