Working Class Research Articles

#ThanksForTyping … and the fieldwork

This article explores the role of social researchers’ wives in post-war British studies, in particular drawing on the diaries kept by the wives of two noted sociologists while their husbands, Peter Willmott and Dennis Marsden, were respectively undertaking studies in the working class communities of Bethnal Green and Salford. The wives – Phyllis Willmott and Pat Marsden, made contributions to the community studies in the mid 1950s/early 1960s, at the point where British sociology and social research was on the cusp of transition towards formalisation and professionalisation. The wives were co-opted into the academic endeavour. Their practices as part of their family lives became professionalised as they undertook knowledge gathering, bridging between community and scholarship for their husbands, and reflecting on their own practice. The paper enables contemporary social researchers to recognise the part played by the wives of major sociological figures in the establishment of the men’s reputations and the disciplinary enterprise of sociology.

Battleground Michigan: The Divided Political Trajectory of the American Working Classes

Abstract The political behavior of core demographic voting blocs in critical swing states can be elucidated by Marxist class analysis. Through 22 interviews, participatory observation, novel analysis of statistical data and a review of extant literature, we argue that it is possible to construct a tentative sketch of the class dynamics operating within the state’s electorate today. We find, whereas downwardly mobile white workers are the core demographic group who can connect with Donald Trump’s campaign message, it is upwardly mobile workers of all races who are the mass base of Kamala Harris’ campaign, while Muslim immigrant workers with their unique relationship to American imperialism are at the core of Judith Stein and the Green Party’s voting base. Beyond this basic analysis, we also assess the contradictions between different class-inflected demographic groups within the Harris coalition that had to be overcome for the Democratic Party to carry this November. We argue that political economists should watch and study the November 2024 election as a test of American worker acceptance of the neoliberal superstructure, as would be evidenced by a Harris victory.

M. Gorky's Magazine “Literary Studies” as a School for Beginning Authors (1930–1931)

The article examines the history of the journal “Literary Studies” in the period from 1930 to 1931: this is the stage of formation of a periodical aimed at novice writers. In the process of creating the magazine, Gorky proved himself to be an educator and mentor of Soviet literature personnel. Working with novice/young authors was a matter of national importance for the writer. In 1929, the leaders of the LAPP turned to the writer for help, asking him to support their initiative to publish a magazine to help young writers. Gorky not only supported, but also responded with the article “The working class must educate its masters of culture”. In the summer of 1929, Leningrad writers A. Kamegulov, Y. Libedinsky and others began organizational work on the creation of the magazine. Gorky at the initial stage vigorously supported the initiative of the youth. After solving organizational and other issues, the writer headed the editorial board of the magazine and remained in office until 1936. Gorky participated in the journal not only as an organizer, but also as an author of articles, a reviewer of works by novice authors. In March 1930 The first issue of the journal “Literary Studies: A magazine for self-education edited by Gorky” has been published. This period in the history of the periodical was characterized not only by the search for one's own face, but also by the selection of authors who can convey to their readers in an accessible form the necessary provisions and principles of literary work. The magazine was not spared the literary and political struggles of 1930. Disputes arose in the editorial board between representatives of Litfront and RAPP, which affected the situation in the editorial office and the work of the magazine. The result was the reorganization of the magazine initiated by Gorky. For the first time, the article publishes archival documents from the Archive of A.M. Gorky (Moscow, IMLI RAS), revealing individual episodes of the history of the journal. The thematic richness revealed during the work on the article helped to establish the assumption that the study of the history of Gorky's organizational projects is one of the most important strategic tasks in the study of the literary process of the twentieth century.

Exorcizing Dysfunctional Myths: Betrayal, Economic Incompetence, and the Memory of the 1931 Second Labour Government’s Crisis

On 23 August 1931, the second Labour government split over the decision to cut unemployment benefits. The next day, a National Government, led by Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald, but largely supported by Conservative and Liberal MPs, was appointed to ‘save sterling’ – only to decide to leave the gold standard on 21 September 1931. These events generated two narratives within and outside the Labour Party, the first highlighting Labour’s betrayal of the working class, the second underlining Labour’s incompetence on economic matters. The two narratives crystalized into ‘myths’ in the following decades, a process linked to the fact that sterling turbulences occurred while other Labour governments were in office. This work links the betrayal myth to the incompetence myth and shows how the former developed, to some extent, in relation to the latter. By adopting a long-term perspective, it demonstrates that political myths go through ebbs and flows and are compounded and/or eclipsed by other myths. Building upon published literature, memoirs and press accounts, this work explains how the myth of betrayal, which after 1931 allowed a party demoralized and divided to coalesce around a common enemy, came to be perceived from the 1960s onwards as dysfunctional within a growing section of the Labour Party. The betrayal myth was eventually exorcized in the 1990s, through a process which also encompassed the renegotiation of the economic-incompetence myth.

