Knowledge, Identity and the Middle Class

From Collective to Individualised Class Formation

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3264516
AutoresBill Martins, Bill Martin (Flinders University, autor de correspondencia)
Año1998
Volumen46
Número4
Páginas653-686
Fecha de publicación1998-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0038-0261 • E-ISSN: 1467-954X
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/1467-954x.00135
OpenAlexW2032362451
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas19
Referencias citadas34

This paper highlights a number of strong indications of important changes in the work and labour market experiences of professionals and managers, the core of the 'new middle class' (nmc) in most contemporary class theories. Following an outline of some of these changes, it is argued that several central theoretical strategies shared by class theorists - notably a residual 'functional essentialism' and the choice of microfoundations - prevent them from adequately theorising these changes. The paper offers an alternative approach to theorising the contemporary nmc that avoids the reductionism of many existing approaches, and that is grounded in microfoundations focused on the relation of narratively constructed identities to social action. On this basis, an account of the contemporary emergence of a new segment of the nmc, the 'nmc bricoleur', is outlined, and its relation to empirical studies of the changing nmc is suggested. The paper concludes with some speculations about the likely future of Anglophone new middle classes

Class (philosophy) · Economics · Epistemology · Essentialism · Identity (music) · Microfoundations · Middle class · Political science · Positive economics · Reductionism · Relation (database) · Sociology · Computer Science · Gender Studies · Global Educational Policies and Reforms · Law · Political theory and Gramsci · Social and Cultural Dynamics