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Social Bases of Class Consciousness: A Study of Southern Textile Workers with a Comparison by Race
Abstract
This paper is an empirical study of class consciousness among a random sample of textile workers in a small North Carolina
city. Following the theoretical-methodological assumption that one can profitably study working class consciousness during
relatively quiescent periods of capitalist development by examining its components, working class consciousness is operationalized
as the ordinal variable, “class conflict consciousness.” The social bases of class consciousness are investigated for the
sample as a whole and for subsamples divided according to race. Regression analysis identifies personal income, union membership,
race, and job dissatisfaction as significant predictors of class conflict consciousness. Comparative treatment of whites and
blacks reveals important differences, both in their degree of class conflict consciousness and their respective predictor
variables.
... The question of status and status divides likewise exists, both theoretically and empirically, in research dealing specifically with the labor movement. Research on historical labor mobilizations, and that pertaining to union membership more generally, has highlighted the tendency of not just workers but especially poor, low-status, and racial and ethnic minority workers to be the most fervent in terms of class-conscious attitudes, activism in organizing campaigns, and the unfolding of actual strike events (e.g., Letwin 1998;Roscigno and Kimble 1995;Zingraff and Schulman 1984). Status divisions among workers (be they race, gender, skill, occupation, etc.) and their relation to labor organization, development, and cohesion are, nevertheless, complex and often historically contingent (Baron 1991;Cornfield 1989;Goldfield 1997;Gordon, Edwards and Reich 1982). ...
... While occupational and skill divisions contribute to the complex and possibly fragmented nature of the working class, status divisions of race/ ethnicity and gender may also be important for understanding worker mobilization and strike campaigns. Race and gender represent meaningful background statuses in and of themselves, patterned within and outside the economic arena, with implications for mobilization generally and classbased action (Cornfield and Kim 1994;Zingraff and Schulman 1984). These status attributes and associated inequalities may be commensurate with worker grievances and, thus, can enhance the capacity to organize on a class basis. ...
... We see this as partially driven by lower relative status inside and outside the economic arena and, consequently, heightened material grievances. It is also likely that historical exclusion, persistent segregation, and a legacy of action through collective, informal political channels, especially for African-Americans and Hispanics in the United States, will play a role in fostering participation among what Oberschall (1993) calls "negatively privileged groups" (see also Tilly 1975;Zingraff and Schulman 1984). It is for these reasons that unions, at least in the contemporary era, have been more inclined to recruit and mobilize based on background statuses. ...
Individual participation has been at the core of much theorizing and research on social movements. Little of this attention, however, has focused on the labor movement and individual strike involvement. In this article, the authors extend the literature by employing rational choice and network perspectives on social movement participation and by analyzing strike mobilization in a recent action by the Communication Workers of America. The data are unique to social movement analyses as they include participants as well as nonparticipants, have significant heterogeneity across lines of status, and provide potentially influential individual background and network indicators. Findings show how race, income, and occupational distinctions are influential for strike behavior. Importantly, workers' networks at the point of production also impact strike involvement. The authors discuss the implications of these and related results for understanding worker insurgency and social movement participation more generally.
... The class experiences that shape consciousness are always organized socially; they are never simply that result of an unmediated encounter of an atomized individual with an "event." (Wright 1985: 251) Several scholars, namely Mann (1973), Zingraff and Schulman (1984) Wright (1978), and Wright (1985), have attempted to address this problem of measurement in understanding class consciousness. Mann strove to specify varying levels of class consciousness, which include: identifying oneself as a class member; perceiving opposition with other classes; understanding class as defining the totality of one's society; and having a vision of an alternative, classless society (Fantasia 1995: 272). ...
... Mann strove to specify varying levels of class consciousness, which include: identifying oneself as a class member; perceiving opposition with other classes; understanding class as defining the totality of one's society; and having a vision of an alternative, classless society (Fantasia 1995: 272). Zingraff and Schulman (1984) have identified four aspects of class identity: class identity (whether one considers oneself a member of the working class); class conflict verbalization (that ownership class interests are at odds with the interests of workers); attitudes toward class action (a pro-worker position during strikes); and attitudes toward egalitarian change (that a radically egalitarian production system is possible) (Jones 2001). Wright asked questions for purposes of adjudication of contending class definition. ...
This article examines primarily the social impacts of the 2001 economic crisis on small employers and workers and their evaluation of the crisis in Ankara, Turkey. Besides this basic aim, it also provides an overview of the macroeconomic policies that have been implemented since 1980 and discusses the results of these policies. The fieldwork for this study was carried out in selected sectors in Ankara from February to April, 2002.
... Researchers on consciousness claim it has a number of core components, including identifying with a position; verbalising discontent or paradox between your position and wider structures; providing support for action in the interests of your position; and developing a vision of an alternative egalitarian structure (Wright, 1985;Zingraff & Schulman, 1984). In feminist literature, these components of consciousness have been referred to as identification, discontent, withdrawal of legitimacy and collective orientation (Gurin, 1985). ...
This article explores affective formations of class consciousness. Through autoethnography and conversations and discussion sessions with working class women, the article contributes to a sociology of social class that recognises how people come to know their class positioning in spaces outside of waged relations. The article argues that affective relations and affective inequalities inform women's experiences and consciousness of inequality generated by the class system. Their consciousness of the class system is narrated through their care relational identities, discontent with affective inequalities generated by the class system and their attitudes and actions for social change. This implies an affective formation of class consciousness referred to as care consciousness. Care consciousness takes seriously what is refused legitimacy at a sociological and political level yet articulated privately by the women as they discuss experiences of the class system.
