Capital, Labour and the Middle Classes (RLE Social Theory)

John Urry, Nicholas Abercrombie

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781138782235
• eBook ISBN: 9781317652199
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

Most recent sociological work on the theory of class is based on a distinction between Weberian and Marxist approaches. For the first part of this volume, the authors use this distinction to review the literature on the middle class, concentrating particularly on the traditions of Marxist theory and of the more empirical work inspired by Max Weber. They show, however, that this distinction is of limited utility in reconstructing a theory of the middle class.

1 The Problem of the Middle Classes

DOI: 10.4324/9781315763743-1

In this book we shall consider how to analyse one of the most intractable issues in contemporary sociology: what is the class position of that class or classes which is or are in some sense intermediate between labour and capital? We shall survey most of the major recent contributions to such an analysis in the first part of the book; and in the second we shall discuss certain issues raised by this literature in further detail. We do not presume to solve all of these issues here but we do think that we make certain advances in three areas: first, in analysing the differentiation between what we will term the ‘service class’ and ‘deskilled white-collar workers’; secondly, in considering the crucial significance of knowledge, science and education for the constitution of such classes; and thirdly, in investigating some of the important social effects of the development of such classes in modern capitalism. Overall, we believe that classes are to be viewed as entities possessing causal powers and that sociological investigation has to examine the interdependence between these different social forces which possess such powers. We think that much class analysis, which involves the classification of individuals and groups, is relatively less important than analysing the forms of interdependence and struggle, both between classes and between other distinctive social forces-considering, in other words, the respective causal powers of the entities under investigation.

We shall also argue that there is something distinctive about the middle classes within contemporary capitalism and that it is therefore incorrect to treat the contemporary middle classes as direct descendants of the eighteenth- or nineteenth-century variants. Thus, when the Rev. Thomas Gisborne first employed the term in 1785 he used it to refer to the propertied and largely entrepreneurial class located between landowners on the one hand, and urban-industrial workers and agricultural labourers on the other, in a society undergoing transition (Bradley, 1975). Modern day uses of the ‘middle class’ vary considerably (see Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5 below), but in general the term refers to various ‘white-collar occupations’, from higher professionals to relatively routine clerical workers. The sociological issues have mainly revolved around the divisions between such groupings and the capitalist class, on the one hand, and the working class, on the other. In this introductory chapter, we shall, first, detail the main occupational changes that are involved within the sphere of ‘white-collar work’; secondly, we shall consider various issues which revolve around both the boundaries between classes, and the fragments within the middle classes; and thirdly, we shall summarise the two main theoretical frameworks involved in the investigation of such classes, the Weberian and the Marxist. We shall use the generic term ‘middle classes’ throughout much of this book, although in Part Two we shall in fact suggest that neither of the important ‘middle classes’ is strictly speaking ‘in the middle’, and only one is to be viewed as a ‘class’.

The Changing Composition of White-collar Occupations

The phenomenon that has provoked sociological interest in the middle classes has been the growth of white-collar occupations (see Table 1.1). The most noticeable shift in the period 1911–71 was the steep decline in classes 5–7 (manual workers) and the growth of foremen and the three white-collar categories-clerks, employers and managers, and professionals. Over the years 1911–71, classes 5–7 lost over 21 per cent of the total employed population, made up of 6.5 per cent to professionals, over 2 per cent to managers and employers, 9 per cent to clerks, and over 2.5 per cent to foremen. The white-collar categories themselves did not all gain equally. The higher professional group more than tripled in size, managers rather more than doubled, while the size of the employer group declined. The rate of growth of white-collar occupations also varied over time. The growth in the clerical grade, for example, was at its highest in the years 1911–21, while the higher professional category increased most quickly between 1951 and 1971 (see Routh, 1980, p. 8).

Table 1.1 Occupational Class of the Gainfully Employed Population in Great Britain (%)

		All					Men					Women
		1911	1921	1931	1951	1971	1911	1921	1931	1951	1971	1911	1921	1931	1951	1971
1	Professional
	A Higher	1.00	1.01	1.14	1.93	3.29	1.34	1.36	1.50	2.56	4.87	0.20	0.18	0.29	0.52	0.55
	B Lower	3.05	3.52	3.46	4.70	7.78	1.61	2.02	2.03	3.16	5.95	6.49	7.07	6.83	8.18	10.95
2	Employers and Managers A Employers
	A Employers	6.71	6.82	6.70	4.97	4.22	7.74	7.69	7.65	5.74	5.07	4.28	4.74	4.44	3.22	2.75
	B Managers	3.43	3.64	3.66	5.53	8.21	3.91	4.28	4.54	6.78	10.91	2.30	2.11	1.60	2.73	3.51
3	Clerical
	Workers	4.84	6.72	6.97	10.68	13.90	5.48	5.40	5.53	6.35	6.38	3.30	9.90	10.34	20.41	27.00
4	Foremen	1.29	1.44	1.54	2.62	3.87	1.75	1.91	2.00	3.28	5.04	0.18	0.32	0.45	1.14	1.84
5–7	Manual
	Workers	79.67	76.85	76.53	69.58	58.23	78.17	77.32	76.73	72.12	61.79	83.25	75.68	76.05	63.81	53.40
Source: Adapted from Routh, 1980, table 1.1; Register General’s categories.

For both men and women there was a shift out of manual work into white-collar occupations. However, the movement out of manual work was greater for women (30 per cent) than for men (16 per cent). Significantly, for women, clerical work was disproportionately the recipient of the outflow from manual work; indeed...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• 1 The Problem of the Middle Classes
• Part One Contrasting Approaches to the Middle Classes
• Part Two Towards a Theory of the Middle Class
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index