Climate Change as Class Struggle in America: Matthew Huber and the Challenges Confronting the Ecological Left

ABSTRACT In this article, I undertake an evaluation of Matthew Huber’s important book, Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet. The book provides an opportunity for engaging in spirited debate and constructive discussions on how the Left should mobilize to combat the global climate crisis. As such, it is a clarion call for engaging the American working class in the climate struggle, an especially critical task given the results of the 2024 election. Huber is laser focused on capital’s pursuit of profit as the source of the climate crisis. Here he challenges the notion of a “diffuse climate responsibility” spread among consumers, especially the wealthy, as the primary driver of climate change. He instead argues that the leading source of greenhouse gases pouring into the atmosphere stem from industrial capital. In this vein, Huber attempts to shift the focus away from reducing personal consumption to politicizing what Karl Marx once termed “the hidden abode of production.” As a result, we are left with a climate politics of consuming less, which alienates the aspirations of the working class to consume more in order to raise their standards of living and to have a better life. The challenge is to theoretically and politically replace this view with a socialist vision centered around the material interests of the working class. I agree, but argue that Huber discounts the radical possibilities of the climate change/climate justice movements and to be key allies of the American working class.

Social inequality in dropout rates in higher education: Denmark and Norway

ABSTRACT This article examines the association between students’ social class background, their completion of higher education and transfer between research-intensive universities and vocational-oriented university colleges in Denmark and Norway. We analyse comprehensive register data on the entire student population of the two countries and employ the Oslo Register Data Class Scheme (ORDC) that distinguishes class fractions with different compositions of cultural and economic capital. The analyses show that dropout is considerably more widespread in Norway, and that students from the working class drop out more often than their fellow students. Although the general level of social disparities in dropout rates is similar in the two countries, the horizontal differences between class fractions with different compositions of cultural and economic capital are more pronounced in Norway, particularly in university colleges. At the same time, the social differences in transfer rates from universities to university colleges are considerably higher in Denmark, which indicates the importance of institutional characteristics, as the difference in academic orientation between universities and university colleges is considerably greater in Denmark than Norway.

Cloud Elasticity of Microservices‐Based Applications: A Survey

ABSTRACTElasticity is an essential treatment in Cloud environment employed in academic and industrial contexts. The main purpose of elasticity is to reduce the deployment cost while optimizing computing resources. Multiple studies were conducted to tackle classic applications using monolithic architecture deployed with virtual machines (VMs). However, with the spread of microservice pattern, recent studies have been investigating this new trend using containers. This paper classifies and discusses existing approaches dealing with cloud elasticity. It provides a novel taxonomy for elastic approaches while focusing on microservices‐based solutions. We additionally specify the strength and the shortcomings of each class of works. As a conclusion, we report the challenges for microservices‐based applications elasticity and provide requirements for future investigations.

Svakodnevni život iz perspektive željezničke štampe Ukrajinske SSR tokom Holodomora (1932-1933)

In this article, the author studied how the local printed media of the South-Western Railways (Ukrainian SSR) reacted to the Holodomor – the artificial famine of 1932–1933. While Soviet newspapers were primarily viewed as instruments for disseminating state-approved narratives, this study argues that the local railway press serves as a valuable but often overlooked source for understanding the multifaceted realities of Soviet society during this tumultuous period. Examining the editorial mechanisms of the railway press, the article discusses the involvement of workers and farmers as correspondents. The use of „robsilkors” (workers’ and farmers’ correspondents) in reporting everyday issues and problems within the railway system highlights a dynamic interaction between the press, its readership, and the authorities. The press functioned as an information conduit to party units and law enforcement, emphasizing the so-called „self-criticism campaigns” and denunciations. Under totalitarian censorship and government control, the newspapers did not openly write about starvation and mass mortality. The press, however, inadvertently provided glimpses into the harsh realities of everyday life, especially in local publications where censorship was comparatively weaker. They unveiled details showcasing the impact of food shortages, malnutrition, and unsanitary conditions. While workers had access to canteens and a food supply system, theft and misappropriation were survival strategies. The press documented cases of intentional damage to grain cargoes and corruption in the food stamps system. Despite receiving state-provided goods, workers faced challenges with the quality of provisions and sanitary conditions in canteens. Moreover, along with covering the famine, the press actively disseminated propaganda aimed at reinforcing the divide between the working class and farmers. This contrast was evident, yet many railway workers experienced life similar to farmers, owning land and resisting state-imposed agricultural policies. The newspapers called on the railway employees to participate in the so-called „mass campaigns” in the villages, which sometimes appeared to be confiscating food from the farmers' houses. Refusal to join these campaigns could lead to the denunciation on the newspapers pages. In conclusion, this research offers a comprehensive understanding of the Soviet railway press during the Holodomor years, revealing its dual nature as a propagandistic tool and a subtle source of authentic information. By dissecting the content and contextualizing the narratives within the socio-political landscape, the study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the complexities of Soviet society during a period of historical upheaval.

