Social Class Interests Research Articles

O rompimento da Barragem de Fundão em Mariana-MG após 03 anos: considerações sobre um “crime que se renova”

Este artigo aborda o contexto da luta de classes após 03 anos do rompimento/crime da barragem de Fundão em Mariana-MG, ocorrido no dia 05 de novembro de 2015. Tal fato se inscreve na lógica produtivista em contexto de capitalismo dependente. O processo de extração e comercialização do minério de ferro, uma das commodities mais produzidas/extraídas do território brasileiro neste início de século XXI, é conformado pela queda e retomada das taxas de lucro, o que contribui para a perpetuação da dependência e subordinação econômica, política e social deste continente e do Brasil em relação aos países de capitalismo central. Após o rompimento/crime duas posições antagônicas se explicitaram no processo de ressarcimento e reparação dos danos/perdas: a atuação da Fundação Renova, instituição fortemente vinculada às mineradoras que causaram o rompimento/crime, e a perspectiva de luta e reivindicação por parte dos atingidos. Conclui-se que o contexto de luta e resistência é árduo, atravessado por interesses de classes sociais antagônicas que são materializados em trâmites burocrático-institucionais e legal-normativos, o que reafirma a histórica dominação do capital sobre a classe trabalhadora no contexto da mineração extrativista.

Scientific Instructions for the Formation of the Enterprise Motivation Mechanism

The scientific approaches to the formation of the motivational mechanism of Ukrainian enterprises in the modern period on the example of the machine-building enterprise "Vistek" in Bakhmut, and methods of quantitative assessment of the balance of social and economic class interests of employees and owners of means of production are defined. The conditions under which the balance of economic interests for the benefit of the employers are revealed.
 The criterion for the quantitative determination of the social class interests of workers and employers is the structure of labour potential, which is formed by its constituent elements of human physical capital and the distribution of value added in accordance with the quantity and quality of work and the balance of social interests. A quantitative expression of the measure of labour and consumption, which determines the proportions between labour and its wages. The category of the threshold of social sensitivity of basic wages and incentive payments are determined. The methods of determining its level are revealed that associated with the effect of production, which harmonizes the scale of production and consumption, and forms balance of social and economic interests of hired and entrepreneurial labour, which harmonize social relations in the country.
 The structure of the motivational mechanism for stimulating the success of staff and business efficiency is proposed: motives, goals, ways of satisfaction, forms, methods and sources of needs. The model of formation of the mechanism of management of remuneration in the state is suggested according to the objective law of remuneration, its essence is defined. In particular, microeconomic and macroeconomic levels of remuneration management are highlighted, showing indicators of the ratio of the standard and actual rates of wage growth to one percent of labour productivity growth in accordance with the efficiency of human capital use, optimality of the distribution of value added, resource level of production. Macroeconomic level, payment management, institutional decisions, levers of social policy and social performance are also determined.
 A methodology for quantifying the proportions of value added distribution between the producer and employer class is formulated. Examples of calculations of the change in the value-share index between two social classes are given.
 This methodology allows to solve complex problems of social class stratification of the personnel of enterprises and increase their interest in the results of work.

Seljanske pitannja v polіticі RKP(b) – KP(b)U 1918 – 1923 rr.: vitoki totalіtarizmu

The Peasant Question in Policy of RCP(b) – CP(b)U in 1918 – 1923: Sources of Totalitarianism. The article analyses attitude of Bolshevik congresses of RCP(b) and CP(b)U to agricultural question in 1918 – 1923. It marks out the main features of Bolshevik policy as for peasantry that caused forming of totalitarian regime: ignoring of the entire social class interests, absence of scientific explanation and party discussion of the ways as for solving agricultural question, declarative character of Bolshevik policy especially in Ukraine. RCP(b) did not develop their own program of solving peasant question when rising to power in 1917. RCP(b) could determine its position only at the beginning of 1919 and in 1923. Ukrainian Bolsheviks stayed between the necessity to implement principles of proletarian internationalism and the reaction of merely Ukrainian environment to it. The peculiarity of CP(b)U activity was in earlier appeal to peasant question in 1918, but Ukrainian Bolsheviks underestimated the potential of peasants movement. Alexander Shumskyi, Yakov Yakovlev, Volodymir Zatonskyi and Andrey Bubnov supported Ukrainian peculiarities in agricultural question.

From the King's deer to a capitalist commodity: A social historical analysis of the poaching law

Laws prohibiting the illegal taking of wildlife resources have a long history. This research provides a social historical analysis of the poaching law over time. Using a critical Marxist theoretical perspective, it argues that poaching laws have gone through three phases that correspond to the respective level of societal industrialization and dominant social class interests of the time. Poaching laws in the preindustrial phase (prior to 1850) were used to protect game that belonged to elite members of society as well as to prevent social disruption and rebellion by the lower class. During the industrial era (1850–1950), game laws emerged in response to the efforts of elite sport hunters who advocated for conservation. Wildlife resources became increasingly commercialized in the postindustrial phase (1950 to the present), and state wildlife laws and policies are increasingly aligned with private property interests and reflect the growing commercial value placed on trophy wildlife. The analysis concludes by examining changes in Utah's big-game poaching laws.

