Erik Olin Wright (born 9 February 1947) is an American analytical Marxist sociologist, specializing in social stratification, and in egalitarian alternative futures to capitalism. He is noted for his divergence from classical Marxists in his breakdown of the working class into subgroups of diversely held power and therefore varying degrees of class consciousness. Wright has introduced novel concepts to adapt to this change of perspective including deep democracy and interstitial revolution.[6]