Working class

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Construction workers, commonly regarded as working class, at work at St. Paul's Hospital Cardiac center in Ethiopia, 2017 Woman working at ongoing construction of St. Paul's Hospital Cardiac center, Ethiopia 18.jpg
Construction workers, commonly regarded as working class, at work at St. Paul's Hospital Cardiac center in Ethiopia, 2017

The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. [1] [2] Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most common definitions of "working class" in use in the United States limit its membership to workers who hold blue-collar and pink-collar jobs, or whose income is insufficiently high to place them in the middle class, or both. However, socialists define "working class" to include all workers who fall into this category; thus, this definition can include almost all of the working population of industrialized economies.

Contents

Definitions

As with many terms describing social class, working class is defined and used in different ways. One definition used by many socialists [ citation needed ] is that the working class includes all those who have nothing to sell but their labour, a group otherwise referred to as the proletariat. In this sense, the working class includes white and blue-collar workers, manual and menial workers of all types, excluding individuals who derive their livelihood from business ownership or the labour of others. [3] [ verification needed ] The term, which is primarily used to evoke images of laborers suffering "class disadvantage in spite of their individual effort", can also have racial connotations, applying diverse themes of poverty and implications about whether one is deserving of aid. [4]

In other contexts the term working class refers to a section of society dependent on physical labour, especially when compensated with an hourly wage (for certain types of science, as well as journalistic or political analysis). Working-class occupations can be categorized into four groups: unskilled labourers, artisans, outworkers, and factory workers. [5] [ page needed ]

Common alternative definitions of Working Class include definition by income level, [6] whereby the working class is contrasted with a middle class on the basis of access to economic resources, education, cultural interests, and other goods and services, and the "white working class" has been "loosely defined" by the New York Times as comprising white people without college degrees. [7]

Researchers in Australia have suggested that working class status should be defined subjectively as a self-identification with the working class group. [8] This subjective approach allows individuals, rather than researchers, to define their own "subjective" and "perceived" social class.

Marxist definition: the proletariat

Striking teamsters battling police on the streets of Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 1934 Battle strike 1934.jpg
Striking teamsters battling police on the streets of Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 1934

Karl Marx defined the working class or proletariat as those individuals who sell their labour power for wages and who do not own the means of production. He argued that they were responsible for creating the wealth of a society, asserting that the working class physically build bridges, craft furniture, grow food, and nurse children, but do not own land or factories. [9]

A sub-section of the proletariat, the lumpenproletariat (rag-proletariat), are the extremely poor and unemployed, such as day labourers and homeless people. Marx considered them to be devoid of class consciousness.

Communist conception of class society in 1900--1901. The drawing was based on a leaflet of the "Union of Russian Socialists". Pyramid of Capitalist System.jpg
Communist conception of class society in 1900—1901. The drawing was based on a leaflet of the "Union of Russian Socialists".

In Marxist terms wage labourers and those dependent on the welfare state are working class, and those who live on accumulated capital are not, and this broad dichotomy defines the class struggle. In The Communist Manifesto , Marx and Friedrich Engels argue that it is the destiny of the working class to displace the capitalist system, with the dictatorship of the proletariat (as opposed to the "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie") abolishing the social relationships underpinning the class system before then developing into a communist society in which "the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all."

History and growth

Working class life in Edwardian St Ives in Cornwall, England, 1906 Victorian Bishopgate.jpg
Working class life in Edwardian St Ives in Cornwall, England, 1906

In feudal Europe, the working class as such did not exist in large numbers. Instead, most people were part of the labouring class, a group made up of different professions, trades and occupations. A lawyer, craftsman and peasant were all considered to be part of the same social unit, a third estate of people who were neither aristocrats nor church officials. Similar hierarchies existed outside Europe in other pre-industrial societies. The social position of these labouring classes was viewed as ordained by natural law and common religious belief. This social position was contested, particularly by peasants, for example during the German Peasants' War. [10]