... But the gulf between such conceptions and received notions of psychological consciousness is too wide for some to bridge: "collectivities do not 'have' consciousness," argues Wright, "since they are not the kind of entities which have minds, which think" (1997: 193). Instead he deploys an attitudinal construct derived from Mann (1973) and similar to those used in other quantitative studies (Goldthorpe et al., 1969;Leggett, 1968;Zingraff and Schulman, 1984;Vallas, 1987aVallas, , 1987b). Mann's construct has four components: ...
Service work is seen by many to be less generative of working-class consciousness than non-interactive labor. This article interrogates that hypothesis using an original survey (N = 177) of New York State workers. Deploying intrinsic indicators for the intensity of service interaction and for working-class consciousness, the study finds that both the former and major demographic features fail to predict the latter while managerial status, workplace pain and discomfort, union membership, and job insecurity do. This supports an emergent view that services are broadly continuous with other forms of wage work and an older one that work itself is central to the production of class consciousness.
... This racial tax, as Hughes and Thomas (1998) describe it, is experienced and understood by many blacks. As such, they are also more likely than are whites to attribute socioeconomic inequalities to structural factors, such as constrained access to education and employment (Kluegal and Smith 1981;Zingraff and Schulman 1984). The combination of high un-and underemployment, inadequate education, and racial discrimination limits the access of many black families to adequate food, clothing, and shelter. ...
A positive sense of control over one's life is essential for maintaining health and wellbeing. Those with a strong sense of control believe changes in their social world are responsive to their choices, actions, and efforts. In contrast, a sense of powerlessness or fatalism is on the other end of the continuum. There is little research that explores how race and gender relate to feelings about personal control. To examine their effects on perceptions of personal control, we analyze data from the American Changing Lives Survey, 1986. Controlling for race and gender in the full model led to results that failed to reveal the complexity of relationships when compared with results of analyses among the subgroups. Some key factors distinct for the various groups were, for white men, functional health, positive support from friends and relatives, and having people to share their feelings with; for black men, age and visiting mental health facilities; for white women, visiting medical care facilities, the number of children, tobacco, and having someone to call for help; and, for black women, being involved with organizations (groups, clubs, and churches) and religion. When there are no significant racial or gender differences, examining models simultaneously stratified by race and gender introduced a more dynamic and multidimensional relationship between the control and dependent variables than was previously understood.
... Thus in this type of research, scholars study class consciousness by integrating subjective class identification and the indicators of class interests into the same "scale of class consciousness" (e.g. Ayalon, Ben-Rafael, & Sharot, 1987;Buttel and Flinn, 1979;Marshall, Rose, Newby, & Vogler, 1988;Vallas, 1987;Zingraff and Schulman, 1984). ...
... There may also be a broader national history and collective action legitimacy associated with workplaces in England that is meaningful above and beyond union presence and strike history at a particular workplace (Griffin et al. 1991; Kelly & Kelly 1991; Scruggs & Lange 2002). Racial composition may capture either the potential for split labor market dynamics to unfold and labor to become fragmented or the possibility of higher union and strike likelihood given the presence of minorities, who tend to be more inclined toward unions and collective action (Roscigno & Kimble 1995; Zingraff & Schulman 1984). If our configurational effects are being driven by workplace characteristics or other contextual factors, we can expect that they will not hold up with the inclusion of these controls. ...
Organizational resources and group solidarity are central foci in literature on social movements generally and worker insurgency
specifically. Research, however, seldom deals with both simultaneously and their potential interrelations. In this article,
we examine the complex relationships between union organization and worker solidarity relative to strike action. We draw on
a data set of 133 content-coded workplace ethnographies and use a combination of qualitative comparative analysis and more
standard statistical techniques. Consistent with expectations, results suggest union presence and worker solidarity, in and
of themselves, have little meaningful association with strikes. Rather, it is their co-presence that bolsters strike likelihood.
Conversely, a lack of union presence in combination with a lack of collective mobilization history diminishes overall strike
potential We conclude by discussing the implications of our argument and findings for more general social movement perspectives
as well as prior work dealing specifically with unions, solidarity, and collective resistance.
... This racial tax, as Hughes and Thomas (1998) describe it, is experienced and understood by many blacks. As such, they are also more likely than are whites to attribute socioeconomic inequalities to structural factors, such as constrained access to education and employment (Kluegal and Smith 1981;Zingraff and Schulman 1984). The combination of high un-and underemployment, inadequate education, and racial discrimination limits the access of many black families to adequate food, clothing, and shelter. ...
A positive sense of control over one's life is essential for maintaining health and well-being. Those with a strong sense of control believe changes in their social world are responsive to their choices, actions, and efforts. In contrast, a sense of powerlessness or fatalism is on the other end of the continuum. There is little research that explores how race and gender relate to feelings about personal control. To examine their effects on perceptions of personal control, we analyze data from the American Changing Lives Survey, 1986. Controlling for race and gender in the full model led to results that failed to reveal the complexity of relationships when compared with results of analyses among the subgroups. Some key factors distinct for the various groups were, for white men, functional health, positive support from friends and relatives, and having people to share their feelings with; for black men, age and visiting mental health facilities; for white women, visiting medical care facilities, the number of children, tobacco, and having someone to call for help; and, for black women, being involved with organizations (groups, clubs, and churches) and religion. When there are no significant racial or gender differences, examining models simultaneously stratified by race and gender introduced a more dynamic and multidimensional relationship between the control and dependent variables than was previously understood.
