The New Left Review Project - February 20, 2014
In a recent Guardian article,
Paul Mason discusses the rapid growth of a global ‘new middle class’ of
educated, skilled and mostly non-manual workers as a result of
globalisation. He argues that while rising incomes have lifted them out
of desperate poverty, they now fight on issues such as corruption,
democracy, urban infrastructure and healthcare.
The article was informative and refreshing in many ways, especially in
situating the question of class globally rather than nationally, and in
taking account of the universal shift from manual to non-manual work.
But it also revealed the continuing confusion that bedevils public
discussion about class – both here and in the rising economies of the
global south. In particular, what do we mean when we speak of the middle
class, ‘old’ or ‘new’, or indeed the plural ‘middle classes’? And if
their defining characteristic is ‘middle’, what lies above and below
them?
In most discussion, whether in mainstream academia or in the media –
‘classes’ are seen as separate groupings, based on a shifting amalgam of
occupation, income, status and lifestyle. Usually these classes are
understood to be arranged in a hierarchy. Social mobility is often a
major concern, and it is measured by looking at how many people move
upwards (or indeed downwards) from one such designated class to another.
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