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The working class is a social class found predominantly in industrialised capitalist societies. While some writers dispute the existance of a working class, many sociologists, historians and political theorists make use of the concept in their academic writing. Due to the central role of the concept of the working class in Marxist, Anarchist and Socialist thought, there is a great deal of political interest in the precise definition of who the working class is. Key points of commonality amongst various ideas include the idea that there is one working class, even though it may be internally divided. The idea of one single working class should be contrasted with 18th century conceptions of many labouring classes.
Debate over meaning
Due to the political interest in the working class, debate has been raging over the nature of the working class since the early 19th century. Two broad schools of definitions emerge, those aligned with 20th century sociological stratum models of class society, and those aligned with the 19th century historical materialist economic models developed by Marxists and Anarchists.
Non-Marxist sociological definitions
The parameters which define working class depend on the schema used to define social class. For example, a simple stratum model of class might divide society into a simple hierarchy of lower class, middle class and upper class with working class not specifically designated. A more finely divided stratum model such as that of Paul Fussell breaks out three categories of blue-collar workers which he designates as "high prole" skilled blue-collar workers; "mid prole" workers in factories and the service industry; and "low Prole" manual laborers. He places office workers in the "middle class" and professionals in the "upper-middle class." At the lower end he places the homeless in a class he terms the "destitute." Identification of a person as a member of the working class is often based on the nature of the work performed (Blue collar/White collar) by the person, the income of the person, or the extent of formal education that the person has completed. However, studies of social class generally focus on other traits, such as the basis for the person's access to the means of production, or amount of control that the person has over his work environment.
Working class people are generally paid wages, usually on a weekly or monthly basis. In popular American political discourse, medium-income skilled laborers and tradesmen are termed "middle class" despite having minimal investment income.
Marxian definitions
Karl Marx defined the "working class" or proletariat as the multitude of individuals who sell their labor power for wages and do not own the means of production, and he believed them responsible for creating the wealth of a society. For example, the members of this class physically build bridges, craft furniture, and grow food, but do not themselves own the land or the factories. The proletariat are further subdivided by Marxists into the ordinary proletariat and the lumpenproletariat (rag-proletariat,) who are extremely poor and cannot find legal work on a regular basis. These may be prostitutes, beggars, or homeless people.
As Marxist definitions of class hinge around paid labour and lack of property, key issues in Marxist arguments about working class membership include:
- Temporary and permanent unemployment
- Domestic labour, particularly the children and spouses (historically wives) of workers who do not themselves work
- Ownership of personal property
- Ownership of housing
- Ownership of non-economically effective tools (tradesmen etc.)
- Self-employment
- The class position of students in society
- Workers who are also engaged in petit-bourgeois production, for example, part-time workers who also run a retail shop.
Views of the working class
Explanations for the situation of the working class have varied dramatically over the centuries and are still hotly contested. The main points of contention are what causes an individual to be a member of the working class, and what are the causes for the troubles faced by the working class.
In feudal Europe, and other pre-capitalist societies, the working class as such did not exist. Instead society conceived of those engaged in manual labour as labouring classes, a group which united different professions, trades and labours together. In Europe a lawyer, craftsman and unskilled peasant were all considered to be part of the same social unit, a "third estate" of non-nobles who were not church officials. Outside of Europe similar hierarchies existed. The social position of these labouring classes was viewed as natural and ordained by deities. This social position was contested, particularly by peasants, for example during the German Peasants War.
In the 18th century in Fladers and England more and more labourers subsisted only on the basis of their labour. They ceased to own tools, land or feudal privilges. Additionally, the dispossession of large numbers of peasants created wandering bands of vagabonds. These members of society were dispossed by the wealthy in order to produce marketable commodities. This process, where traditional social and political roles are destroyed, and capitalist commodity relations are substituted, is bound up with the generation of working classes across the world and is commonly known as proletariansation.
In the late 18th century European society was in a state of change, and this change could not be reconcilled with the idea of a changeless deity created social order. Wealthy members of these societies created ideologies which blamed many of the problems of working class people on the morals and ethics working class themselves. The wealthy pointed to excessive consumption of alcohol, what they saw as laziness, and failure to save money.
These processes were identified in English history by E.P. Thompson in his book The Making of the English Working Class Thompson argues that the English working class was present at its own creation, and seeks to describe the transformation of pre-modern labouring classes into a modern, politically self-conscious, working class.
See also
Trade union, Social class, Underclass, Middle class, Upper class, Blue collar, White collar, Illegal immigrant, Minimum wage, Living wage, Wage slavery, Proletariat, Bourgeoisie, Ruling class, Unfree labour, Globalisation
External links
Further reading
- Moran, W. (2002). Belles of New England: The women of the textile mills and the families whose wealth they wove. New York: St Martin's Press, ISBN 0312301839.
- Michael Zweig, Working Class Majority: America's Best Kept Secret, Cornell University Press (2001), trade paperback, 198 pages, ISBN 0801487277
- Thompson, E.P, The Making of the English Working Class - paperback Penguin, ISBN 0140136037
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