This paper maps one specific narrative in class analysis development in sociolinguistics. Focusing on language variation, it charts the progression from early survey studies, assuming that (macro-level) class structures determine linguistic behavior, to more recent approaches, proritising social practice and speaker agency, and showing that class meaning can turn into a resource for micro-level interactional and relational work. This narrative demonstrates that an apt sociolinguistic theory of language and social class needs to deal with language in use, and hence with a 'pragmatic perspective' (Verschueren, 1994). A fit analysis requires an integrated approach attending both to the regularities of social structure and the meanings made in local contexts of talk (Coupland, 2007).