class namespace scope

class_scope.py

a = 'global'

class Fred:
    a = 'class'
    b = (a for i in range(10))
    c = [a for i in range(10)]
    d = a
    e = lambda: a
    f = lambda a=a: a
    
    @staticmethod
    def g():
        return a

print(Fred.a)  # class
print(next(Fred.b))  # global
print(Fred.c[0])  # class in Python 2, global in Python 3
print(Fred.d)  # class
print(Fred.e())  # global
print(Fred.f())  # class
print(Fred.g())  # global

Discussed on sopython: http://chat.stackoverflow.com/transcript/message/31960971#31960971
Explanation on python-dev found here: http://chat.stackoverflow.com/transcript/message/31961453#31961453
https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2009-February/086288.html

The results should be less surprising the further down you go. Comprehensions are the most surprising, but they're basically implemented as functions. Lambdas are functions, and by the time you get to the static (or class, or instance) method this should look completly normal. Functions / methods don't use the class namespace for name lookup.

A comprehensive explanation: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13905741/accessing-class-variables-from-a-list-comprehension-in-the-class-definition/13913933#13913933