... However, there is less known about how this evaluation of position differs by race. Research has shown that African Americans are less likely to attribute inequality to individual flaws (Zingraff and Schulman 1984;Kluegel and Smith 1981). In relation to the present findings, we suggest white women, as compared to African American women, may be more likely to interpret their own disadvantage in the system of gender stratification as an individual flaw. ...
Research suggests race is associated with unique family structures and gender attitudes. Yet, extant research fails to examine
how different gender role attitudes and family structures related to race impact other aspects of life. Self-efficacy refers
to one’s belief in his or her abilities to achieve certain outcomes (Bandura, Self-efficacy: The exercise of control, Freeman, New York, p. 3, 1997). Using a sample of 486 traditional undergraduate college students from an American university
in the middle south, we examine gender and race differences in self-efficacy and the impact of sex role attitudes and family
structure on self-efficacy. We argue that gender differences in gender role attitudes and their impact on self-efficacy is
moderated by race. For all but white males, sex role liberalism is positively related to self-efficacy. Mother’s full time
employment is positively related to self-efficacy for whites. Implications for theory and future research are discussed.
La tesis desarrollada a finales de los años 70 por V. Pérez Díaz (véase Clase obrera, orden social, y conciencia de clase Madrid: Fundación del Instituto Nacional de Industria, 1980) sobre el aburguesamiento de la clase obrera en su forma de vida, valores, y actitudes, es examinada en la estela de la crisis económica en España durante los años 80. La concepción teórica de la conciencia de clase y sus niveles, diferenciación de clase, conflicto de clase y revolución de clase - y las explicaciones sobre por qué los trabajadores de los países capitalistas han congelado su conciencia de clase debajo del tercer nivel son discutidas. Los datos recientes publicados sobre los aspectos económicos, normativos, y relacionales de la estratificación social en España demuestran que la clase de trabajadores manuales es económicamente mejor que anteriormente, pero que todavía no están en el mismo nivel, en lo que se refiere a la renta, la educación, o al estado social, con respecto a la clase media de trabajadores no manuales. Se concluye que la tesis del aburguesamiento de la clase obrera es exagerada. Los distintos estudios se examinan para identificar los determinantes de niveles de conciencia de clase durante épocas de crisis económica y alto desempleo en España, pero no emerge un cuadro de forma clara. Así se recomienda una investigación adicional
This is the nearly-final PDF of my book that was published in June 2022. It would be great if you could spread the word on social media etc. and encourage friends, colleagues, and libraries to buy it.
Here's the blurb:
"In a time when mass joblessness and precarious employment are becoming issues of national concern, it is useful to reconsider the experiences of the unemployed in an earlier period of economic hardship, the Great Depression. How did they survive, and how did they fight against inhumane government policies? Americans are often thought to be a very conservative and individualistic people, but the collective struggles of the supposedly 'meek' and 'atomized' unemployed in the 1930s belie that stereotype.
"Focusing on the bellwether city of Chicago, this book reevaluates those struggles, revealing the kernel of political radicalism and class resistance in practices that are usually thought of as apolitical and un-ideological. From communal sharing to 'eviction riots,' from Unemployed Councils to the nationwide movement behind the remarkable Workers’ Unemployment Insurance Bill, millions of people fought to end the reign of capitalist values and usher in a new, more socialistic society. While they failed in their maximal goal of abolishing economic insecurity and the disproportionate power of the rich, they did wrest an incipient welfare state from the ruling class. Today, their legacy is their resilience, their resourcefulness, and their proof that the unemployed can organize themselves to renew the struggle for a more just world."
The aim of this thesis is to analyze the effect of ethnic, religious and gender
identities of textile workers working in Istanbul on their class consciousness formation.
In the studies made on class nowadays, making a description of class just by basing it
on economy is found to be deficient and it is put forward that class has a complex
structure which is formed by such a lot of factors including its members’ ethnic,
religious and gender identities and age and educational situation. As a matter of fact, the
term class that was supposed to be shaped by people’s owning means of production by
Marx was handled in-depth and was gained a different dimension including statue and
politics by Weber. This proves that it is necessary to handle the topic class in a
multifaceted way to gain efficient information. In this sense, starting from the idea that
people are placed to an economic class related with their ethnic, religious and gender
identities class consciousness is analyzed by handling together ethnic, religious and
gender identities the other sides of class avoiding just giving theoretical or descriptive
background of class and class consciousness. Firstly, in which class position workers
see themselves was determined. Then, to what degree workers’ ethnic, religious and
gender identities affects them while determining their class positions was searched. At
ix
this aspect Istanbul, which is quite rich in terms of ethnic identities and comes first in
textile, presents an ideal universe.
The sample of the research consists of 508 workers with the representation of
three per mille of textile workers in Istanbul. And, multi-research technique was applied
in the study. Firstly, a questionnaire which is a quantitative research technique was
applied. As gender is one of the main point for the study subject the number of women
and men was equated and 218 women and 290 men were volunteered to take part in.
During the application of questionnaire 15 voluntary workers were interviewed. After
evaluation of the questionnaire and interviews results, five focus group studies were
done. Therefore the data obtained from the research was supported by the results of
interviews and focus group studies where questionnaires remained limited. The main
argument of thesis is that while textile workers’ class consciousness described on the
basis of Marxist relations of production is low, other identities especially religious
identities of them affect their class consciousness.