On What Lacks in Current Film Theory

The review does not make the case that the recent republication of George Littera’s work is relevant for todays film criticism. On the contrary, it suggests that contemporary film criticism might not stand very well in the light of Littera’s work. In particular, it shows how his writing is concerned with the idea of value and contradictions, which is less investigated in new work concerned with subjects of history such as the working class. First, it details Littera’s assessment of Soviet avant-garde cinema. Second, it compares his book with the work of one of his UNATC collegues such as Florian Potra. Finally, it briefly investigates a mode of production and essay writing which has disappeared as technique.

“Workers in Saskatchewan Now Have a Clear-Cut Bill of Rights”

This paper examines the politics surrounding the construction, implementation, and administration of the Saskatchewan Trade Union Act (stua) between 1944 and 1950. The act is important because it reflects the first attempt by a social democratic government in North America to construct a system of labour law that ostensibly aligned socialist ideas with the rights of workers to form trade union freedoms. This makes the stua unique in Canadian labour and political history because the legislation demonstrated the policy priorities of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (ccf) and the Canadian Congress of Labour as both organizations were attempting to solidify their places in postwar Canada. This history reflects the fact that the ccf and the unions, like the left in general throughout the 1940s and 1950s, defined the working class narrowly, focusing attention on white and male breadwinners with women and racialized workers very much on the periphery. The history also demonstrates the inherent contradiction within social democratic reform politics, as the act extended numerous rights to workers to organize and collectively bargain but when those same workers pushed back against government decision-making during the province’s first public-sector strike in 1948, political tensions found many of those same social democrats acting in similar manners to their private-sector counterparts. These tensions within social democratic approaches to labour relations – so evident in the Saskatchewan experience – have become a central contradiction of the movement throughout the postwar period and continue today.

‘To Make Britain Concrete Minded’: Peter László Peri’s <em>London Life in Concrete</em> (1938)

In 1938, sculptor Peter László Peri staged a solo exhibition in London titled London Life in Concrete, a selection of sculptural works fabricated out of concrete. Contemporaneous critics enthused about Peri’s experiments with the exciting new medium. Multi-coloured relief works, set on a high ledge that encircled the room, showed scenes of everyday life in the capital: figures of shoppers, builders, and commuters arrayed across flattened backgrounds. The simple format of these sculptures belied the political entanglements of Peri’s chosen material. Rough finishes typify Peri’s concrete works, both those exhibited in London Life in Concrete and those later commissioned to decorate a post-war public housing complex in London. Their explicitly modelled surfaces present the medium as one tied to human labour and equate the work of builder and of artist. London Life in Concrete was sponsored by the Cement and Concrete Association (CCA), a new trade group established to promote the use of concrete in building projects in Britain. This paper traces the history of Peri’s concrete sculptures and the relationship between Peri and the CCA. It reveals the role that Peri’s work played in the commercial project to establish concrete as the architectural material best suited—both practically and ideologically—to the homes of the British working class.

A pandemia da Covid-19 no mundo do trabalho: efeitos psicossociais para a classe trabalhadora

Neste ensaio, objetivamos analisar os efeitos psicossociais da atual pandemia do Covid-19 na vida dos trabalhadores e na organização do trabalho no Brasil. Desde estudos realizados no campo da Psicologia do Trabalho e das Organizações, estudamos as consequências que a pandemia tem tido com o aumento (1) do teletrabalho (home office), (2) da flexibilização dos contratos de trabalho e (3) do trabalho informal. Argumentamos que o home office tende a se relacionar com intensificação do trabalho, invasão da vida familiar, perda de dimensão coletiva do trabalho e isolamento social. A flexibilização dos contratos de trabalho estimula o medo do desemprego e, consequentemente, tem efeitos negativos na saúde mental. O trabalho informal, por sua vez, está associado a remunerações mais baixas, piores condições de trabalho e de saúde. Consideramos que a organização da classe trabalhadora através de suas instituições é uma forma de construir um projeto ético-político centrado na vida humana.

