White-collar Workers, History of

Abstract

In most countries the term ‘white–collar’ worker refers to a group of dependant workers which, compared to manual or ‘blue–collar’ workers, are occupied not directly in the process of manufacturing. Its delimitation and its specific social profile in relation to blue–collar workers and public servants, however, remains ambiguous and controversial. White–collar workers were introduced into the realm of modern social science at the end of the nineteenth century. The most intensive debates took place in German-speaking countries from about 1890 up to the 1930s against the background of the formation of strong labor movements 9largely blue–collar) and in the context of a political system, dominated by conservative elites eager to defend the status quo and in search of numerically important allies among the general population. After World War II the once clear distinction between white– and blue–collar–workers were largely blurred and scientific as well as political interest in the group as a whole has faded. It is one chief characteristic of debates in international social science on white–collar workers ever since that they tend to relate only to sub¡roups as the technical staff (‘new worker’), the engineers (‘technocracy’), managers (‘managerial revolution’) etc. Any wholesale white–collar sociology appears to be a thing of the past.