The Affluent Worker and the Thesis of Embourgeoisement: Some Preliminary Research Findings

Abstract

Historically, interest in the affluent worker has centred on the presumed political consequences of rising living standards among the industrial labour force. In Britain in course of the 1950s, it was frequently argued that growing working-class prosperity was a major factor in Conservative election victories; affluence was held to be associated with a process of embourgeoisement, of which increased Conservative voting among manual workers was an important part. However, a study of what might be regarded as a critical sample of affluent workers reveals little evidence of changes in the direction of `middle-classness'. In order to achieve a high level of income, many of these men must experience greater deprivation in their working lives than do most white-collar employees; they also differ from the latter in having little chance of occupational advancement. In their home lives, they are largely `privatized'. They no longer share in traditional patterns of working-class sociability, yet few have adopted middle class life-styles and fewer still have become assimilated into middle-class society. Finally, these workers are found to be at least as strong in their support of the Labour Party as manual workers in the country generally.