In the late 18th century, under the influence of the Enlightenment, European society was in a state of change, and this change could not be reconciled with the idea of a changeless God-created social order. Wealthy members of these societies created ideologies which blamed many of the problems of working-class people on their morals and ethics (i.e. excessive consumption of alcohol, perceived laziness and inability to save money). In The Making of the English Working Class , E. P. 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. [11] [ verification needed ] [12]

Starting around 1917, a number of countries became ruled ostensibly in the interests of the working class (see Soviet working class). Some historians have noted that a key change in these Soviet-style societies has been a massive a new type of proletarianization, often effected by the administratively achieved forced displacement of peasants and rural workers. Since then, four major industrial states have turned towards semi-market-based governance (China, Laos, Vietnam, Cuba), and one state has turned inwards into an increasing cycle of poverty and brutalization (North Korea). Other states of this sort have collapsed (such as the Soviet Union). [13]

Since 1960, large-scale proletarianization and enclosure of commons has occurred in the third world, generating new working classes. Additionally, countries such as India have been slowly undergoing social change, expanding the size of the urban working class. [14] [ page needed ]


Informal working class

Ragpicker in Delhi, India Floating rag picker (1803617563).jpg
Ragpicker in Delhi, India

The informal working class is a sociological term coined by Mike Davis for a class of over a billion predominantly young urban people who are in no way formally connected to the global economy and who try to survive primarily in slums. According to Davis, this class no longer corresponds to the socio-theoretical concepts of a class, from Marx, Max Weber or the theory of modernization. Thereafter, this class developed worldwide from the 1960s, especially in the southern hemisphere. In contrast to previous notions of a class of the lumpen proletariat or the notions of a "slum of hope" from the 1920s and 1930s, members of this class are given hardly any chances of attaining membership of the formal economic structures. [15] [16]

Higher education

Diane Reay stresses the challenges that working-class students can face during the transition to and within higher education, and research intensive universities in particular. One factor can be the university community being perceived as a predominately middle-class social space, creating a sense of otherness due to class differences in social norms and knowledge of navigating academia. [17]

Laborer

This section is an excerpt from Laborer.[ edit ]
Laborer at work in a factory 201107120-RD-LSC-0067 - Flickr - USDAgov.jpg
Laborer at work in a factory
A laborer (or labourer) is a skilled trade, a person who works in manual labor types, especially in the construction and factory industries. Laborers are in a working class of wage-earners in which their only possession of significant material value is their labor. Industries employing laborers include building things such as roads, road paving, buildings, bridges, tunnels, pipelines civil and industrial, and railway tracks. Laborers work with blasting tools, hand tools, power tools, air tools, and small heavy equipment, and act as assistants to other trades as well [18] such as operators or cement masons. The 1st century BC engineer Vitruvius writes that a good crew of laborers is just as valuable as any other aspect of construction. Other than the addition of pneumatics, laborer practices have changed little. With the introduction of field technologies, the laborers have been quick to adapt to the use of this technology as being laborers' workforce.

See also

Working classes in different countries

Related Research Articles

Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy as a whole or certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in society whom its adherents perceive as disadvantaged relative to others as well as a belief that there are unjustified inequalities that need to be reduced or abolished through radical means that change the nature of the society they are implemented in. According to emeritus professor of economics Barry Clark, supporters of left-wing politics "claim that human development flourishes when individuals engage in cooperative, mutually respectful relations that can thrive only when excessive differences in status, power, and wealth are eliminated."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social class</span> Hierarchical stratification of societies

A social class or social stratum is a grouping of people into a set of hierarchical social categories, the most common being the working class, middle class, and upper class. Membership of a social class can for example be dependent on education, wealth, occupation, income, and belonging to a particular subculture or social network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Means of production</span> Inputs used in the production of goods and services with economic value

In political philosophy, the means of production refers to the generally necessary assets and resources that enable a society to engage in production. While the exact resources encompassed in the term may vary, it is widely agreed to include the classical factors of production as well as the general infrastructure and capital goods necessary to reproduce stable levels of productivity. It can also be used as an abbreviation of the "means of production and distribution" which additionally includes the logistical distribution and delivery of products, generally through distributors; or as an abbreviation of the "means of production, distribution, and exchange" which further includes the exchange of distributed products, generally to consumers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wage slavery</span> Dependence on wages or salary

