THE WORKING CLASSwww.educationforum.co.uk

LIFE CHANCES AND CULTURE

Low wages, less job security, harsher conditions, less autonomy, poorer life chances, lower life expectancy.

Some sociologists e.g. Lockwood suggest that such an experience creates a distinctive working class sub culture (norms + values) in opposition to societal norms and values

Lockwood called this sub culture ‘proletarian traditionalism’

FEATURES OF PROLETARIAN TRADITIONALISM

1. Belief in collectivism not individualism2. Living for the moment – unable to defer

gratification3. Fatalism (attitude to life)4. Class loyalty and strong trade union

identification – see class and politics as ‘them and us’

5. Collective leisure activities – work and leisure very distinct

6. Patriarchical family structures – segregated conjugal roles – male head of household

A sub culture in direct opposition to middle class aspirational individualism

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE WORKING CLASS IN THE LAST 40 YEARS?

Global economic change has seen western countries deindustrilaise – loss of primary and secondary industries – loss of traditional working class jobs

45% decrease in manual jobs 45% increase in service sector jobsTraditional working class under threat – some

have fallen off the hierarchy altogether and become ‘underclass’ others have moved into the service sector and achieved some social mobility

EMBOURGEIOSEMENT

Put forward by Right wing theorists in the 1950’s as an explanation for changes in working class – Zweig, Kerr, Bernard

Claimed that the new workers in service sector were actually ‘bourgeois’ – middle class in values and attitudeds as well as income

Britain was becoming a nations of aspirational individualists – collectivist and socialist ideas were either dying or dead

AFFLUENT WORKER THESIS Two Weberians Goldthorpe and Lockwood attempted to test the

embourgeiosement theory in a study of semi skilled workers in Luton in the 1960’s

They concluded:1. New workers had higher wages than traditional working class2. Still had inferior conditions and market situation compared to

middle class3. Were less likely to identify with trade unions but still had a

collectivist attitude4. Their collectivism was instrumental rather than solidaristic – they

believed in taking collective action to improve their pay and conditions rather than out of belief or principle

5. Affluent workers leisure had become privatised and home centred6. They still voted labour but instrumentally rather than out of

principled commitmentGo;dthorpe and Lockwood claimed there was a new ‘privatised and

instrumentalist’ working class in the stratification system located between the traditional working class and the middle class

MORE RECENT STUDIES

Devine returned to Luton in the 1990’s to examine what had happened to the ‘affluent workers’

Reached similar conclusions to Goldthorpe and Lockwood but noted that some of these affluent workers were now voting Conservative

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON WORKING CLASS: MARXISM

Early Marxism predicted an increasingly conscious working class. Workers ‘immiserised’ by the profit system – longer hours, harsher conditions, low pay would eventually force the working class to ‘wake up’ to or become conscious of their position within capitalism

They would start with violence and protest but eventually become aware of the need to be political active and revolutionary

Objective class consciousness would result in a Revolution to abolish capitalism and replace it with communism

WEBERIANS (GOLDTHORPE AND LOCKWOOD)

Divisions within working class limits the nature and extent of class consciousness

Affluent worker studies show traditional working class values either in decline or changing

Working class as a whole is divided and disempowered

NEO MARXIST (GRAMSCI, ALTHUSSER, BLACKBURN AND MANN

Working class still exploited and capable of flashes of consciousness BUT shows inconsistencies and contradictions in their views because of the ideological power of the bourgeoisie.

Mass media, religion, education combine to confuse and undermine class consciousness

Severe exploitation has been exported to developing countries by global capitalism – working class is globally divided

THE UNDERCLASS New Right theorists produced a cultural theory to explain

the phenomenon of the underclass Charles Murray – the ‘underclass’ is defined by its own

behaviours and choices1. Never employed and doesn’t want to work2. Dependent on benefits undermines functionality of

stratification system by getting ‘something for nothing’3. Criminal and deviant4. Rejects societies values/norms5. Dysfunctional – socialises new generation into its own

values6. Single parent and highly dysfunctional householdsThe NR see the solution to the underclass to be – reducing

benefits, ‘making work pay’ reducing the role of the State to reduce dependency

CRITICISMS

Structuralists like Marxists point out the structural causes of poverty and unemployment – lack of jobs not personal choice

Giddens identifies the economic causes of the underclass in the growth of a ‘secondary labour market’ of low skill, temp, short term ,casual, zero hours employment –employers use immigrants, women and illegal's because they are cheaper and more easily exploited

Marxists call the Underclass the ‘lumpenproletariat’ and claim it is functional for capitalism. A reserve army of workers can be called on at any time to break strikes or drive down wages