The Critical Edge of Learning

In this article, Jacqueline Rose argues that nineteenth-century literary writing, notably Mary Shelley’s relatively unknown Valperga, published the year Birkbeck was launched, has much to say about the crisis facing the humanities in the UK and worldwide today. Shelley’s text is a plea against tyranny. Birkbeck was founded, to acclaim and hostility, in order to make the pursuit of knowledge and critical thought available to the working class. Tracing her own educational experience, Rose argues that these issues have never been more urgently in need of attention than today.

The revival of radical popular education in Italy as a new form of cultural and class struggle: The case of popular schools in Rome

The aim of this article is to examine the revival of popular schools in Italy, focusing on the ‘network of Roman popular schools’. This is a little researched but highly relevant topic in sociology nowadays, due to the innovative way it links politics and education in an increasingly unequal society. Inspired by research gathered over 4 years of participant observation and 28 in-depth interviews, I describe the way in which popular educators combine social mutualism, typical of Italian Antagonistic Left movements, with critical pedagogical practices: education is considered by activists as a way of doing politics by other means, in line with the origins of popular education enacted by the labor movement in the two past centuries and in particular with the pedagogical experience promoted by Lorenzo Milani, in turn capable of uniting Gramscian and Freirian thought. Popular educators address their educational actions to the social recognition of subaltern students, who are otherwise stigmatized by the dominant culture. In this way, a very interesting counter-hegemonic practice seems to be generated that entails not only the learners’ identity but also that of the educator themselves. This analysis leads to the identification of new popular education as a form of class and cultural struggle aimed at restoring social recognition to the working class.

Research on the Dilemmas and Coping Strategies of Newly-Employed Counselors in Class Management from Junior College to Undergraduate Level

Counselors, as an important force in college students' ideological and political education and daily management, play a crucial role in colleges and universities at different levels. This paper aims to explore the dilemmas faced by newly-employed counselors who transfer from junior colleges to undergraduate institutions during the process of class management and propose corresponding coping strategies. Through interviews and observations of newly-employed counselors, problems in aspects such as role transformation, student’s characteristics, and work pressure were analyzed. Combined with the actual situation, coping measures such as strengthening learning and training, adjusting work methods, and enhancing personal qualities were put forward to improve the work ability and class management effectiveness of newly-employed counselors.

The Labor movement and Revolutionary Social Democracy in the borderlands of late Imperial Russia

A review of a new monograph by Professor Eric Blanc of Rutgers University (USA) is presented. The book is devoted to the history of the labor movement and the development of revolutionary social democracy on the outskirts of the Russian Empire from 1882 (the year of the creation of the first social democratic organization in Poland) to the revolutionary 1917. Blanc focuses specifically on the "non-Russian" socialist parties in the territory of modern Poland, Ukraine, the Baltic States, Georgia and Armenia. The author concludes that the development of the socialist and labor movement in the border areas of late Imperial Russia was characterized by greater radicalism, a more developed structure and popularity among the local working class. At the same time, the situation in Finland with its autonomy and legalized party struggle, which could include socialists, differed from the virtually illegal life of social democracy in Poland and the Caucasus.

“No one actually starves”?: from proletariat to working class and back again

“No one actually starves”?: from proletariat to working class and back again

Why I Paint Thousands of Circles

Why I paint Thousands of Circles explores psychological barriers and multilayered themes that stem from a single horrific event that involved Moran’s father and his brother. The artist collates information, photos and constructs an ar(t)chaeological archive where family photos, product imagery, together with newspaper clips to form units of a historical and psychological mind map. The exposition becomes an auto-ethnographical exploration of mid 90's working class North West London. The repetitive painting process, exposed and documented in the exposition, functions as transformative method, where ambiguous feelings of a violent upbringing are directed towards the creation of a visual system with an inherent logic – “creating some kind of beauty out of ugliness.”

School District Housing Buyers and Educational Investment Returns: A Case Study of X District in Shanghai

As a dual carrier of educational resources and economic assets, school district housing has become an important tool for family educational investment and social class reproduction. This paper takes Shanghai's X District as an example to explore, from a sociological perspective, the purchasing behaviors of different groups regarding school district housing and their educational investment returns. It reveals the key role of school district housing in the accumulation of cultural and social capital. The study finds that high-income families, the middle class, and the working class in X District exhibit different demand tendencies when purchasing school district housing, reflecting goals of obtaining high-quality educational resources, expanding social capital, and achieving upward social mobility, respectively. The phenomenon of school district housing exacerbates the imbalance in the distribution of educational resources and limits social mobility.

Beyond Norma Rae: How Puerto Rican and Southern White Women Fought for a Place in the American Working Class by Aimee Loiselle (review)

Beyond Norma Rae: How Puerto Rican and Southern White Women Fought for a Place in the American Working Class by Aimee Loiselle (review)