Wage slavery is a term used to criticize exploitation of labor by business, by keeping wages low or stagnant in order to maximize profits. The situation of wage slavery can be loosely defined as a person's dependence on wages for their livelihood, especially when wages are low, treatment and conditions are poor, and there are few chances of upward mobility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marx's theory of alienation</span> Social theory claiming that capitalism alienates workers from their humanity

Karl Marx's theory of alienation describes the estrangement of people from aspects of their human nature as a consequence of the division of labour and living in a society of stratified social classes. The alienation from the self is a consequence of being a mechanistic part of a social class, the condition of which estranges a person from their humanity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wage labour</span> Relationship where a worker sells labour to an employer

Wage labour, usually referred to as paid work, paid employment, or paid labour, refers to the socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer in which the worker sells their labour power under a formal or informal employment contract. These transactions usually occur in a labour market where wages or salaries are market-determined.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marxism</span> Economic and sociopolitical worldview

Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, and social transformation. Marxism originates with the works of 19th-century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism has developed over time into various branches and schools of thought, and as a result, there is no single, definitive Marxist theory. Marxism has had a profound effect in shaping the modern world, with various left-wing and far-left political movements taking inspiration from it in varying local contexts.

In Marxism, proletarianization is the social process whereby people move from being either an employer, unemployed or self-employed, to being employed as wage labor by an employer.

Reserve army of labour is a concept in Karl Marx's critique of political economy. It refers to the unemployed and underemployed in capitalist society. It is synonymous with "industrial reserve army" or "relative surplus population", except that the unemployed can be defined as those actually looking for work and that the relative surplus population also includes people unable to work. The use of the word "army" refers to the workers being conscripted and regimented in the workplace in a hierarchy under the command or authority of the owners of capital.

"Wage Labour and Capital" was an 1847 lecture by the critic of political economy and philosopher Karl Marx, first published as articles in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung in April 1849. It is widely considered the precursor to Marx’s influential treatise Das Kapital. It is commonly paired with Marx's 1865 lecture Value, Price and Profit. Previously, Marx had been studying political economy; evidence of this being his unpublished Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 and The Poverty of Philosophy in France in 1847.

Marxian class theory asserts that an individual's position within a class hierarchy is determined by their role in the production process, and argues that political and ideological consciousness is determined by class position. A class is those who share common economic interests, are conscious of those interests, and engage in collective action which advances those interests. Within Marxian class theory, the structure of the production process forms the basis of class construction.

In Marxism, class consciousness is the set of beliefs that persons hold regarding their social class or economic rank in society, the structure of their class, and their common class interests. According to Karl Marx, class consciousness is an awareness that is key to sparking a revolution which would "create a dictatorship of the proletariat, transforming it from a wage-earning, propertyless mass into the ruling class".

In Marxist theory, the Lumpenproletariat is the underclass devoid of class consciousness. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels coined the word in the 1840s and used it to refer to the unthinking lower strata of society exploited by reactionary and counter-revolutionary forces, particularly in the context of the revolutions of 1848. They dismissed the revolutionary potential of the Lumpenproletariat and contrasted it with the proletariat. Among other groups, criminals, vagabonds, and prostitutes are usually included in this category.

In Karl Marx's critique of political economy and subsequent Marxian analyses, the capitalist mode of production refers to the systems of organizing production and distribution within capitalist societies. Private money-making in various forms preceded the development of the capitalist mode of production as such. The capitalist mode of production proper, based on wage-labour and private ownership of the means of production and on industrial technology, began to grow rapidly in Western Europe from the Industrial Revolution, later extending to most of the world.

The socialist mode of production, also known as socialism or communism, is a specific historical phase of economic development and its corresponding set of social relations that emerge from capitalism in the schema of historical materialism within Marxist theory. The Marxist definition of socialism is that of production for use-value, therefore the law of value no longer directs economic activity. Marxist production for use is coordinated through conscious economic planning. According to Marx, distribution of products is based on the principle of "to each according to his needs"; Soviet models often distributed products based on the principle of "to each according to his contribution". The social relations of socialism are characterized by the proletariat effectively controlling the means of production, either through cooperative enterprises or by public ownership or private artisanal tools and self-management. Surplus value goes to the working class and hence society as a whole.

