The life chance and market situation different will led to working class and middle class have different consumption pattern and lifestyle. One view of the Embourgeoisement Thesis suggests that with working affluence comes a middle class lifestyle. As Jacqueline Klein put it:
The white collar is ceasing to be the easily identified distinguishing mark of the middle-class man. Not only have many clerks of middle class origin suffered a relative reduction in their standard of living, not only have many clerks come from manual working-class families and made changes in their manner of life accordingly, but manual workers themselves are adopting a middle-class way of life.
Post-war society in Britain, particularly between 1952 and 1973 and especially in southern England, consisted of well-paid workers. Working class males with relatively high income (£17.00 per week in 1962) could afford to purchase a house, furnish it with carpets and good quality furniture, buy a car, take regular holidays, and enjoy good quality free health care. None of these were available to the majority of the working class before. They exemplified Harold Macmillan’s phrase of 1957: some of our people have never had is so good, which usually translated as “you’ve never had it so good” served as an election slogan in the general election of 1959. The home ownership was rising quickly from 1930 to 2000, for example, in 1939, there were 25% of people own their home and in 1965 there were 32%, but in 2000, the percentage increased to 69%. Also the personal transport increased dramatically during that period. During 1919-1939, the cars as necessity goods associated with the professional and commercial middle class mostly. During 1950s to 1970s, the cars ownership became mass, which most households had one car. After 1980s, many household had two cars.
Jacqueline Klein and Ferdinand Zweig argued that the working classes adopt the lifestyle and the consumption patterns of the middle class and the material affluence possibly with change in political attitudes. The ‘embourgeoisement’ hypothesis seemed particularly persuasive in the aftermath of the decisive of Labour in the 1959 general election. Conservative Party in 1950s won three elections with increased majority each time. As with the 1979 election, twenty years later, there was a swing against Labour among the working class. “D E Butler and R Rose suggested that Labour might be experiencing particular trouble in hold the affluent working class vote”. (O’Dnnell M 1977, p172) they found the number of traditional working class was declined and they should try to widen the basis of political support to include as many middle class people as possible.
Despite the strong support for embourgroisement, the evidence on which it was largely impressionistic. John Goldthorpe, David Lockwood and their collaborators put the embourgroisement hypothesis to test in 1960s. They chose luton, then a prosperous area in southeast England with expanding industries. They looked at affluent workers in the car manufacturing industry and found there were still differences between the manual workers and the middle class, which suggested that embourgroisement had not taken place. They found that the high wages of the men in the sample did put a ‘ middle class ’standard of living. They shared many of the consumer items enjoyed by the middle class, such as television, refrigerators and automatic washing machines. Apart from this, according to O’Dnnell M (1977) p.173, ‘their economic situation was largely different from that of the middle class’. Firstly, their high wages were usually accompanied by overtime and poor working conditions that the non-manual workers did not necessarily share. Secondly, they did not have the benefits that the non-manual workers received, for example, sick pay and pensions. Thirdly, promotional prospect were worse than non-manual workers. According to Haralambos and Halborn (2004) p.52, ‘the affluent workers defined their work in instrumental terms. Work was simply a means of earning money to raise living standard’ and they felt little satisfaction form work. By contrast, non-manual workers did not define work in purely instrumental terms. They expected and experienced a higher level of job satisfaction. Goldthorpe et al. found big different in lifestyle between affluent works and middle class. Affluent workers made friends from neighbors and working class. By comparison, white-collar workers made friends at work and few contacted with neighbors. Finally, Goldthorpe et al. found that they had different political attitudes. High percentage of affluence workers still supported for Labour Party, like support for trade unions. However, was often of an instrumental kind. So, Goldthorpe et al. rejected that the embourgeoisement had not taken place.
Fiona Devine has directly tested Lockwood’s claim in same place—Luton, during the 1980s. She got the same conclusion that the affluent workers did not become middle class. According to handout, the affluent workers have kept values favorable to trade unions and the Labour Party, although their support has weakened due to doubts about the ability of these organizations to deliver their promises. Friends are still mainly from the manual working class and they are less individualistic than the middle class. Marital role are more traditional than in the middle class. Men were often working overtime to earn money for the family and women took the responsibility to look after children. In some aspect, Decine’ finding are rather different from those of Goldthorpe et al. but that does not shows that influent manual workers has become middle class and embourgeoisement had not taken place.
In modern Britain, most British, when they are not thinking of themselves purely as individuals, regard themselves to be part of the "middle class". Their evidence is that they own a car or two; have a mortgage on a house; go on vacation; entertain themselves at home with DVD's and CD players; have medical insurance; and send their children to college. The reality that their cars and houses are actually owned by the banks; their vacations are often paid for with credit cards; their health care is rationed by NHS's; and their children’s education is also financed by the banks, to whom they owe many thousands of pounds when they graduate, does not seem to disturb their belief in the "evidence”. But the evidence, in fact, shows that the "middle class" is an ideological illusion. In a feature for the Times Press, Karen A. Davis writes that high-tech consultants and managers, who used to earn more than £100,000 a year, discovered after suddenly losing their jobs that their middle-class lifestyle has completely disappeared.
I totally agree with Lockwood and Fiona Devine’ view that embourgeoisement had not taken place. According to Marxist perspectives of social stratification, there are two major social groups: a ruling class and a subject class. The power of the ruling class comes from its ownership and control of the means of production. The ruling class exploits and oppresses the subject class. The middle class, although they have high wages, they are wage maker. I think that the middle class are still working class, because they do not own the mean of production and I said in last paragraph which the "middle class" is an ideological illusion. The theories of “embourgeoisement”are aimed at concealing the actual proletarianization of the so-called "middle class". The influent workers and “middle class” are becoming heterogeneous, although they have largely different. The process of “embourgeoisement” or proletarianization will make working class more powerful and solidarity. In conclusion, the “embourgeoisement” is taking place rather than taken place.
References:
Haralambos H., Holbrn M. and Heald R.(2004) Sociology Themes And Perspectives(6th Edition) HarperCollins London
O’Donnell M. (1997) Interdiction to Sociology (4th Edition) Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd Surrey
Bibliography:
Abercrombie N.and Warde A.(2001) The Contemporary British Society Reader Polity Press Oxford
Marsh I. (1997) Making Sense of Society Addison Wesley Longman Limited Essex
Jorgensen N. Bird J. Heyhoe A. Russell B. and Savvas M.(1997) Sociology An Interactive Approach Collins London
O’Donnell G.(1993) Sociology Today Cambridge University Press Cambridge