This article explores affective formations of class consciousness. Through autoethnography and conversations and discussion sessions with working class women, the article contributes to a sociology of social class that recognises how people come to know their class positioning in spaces outside of waged relations. The article argues that affective relations and affective inequalities inform women’s experiences and consciousness of inequality generated by the class system. Their consciousness of the class system is narrated through their care relational identities, discontent with affective inequalities generated by the class system and their attitudes and actions for social change. This implies an affective formation of class consciousness referred to as care consciousness. Care consciousness takes seriously what is refused legitimacy at a sociological and political level yet articulated privately by the women as they discuss experiences of the class system.
En esta investigación se examinan las pautas generales del conflicto de clases en la sociedad chilena contemporánea. Para ello, se examina la manera en que las clases sociales poseen distintas orientaciones
sociopolíticas sobre temáticas referentes al conflicto de clases. Más específicamente, esta investigación recurre a la literatura sobre conciencia de clase para analizar tres componentes centrales
de la conciencia de clase de los individuos: 1) Identidad de clase, 2) Percepciones del conflicto de clase, 3) Actitudes hacia la intervención del Estado en la economía (en tanto este tema es un punto central de los regímenes neoliberales). A partir de una serie de modelos de regresión logística ordinal se examina qué componentes de la conciencia de clase se encuentran más polarizados. Así, se busca entender la manera en que el conflicto de clases expresado en la polarización de opiniones y
actitudes se estructura en un régimen neoliberal que –como el chileno– está caracterizado por niveles importantes de despolitización, por la debilidad de actores colectivos de clase trabajadora (sindicatos)
y por la ausencia prácticas de partidos que representen los intereses de la clase trabajadora. Los hallazgos muestran que a pesar de este escenario desfavorable, la clase continúa siendo un aspecto central en la configuración de orientaciones ideológicas antagónicas, lo cual puede ser la fuente de importantes conflictos políticos en el futuro
This paper analyzes the relationship between the sense of control over one's own life and the belief that most Americans control their lives and create their own good or bad outcomes. We analyze the effects of four aspects of stratification: an ascribed status (race), achieved statuses of differing stability (education and household income). and recent economic hardship (trouble paying bills or buying necessities). Using data from a 1990 survey of 2,031 Americans, we find that the large majority hold instrumental views of themselves and of other Americans. Socioeconomic status strengthens both views, although education and income increase the belief that one controls one's own life more than the belief that other Americans control theirs. Each belief also appears to generalize to the other. Finally, the Americans who feel that they have little control over their own lives apparently take heart from the belief that most Americans can achieve what they set their minds to, that most people's problems result from their bad decisions and lack of effort, and that the succes or failure of others was more than luck. Either a firm sense of personal control or (when that is weak) a firm belief in American instrumentalism minimizes depression. We see no sign that blaming outcomes on chance, circumstance, or other makes Americans feel better.
Previous studies of southern textiles have emphasized acquiescence in the face of mill power or integration through paternalism
as the basis of worker attitudes. Factor and regression analyses of data on textile workers in one mill town reveal little
to support these assumptions. Approval of the company or the union, of managerial capitalism or large-scale change reflects
perceived self-interest rather than deference or acquiescence. White, better paid, and older workers support the company rather
than the union. Black and less well-paid workers see the social structure as rewarding merit with substantial opportunity.
The findings augur poorly for effective union pressure on the company because: union support is concentrated among those easiest
to replace and with fewest good employment alternatives; and those whose loyalty to the town would lead them to fight for
change rather than seek a job elsewhere have no special tendency to support the union.
The study of worker resistance has tended to focus either on organizational attributes that may alter actors' capacity to respond or on influential shop-floor social relations. This divide, partially driven by analytical and methodological preference, is also a function of different theoretical traditions. In this article, we suggest that organizational attributes and interpersonal relations in the workplace, in concert with union presence and collective action history, may be simultaneously but also conditionally meaningful for workers and their potential resistance strategies. Findings, derived from analyses of unique data on 82 workplace ethnographies and that merge Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) techniques and more conventional quantitative methods, largely support these expectations. Most notably, the impact of workplace organization and even union presence on worker resistance varies depending on social relations on the shop floor. Where there is union presence and significant interpersonal conflict with supervisors, the likelihood of collective resistance in the form of strike action is heightened. This pattern also holds for certain more individualized forms of worker resistance (i.e., social sabotage, work avoidance, and absenteeism). More central to individual resistance, however, are workplace contexts characterized by poor organization and a lack of collective action legacy. We conclude by discussing the implications of our results for future analyses of workplace social relations, workplace structure, and collective and individual resistance-oriented actions.
In a time of economic depression and racism more overt than anything we now experience, the unions of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) during the 1930s and 1940s forged a lasting interracial solidarity within the industrial working class. The authors tell the stories of how three CIO organizing drives achieved interracial solidarity. In 1933, the United Mine Workers (UMW) adopted the “UMW formula” for placing Black workers in positions as union officers and organizers. Adopted from more radical unions, the formula institutionalized racial inclusion, which proved to be a major tactical innovation in realizing class solidarity across racial lines. Faced with similar conditions, the Steel Workers Organizing Committee in 1937 and the United Auto Workers in 1940 adopted variants of the UMW formula to overcome racial barriers to organizing. The authors analyze narratives of these three drives using the following two qualitative methods: event-structure analysis (ESA), a diachronic method, and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), a synchronic method. Both approaches reveal the importance of three main factors: tactical innovations, political context, and labor market conditions. The first two factors are explained by political process theory, and the third is predicted by split labor market theory. Among these findings, ESA highlights path dependence of tactical innovations and QCA emphasizes structural conditions in the labor market.