In Marxist philosophy, the dictatorship of the proletariat is a condition in which the proletariat, or working class, holds control over state power. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the transitional phase from a capitalist to a communist economy, whereby the post-revolutionary state seizes the means of production, mandates the implementation of direct elections on behalf of and within the confines of the ruling proletarian state party, and institutes elected delegates into representative workers' councils that nationalise ownership of the means of production from private to collective ownership. During this phase, the organizational structure of the party is to be largely determined by the need for it to govern firmly and wield state power to prevent counterrevolution, and to facilitate the transition to a lasting communist society.

The proletariat is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose possession of significant economic value is their labour power. A member of such a class is a proletarian or a proletaire. Marxist philosophy regards the proletariat under conditions of capitalism as an exploited class⁠ forced to accept meager wages in return for operating the means of production, which belong to the class of business owners, the bourgeoisie.

In Marxist theory, false consciousness is a term describing the ways in which material, ideological, and institutional processes are said to mislead members of the proletariat and other class actors within capitalist societies, concealing the exploitation and inequality intrinsic to the social relations between classes. As such, it legitimizes and normalizes the existence of different social classes.

"To each according to his contribution" is a principle of distribution considered to be one of the defining features of socialism. It refers to an arrangement whereby individual compensation is representative of one's contribution to the social product in terms of effort, labor and productivity. This is in contrast to the method of distribution and compensation in capitalism, an economic and political system in which property owners can receive income by virtue of ownership irrespective of their contribution to the social product.

A proletarian revolution or proletariat revolution is a social revolution in which the working class attempts to overthrow the bourgeoisie and change the previous political system. Proletarian revolutions are generally advocated by socialists, communists and anarchists.

References

  1. ↑ "Working Class". Cambridge Dictionary. Archived from the original on 25 April 2019. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  2. ↑ "working class". Oxford Dictionaries. Archived from the original on 16 July 2013. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
  3. ↑ McKibbin 2000, p. 164.
  4. ↑ Feingold, Jonathan (20 October 2020). ""All (Poor) Lives Matter": How Class-Not-Race Logic Reinscribes Race and Class Privilege". University of Chicago Law Review Online: 47. Archived from the original on 3 December 2020. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
  5. ↑ Doob 2013.
  6. ↑ Linkon 1999, p. 4.
  7. ↑ Edsall, Thomas B. (17 June 2012). "Canaries in the Coal Mine" . Campaign Stops. The New York Times . Archived from the original on 20 June 2022. Retrieved 18 June 2012.
  8. ↑ Rubin et al. 2014, p. 199.
  9. ↑ Lebowitz 2016, pp. 14–15.
  10. ↑ Abendroth 1973, pp. 11–12.
  11. ↑ Abendroth 1973.
  12. ↑ "Thompson: The Making of the English Working Class — Faculty of History". www.hist.cam.ac.uk. Cambridge University. Archived from the original on 13 March 2020. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  13. ↑ Kuromiya 1990, p. 87.
  14. ↑ Gutkind 1988.
  15. ↑ Davis, Mike (2007). Planet der Slums[Planet of the slums] (in German). Berlin: Assoziation A. p. 183.
  16. ↑ Davis, Mike (27 August 2007). "Planet der Slums – Urbanisierung ohne Urbanität" [Planet of the Slums - Urbanization without urbanity]. Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik  [ de ] (in German). Archived from the original on 9 October 2015.
  17. ↑ Reay, Diane (2021). "The working classes and higher education: Meritocratic fallacies of upward mobility in the United Kingdom". European Journal of Education . 56 (1): 53–64. doi: 10.1111/ejed.12438 . ISSN   1465-3435. S2CID   234081023.
  18. ↑ "Occupational Outlook Handbook, Construction Laborers and Helpers". U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 31 May 2008. Archived from the original on 1 March 2024.

Bibliography

Further reading


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