Dana L. Cloud is Assistant Professor of Speech Communication at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas.
1. This work was supported by a University of Texas Special Research Grant and a College of Communication Dean's Fellowship. Parts of this paper were presented at the Southern Labor Studies Conference in Williamsburg, Virginia, in September 1997 and at the National Communication Association Meeting in Chicago during November 1997. In order to conform to the Rhetoric & Public Affairs style sheet, the author has allowed the term "black" to appear in lower case lettering. However, in solidarity with an oppressed minority, the author registers her strong preference for Black to appear as a capitalized term, as it does throughout the corpus of her work as a dignifying gesture.
2. Audre Lorde, "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action," in Sister Outsider (Freedom, Calif.: Crossing Press, 1984), 41.
3. Philip Wander, "The Third Persona: An Ideological Turn in Rhetorical Theory," Central States Speech Journal 35 (1984): 197-216.
4. Jeremy Brecher, Strike! 2d ed. (Boston: South End, 1997), 184-92.
5. For example, mine workers, auto workers, and rubber workers led a number of successful sit-down strikes that led to the historic recognition of CIO unions in those industries and pressured the New Deal to pass the Wagner Act explicitly granting workers the right to independent organization and collective bargaining. See Brecher, 193-235.
6. Kevin Sack, "Union Again Fails To Win Over Workers at Big Textile Plants," New York Times, August 15, 1997.
7. Martin Ritt, Norma Rae (Los Angeles, Calif.: Twentieth Century-Fox, 1979).
8. George Stoney, Judith Helfand, and Susanne Rostock, The Uprising of '34 (New York: First Run/Icarus Films, 1995).
9. E. O. Friday, interview by George Stoney, Judith Helfand, and Susanne Rostock, 1995. Atlanta: Southern Labor Archives, Box 17, folders 1-2 of Uprising of '34 Collection; Gardin Family, interview by George Stoney, Judith Helfand, and Susanne Rostock, 1995. Atlanta: Southern Labor Archives, Box 14, folder 9 of Uprising of '34 Collection; Louise Thornburg, interview by George Stoney, Judith Helfand, and Susanne Rostock, 1995. Atlanta: Southern Labor Archives, Box 25, folders 4, 5, 6 of Uprising of '34 Collection; Blanche Willis, interview by George Stoney, Judith Helfand, and Susanne Rostock, 1995. Atlanta: Southern Labor Archives, Box 14, folder 9 of Uprising of '34 Collection.
10. James Arnt Aune, "The Power of Hegemony and Marxist Cultural Theory," in Rhetoric and Community: Studies in Unity and Fragmentation, ed. J. Michael Hogan (Columbia: University of South Carolina, 1998), 62-74.
11. Philip Wander, "The Third Persona," 197-216.
12. Lester C. Olson, "On the Margins of Rhetoric: Audre Lorde Transforming Silence Into Language and Action," Quarterly Journal of Speech 83 (1997): 49-70; Robin Patric Clair, Organizing Silence: A World of Possibilities (Albany: SUNY Press, 1998).
13. Teresa Ebert, Ludic Feminism and After: Postmodernism, Desire, and Labor in Late Capitalism (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996).
14. Lindsey German, "Theories of the Family," in Materialist Feminism: A Reader in Class, Difference, and Women's Lives, ed. Rosemary Hennessy and Chrys Ingraham (New York: Routledge, 1997), 147-61.
15. The following authors have summarized the recent variations on materialism in communication studies: Dana L. Cloud, "Materiality of Discourse as Oxymoron," Western Journal of Communication 58 (1994): 141-63; Sharon Crowley, "Reflections on an Argument that Won't Go Away: Or, a Turn of the Ideological Screw," Quarterly Journal of Speech 78 (1992): 450-65; Ronald Walter Greene, "Another Materialism," Critical Studies in Mass Communication 15 (1998): 21-41; David J. Sholle, "Critical Studies: From the Theory of Ideology to Power/Knowledge," Critical Studies in Mass Communication 5 (1988): 16-41. One version of materialism, common among rhetoricians-including Michael McGee, "The Ideograph: A Link Between Rhetoric and Ideology," Quarterly Journal of Speech 66 (1980): 1-16; "Text, Context, and the Fragmentation of Contemporary Culture," Western Journal of Communication 54 (1990): 274-89; "A Materialist's Conception of Rhetoric," in Explorations in Rhetoric, ed. Raymie E. McKerrow (Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman, 1982), 23-48, and Celeste Condit, "Clouding the Issues: The Ideal and the Material in Human Communication," Critical Studies in Mass Communication 14...
Theorists of work and class relations have argued that organizational processes within the monopoly ‘core’ induce employees to identify with the firm and consent to the social relations of production. The adequacy of this ‘hegemony’ thesis is evaluated using data from two Bell operating companies, whose workers hold relatively high-paying primary sector jobs and are exposed to a strong corporate culture. Although these factors should favor the thesis of managerial hegemony, the data provide only limited support. In fact, an oppositional consciousness is fairly common among the workers, but with marked variations between occupational groups. The data indicate that hegemony theory inflates the role of ideological mechanisms in the reproduction of managerial control and underestimates workers’ capacity to form a critical consciousness of the employment relationship. Worker consent should be viewed as problematic—that is, as exceptional, occurring only under specific social and organizational conditions.
Using Marxist, mass society, organizational, and social movements literatures, we distinguish alternative accounts of the relationship between union membership and perceived powerlessness. Then, we illustrate the distinctions with survey data on southern US textile workers. Logistic and ordinary least squares regression analyses suggest two interpretations for this group of workers: union membership influences perceived powerlessness by providing members a responsive organization that contrasts with their lack of control in the workplace; and perceived powerlessness, when combined with endorsement of collective strategies for change, encourages union membership. In the southern textile case, we find that race is associated with specific ideological leanings regarding collective strategies. The location of our sample, its particular position in the political economy of the US, and the relative immaturity of its union allow for instructive comparisons with other sociological treatments of work attitudes and collective action.
Marxist theory has long argued that the development of capitalism tends to proletarianize office employees. This article addresses the validity of this claim. Using survey data drawn from a subsample of clerical workers employed in the communications industry, the article tests a series of hypotheses regarding the relation between computerization, clerical work, and levels of class consciousness. In line with predictions of deskilling, computerization seems to heighten managerial control over workers’ jobs, and to lower the conceptual content of workers’ tasks as well. Alienation from work also tends to increase apace with the computerization of clerical work. Variation in the structure of workers’ jobs, however, displays little or no bearing upon office workers’ levels of class consciousness. In short, although the restructuring of clerical work does affect workers’ attitudes toward their jobs, it does little to foster an increasingly proletarian attitude toward management. The study suggests that the structure of workers’ tasks may be less consequential for the development of class consciousness than has often been presumed.
La recherche canadienne sur le vote des classes a surtout fait ressortir l'importance des forces structurelles qui contribuent à faire naître l'appui au Nouveau Parti démocratique (NPD) en insistant moins sur l'idéologie des classes. Le présent article contient un modèle LISREL faisant état des relations entre les positions des classes, leur idéologic et le vote en faveur du NPD selon la base de données provenant de l'étude des élections nationales du Canada de 1984. Les observations soulignent l'importance que revêtent, en tant que sources des suffrages des classes, trois dimensions de l'idéologie des classes qui repré-sentent en partie le résultat de la position de ces dernières. L'idéologie égalitaire et l'appui au maintien des syndicate forts ont des effete directs et prononcés sur le vote en faveur du NPD alors que l'identifi-cation à une classe exerce un effet indirect par le biais de deux autres variables. Même si la position objective des classes agit indépendam-ment sur les suffrages accordés au NPD, ses répercussions semblent limitées comparativement à celles que produisent les trois variables liées à l'étude. En modélisant les effete de la position et de l'idéologie des classes, les auteurs ont employé trois variables non encore utili-sées dans les analyses précédentes des suffrages des classes, soit l'appui des père et mère au NPD, la présence d'un syndiqué (autre que le répondant) dans le ménage et l'appartenance à une «classe nouvelle». Chacune de ces variables a un effet majeur sur le soutien donné au NPD. Quant aux répercussions attribuables à la région, elles semblent assez limitées une fois que l'on a tenu compte du vote des père et mère en faveur du NPD et de l'appui accordéà ce dernier à l'occasion des élections de 1980.
This paper presents, for the first time, multivariate analyses of Canadian national data and tests the relationship between
class-based egalitarianism and housework for married and cohabiting male and female university professors in 2000. Consistent
with evidence in the general population, gender accounts for more variation in housework than a host of other predictors (i.e.,
class- and gender-based ideology, institutional contexts and resources, available time, presence of children, age, minority
racial status, and religiosity). Nevertheless, these forces play important roles in increasing or decreasing domestic labor
contributions of both male and female academics. Among these, professors who possess class-based egalitarian views do more
housework, and egalitarianism increases domestic labor contributions of males and decreases that of females.
Much of the recent literature on the labor process has assumed that work content plays a prominent role in the development of class consciousness. Little systematic attention has been given to this assumption, however. The present study examines the relation between aspects of workers' jobs and their levels of class consciousness, using data recently gathered from a survey of workers in the communications industry. Contrary to the prevailing view, the results indicate that extrinsic job characteristics—e.g., job security, patterns of supervision, and working conditions—have much stronger effects on class consciousness than do intrinsic job characteristics. The implication is that analyses of the labor process may have focused too narrowly upon the work itself, at the expense of other critical aspects of the wage-labor relation. Models of the determination of class consciousness will need to consider the expectations workers bring into their jobs. Managerial violation of the workers' expectations may have more to do with the development of class consciousness than does the content of work alone.
Previous research on class consciousness has not examined the gendered nature of paid labor. Paid caring laborwork that involves the direct provision of care to clients or customers—now comprises 20% of the labor force. This is work that tends to place workers in conflict with the goals of management. The conflict between caring values and exchange values may lead workers to greater levels of class consciousness. I use national survey data to examine whether workers in caring labor occupations are more class conscious than other workers. Results indicate that caring laborers are more likely to be pro–working-class conscious than other workers after controlling for class position, income, education, government and nonprofit sectors, sex, and race. Workers in high intensity caring jobs are especially likely to be class conscious. This suggests that, at crucial points, the logic of caring and the logic of commodification are at odds.
Paternalistic forms of labor control have become less viable according to many macro and mid-range analyses. This is true to a point, but it is exaggerated and this exaggeration results, we argue, from common theoretical premises. In the Weberian perspective, paternalism is one of several univocal forms of legitimized authority. The assumption follows that paternalized managerial strategies will be univocally paternalist, and thus will become obsolete as institutional rationalization, and the associated differentiation of forms of authority legitimations, advances. Instead, paternalism remains one element in a multivocal strategic repertoire that presents workers with a variety of rationales and justifications for management actions. To illustrate some of the features of the multivocal employment of paternalism, we present and analyze material from interviews with workers in two secondary labor market firms.
La tesis desarrollada a finales de los años 70 por V. Pérez Díaz (véase Clase obrera, orden social, y conciencia de clase Madrid: Fundación del Instituto Nacional de Industria, 1980) sobre el aburguesamiento de la clase obrera en su forma de vida, valores, y actitudes, es examinada en la estela de la crisis económica en España durante los años 80. La concepción teórica de la conciencia de clase y sus niveles ? diferenciación de clase, conflicto de clase y revolución de clase - y las explicaciones sobre por qué los trabajadores de los países capitalistas han congelado su conciencia de clase debajo del tercer nivel son discutidas. Los datos recientes publicados sobre los aspectos económicos, normativos, y relacionales de la estratificación social en España demuestran que la clase de trabajadores manuales es económicamente mejor que anteriormente, pero que todavía no están en el mismo nivel, en lo que se refiere a la renta, la educación, o al estado social, con respecto a la clase media de trabajadores no manuales. Se concluye que la tesis del aburguesamiento de la clase obrera es exagerada. Los distintos estudios se examinan para identificar los determinantes de niveles de conciencia de clase durante épocas de crisis económica y alto desempleo en España, pero no emerge un cuadro de forma clara. Así se recomienda una investigación adicional
In a paper presented to the annual conference of the VDI Textile and Clothing Group held on 21 April 1988 in Reutlingen, West Germany, the author outlines problems for the West European textile industry. These include currency parities, international cost differences, production technology and environmental protection. There must be altered joint behaviour patterns between the textile and clothing sectors to meet the demand for greater flexibility.
Past studies reveal weakness in their analyses of class and race consciousness. They fail, for example, to separate out the effects of race and class on components of race and class consciousness. This study discusses the roles of class and race in developing class and race consciousness and interest in politics. It emphasizes the need to clarify the roles of race and class as well as those of age and size of birthplace in each type of consciousness. The main findings show that race and class are sometimes differently related to these dimensions, and suggest that the colony model of American society for which race is decisive is more complete than the class model of race relations, although both are similar.
In an exploratory study of matched samples in England and the United States, we construct a path model that explains 26% and 39%, respectively, of the variance in social judgments about the fairness or unfairness of equality. The underdog principle, from which we predict that egalitarians compared to inegalitarians are more likely to be nonwhite, to have low prestige occupations, to have low family incomes, and to identify with the lower and working classes, is accepted. The principle of enlightenment, from which we predict a positive relationship between education and favorable attitudes toward equality, is accepted for England but not for the United States. The principle of an egalitarian Zeitgeist, from which we predict younger people are more egalitarian than older people, is accepted for the United States but not for England. Two additional important causal variables are found. First, a sense of personal equity, that is, a belief that a person has the standard of living that he/she deserves, reduces egalitarian attitudes in England more than in the United States and may reflect a cultural belief that British society is extraordinarily just because social arrangements result from fair rules of the game. While it is of no importance in England, the cultural belief in monetary success reduces egalitarian attitudes in the United States and functions as the belief in the just society does in England.
This study, intended largely as a replication of the research reported by John C. Leggett in his Class, Race, and Labor, is a methodological contribution to the measurement of class consciousness among American workers, and an analysis of the independent variables that explain variation in the class consciousness measure. The data for this research were collected during 1974 in a statewide Wisconsin sample. A conceptual analysis of class consciousness suggests four major levels of that consciousness: class identification, class action, militant egalitarianism, and capitalist change orientation. Attitudinal measures of these levels or stages of class consciousness are discussed and then combined into a Likert scale for purposes of empirical analysis. We then examine the gross and net effects of a variety of variables assumed to be causally related to working class consciousness: union membership, generation, skill level, family income, and size of place of residence. Methodological caveats regarding the applicability of cross-sectional investigations of the dynamic, dialectical process of the formation of working class consciousness are offered. Finally, the implications of these results for the literature on working class consciousness are discussed.
Analysis of data from interviews with Cuban workers reveals that, among Negroes and whites, those who experienced the most pre-revolutionary unemployment were most likely to support the revolution and, among whites but not among Negroes, to be pro-Communist before the revolution. Those who were securely employed both before and since the revolution were less likely to be revolutionary than those who were employed more regularly since the revolution. Negroes were more likely than whites to support the revolution, even with pre-revolutionary employment status and change in employment status controlled.
This paper analyzes the effects of race, education, and income on perceptions of the extent of affluence in the United States. The analysis uses survey data from a probability sample of Hamilton County, Ohio, adults. Race, education, and income are each found to have significant additive effects on affluence perceptions. Blacks, less educated people, and people with less income tend to perceive greater affluence. The analysis suggests the importance of considering perceptions of the total distribution of rewards when considering the effects of deprivations.
This paper analyzes the empirical utility of consensual and conflictual theories in explaining the social cohesion of the liberal democracies of Britain and the United States. After clarifying conceptual problems of value consensus theory and Marxist theory, it examines the forms and extent of value-commitment in these countries. The conclusion is that both theories grossly overstate the amount of both value consensus between individuals and value consistency within individuals that actually exists. Cohesion in liberal democracy depends rather on the lack of consistent commitment to general values of any sort and on the "pragmatic acceptance" by subordinate classes of their limited roles in society. Suggestive evidence is also found for the existence of some "false consciousness" among subordinate classes.
Hypotheses linking lower-class leftist radicalism to the political primitivism caused by lack of education, lack of media exposure, infrequent participation in organizations, and personal isolation are examined on the basis of data from 382 Chilean urban slum dwellers. Consistent rejection of these hypotheses leads to an examination of their main assumptions. Leftist radicalism is viewed by them as an abnormal development constituting, basically, a simplistic reaction to personal frustrations and solitude. An alternative image of this ideology suggests that its emergence may follow normal processes of attitude formation through differential socialization. Tests involving three indicators of political socialization lend support to this alternative theory. Limitations of empirical findings and applicability of political primitivism and differential socialization explanations under varying societal conditions are discussed.
The political protest activities of the late 1960s and early 1970s stimulated a flurry of empirical research by social scientists seeking explanations. Most of the research, aimed at explaining individuals' radical political orientations, willingness to use protest and perhaps violence, or actual riot or protest participation, has been guided by either a mass society perspective or some variant of the relative deprivation model. After outlining the basic elements of these two theories as well as an alternative differential socialization theory, central causal features of each theory are integrated into a structural equation model designed to explain individual political protest orientation, and the model (allowing for measurement error in the endogenous constructs) is estimated on separate samples of white and black adults. The results indicate strong race-specific differences in the formation of political orientations. Explanations for these differences are examined; the empirical patterns are interpreted as supporting a theory of differential political socialization.
This paper is an attempt to identify those structural conditions which are conducive to the rise and maintenance of industrial paternalist capitalism within Britain. Following Newby's discussion of the nature of deference industrial paternalism is defined as the specific form taken in Britain by economic and political structures in which the unequal distribution of resources is legitimated by tradition. A key factor in the maintenance of such systems of traditional authority is the nature of the owners of local productive capacity. Two features are emphasized; the extent to which local assets constitute the bulk of all capital owned by the local bourgeoisie and the existence of historical links between such owners of local capital and the area. Empirical measures of the nature of local labour markets are used to identify those areas of the country which contain the structural features most likely to support industrial paternalism. It is suggested that such areas can be characterized as relatively isolated local labour markets which are dominated by single companies.
The relative abilities of dummy variable regression and log-linear models to locate significant relationships in systems of dichotomous variables are compared. On logical grounds log-linear models are superior to regression since the data more readily meet the assumptions of the former. Two illustrative examples suggest that the methods converge in their findings when the range in proportions of the dependent dichotomy is between .25 and. 75, but may differ on which effects are significant when proportions are more extreme. Substantive differences under the two methods are likely to be small, however.
Personal interviews guided by an open-ended schedule revealed that in a sample of textile workers in an urban, industrialized, and unionized community, while the saliency of class was generally limited, class awareness was widespread. Two and three class divisions of society were percived most commonly. In defining class membership, economic criteria predominated. Although class relationships were seldom described in antagonistic terms, many workes were convinced of their internal cohesion. Despite common belief about the weakening of class lines, a majority viewed class as being both inevitable and desirable.
Alienation and Freedom
- R Blauner
Blauner, R. 1964. Alienation and Freedom. University of Chicago Press.
We Shall Not OvercomeThe Textile Industry: Keel of Southern Industrialization
- R E Botsch
Botsch, R. E. 1980. We Shall Not Overcome. University of North Carolina Press. Boyte, H. 1972. "The Textile Industry: Keel of Southern Industrialization." Radical America 6(2):4-50.
The White Worker in the South
- J Filiatreau
Filiatreau, J. 1972. "The White Worker in the South." Dissent 19 (Winter):78-82.
The Rise and Fall of a Union in a Southern Textile Town: The Role of Paternalism and Power
- L Frankel
Frankel, L. 1981. "The Rise and Fall of a Union in a Southern Textile Town: The Role of Paternalism and Power." Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Socio-logical Association.
The New Working Class and Revolutionary Youth
- H Gintis
Gintis, H. 1970. "The New Working Class and Revolutionary Youth." Socialist Revolution l(May-June):13-44.
Passing of the Mill Village
- H L Herring
Herring, H. L. 1949. Passing of the Mill Village. University of North Carolina Press.
A New Twist for Textiles
- C Hughes
Hughes, C. 1976. "A New Twist for Textiles." Southern Exposure 3(4):73-79.
A Paradigm for the Study of Class Consciousness
- R T Morris
- R S Murphy
Morris, R. T., and R. S. Murphy. 1966. "A Paradigm for the Study of Class Consciousness." Sociology and Social Research 50(April):298-313.
Paternalism and Capitalism
- H Newby
Newby, H. 1976. "Paternalism and Capitalism." In R. Scarse (ed.), Industrial Society: Class Cleavage and Control. Allen & Unwin.
Change and Resistance to Change in the Southern Labor Movement The South in Continuity and Change
- D F Roy
Roy, D. F. 1965. 'Change and Resistance to Change in the Southern Labor Movement." In J. C. McKinney and E. T. Thompson (eds.), The South in Continuity and Change. Duke University Press.
Labor Force Integration and Southern U.S. Textile Unionism
- R L Simpson
Simpson, R. L. 1981. "Labor Force Integration and Southern U.S. Textile Unionism." In R. L. Simpson and I. H. Simpson (eds.), Research in the Sociology of Work. Vol. 1. JAI Press.
Proletarianization and Class Identification
- A D Steeves
Steeves, A. D. 1972. "Proletarianization and Class Identification." Rural Sociology 37(March): 5-26.