Family, class and embodiment: why school physical education makes so little difference to post‐school participation patterns in physical activity

This paper draws attention to the political economy of embodiment: how, as symbolic and economic capital intersect, particular characteristics, forms and expressions of corporeality are ‘produced’, nurtured, resourced and subsequently ascribed value as ‘ability’, in and outside schools. The analyses suggest that increasing amounts of the ‘work of learning’ in order to become ‘appropriately embodied’ – slim, active and physically literate in physical activity and sport – are and have to be done outside school, in and around the home, as part of what we refer to as the ‘corporealisation of childhood’. Using ‘visual ethnography’ with particular reference to texts, images and representations of ‘Tumble Tots’ and other forms of ‘private enterprise physical education’ (PEPE) featuring in the UK, we illustrate how these processes appeal to and help reproduce particular social class interests, before drawing out the implications of the analyses for issues of social equality, pedagogy, policy and research in education and PE.

Social democrats and the new partisan politics of public investment in education

This paper studies the impact on public education spending of social democratic participation in government. By means of a pooled time-series analysis of spending in OECD democracies, it is shown that social democrats have increased public spending primarily on higher education. This finding is at odds with simple class-based models of partisan preferences (Boix) that predict a preference for non-tertiary education. As an alternative, the notion of a ‘new politics of public investment in education’ (Iversen) is presented. From this perspective, political parties are not merely transmission belts for the economic interests of social classes, but use policies and spending strategically to attract and consolidate voter groups. By increasing public investment in tertiary education, social democrats cater to their core electoral constituencies (for example, by expanding enrolment) and, at the same time, new middle-class constituencies to escape electoral dilemmas and reforge the cross-class alliance with the middle class.

Teachers' labour, class and the politics of exchange

In this article questions are raised about the adequacy of our theoretical frameworks for analysing teachers as class workers and actors, and as an occupational group. The problem of adequacy stems from using labour process theory and production relations as the only sphere for determining class location and class relations and in doing so fails to capture the complex way in which class relations are formed. Following Marx, the author observes that an adequate framework for conceptualising class must take into account, not only the social relations of production within the sphere of production, exchange, distribution and consumption, but how each mediates and transforms the other. This article focuses upon the sphere of exchange in understanding teachers' social class interests and teachers as political actors. It is argued that recent work on class assets by Wright (1997) and Savage et al (1992 - economic, cultural and organisational - and which the author extends to include social assets, offers a powerful way of understanding the complex nature of production relations and class as it is mediated through the process of exchange. This takes us some considerable distance forward on a much bigger project on developing a coherent theoretical and empirical project on theorising teachers work and social class.

Revolutionary Evangelicals in Nicaragua: Political Opportunity, Class Interests, and Religious Identity

This article examines the demographic characteristics and political attitudes and behaviors of Nicaraguan evangelicals, Roman Catholics, and nonreligious. Analysis of data from a nationally representative 1990 Gallup survey - conducted showy after the national election in which the revolutionary FSLN was swept from power by the opposition - shows that Nicaraguan evangelicals were stronger supporters of the leftist Sandinistas than was the Catholic majority. These findings challenge the conventional wisdom of earlier literature that Latin American evangelicals are inherently apolitical, other-worldly, or right-wing. These findings underscore the theoretical importance of accounting for prevailing political opportunity structures and social class interests in understanding the varied political commitments and behaviors of Latin American evangelicals.

The Role of the Armaments Complex in Soviet Society (Is there a Soviet Military Industrial Complex?)1

This article discusses the usefulness of the notion of a 'military industrial complex' as applied to the Soviet Union; it reaches the conclusion that this notion reflects the self-image of liberals in bourgeois society and is not applicable to a society with a different mode of production. The author takes up the Marxian concept of mili tarism, which conceives the military and the state bureaucracy not as actors but as agents of social class interests; on the basis of traits peculiar to militarism we find that there also exists a militarism in the U.S.S.R., but one quite different from the traditional militarism of capitalist so ciety.

Toward a political economy of crime

As Gouldner and Fredrichs have recently pointed out, social science generally, and sociology in particular is in the throes of a “paradigm revolution.” Predictably, criminology is both a reflection of and a force behind this revolution. The energing paradigm in criminology is one which emphasizes social conflict-particularly conflicts of social class interests and values. The paradigm which is being replaced is one where the primary emphasis was on consensus, and within which “deviance” or “crime” was viewed as an aberration shared by some minority. This group had failed to be properly socialized or adequately integrated into society or, more generally, had suffered from “social disorganization.” The shift in paradigm means more than simply a shift from explaining the same facts with new causal models. It means that we stretch our conceptual framework and look to different facets of social experience. Specifically, instead of resorting inevitably to the “normative system,” to “culture” or to socio-psychological experiences of individuals, we look instead to the social relations created by the political and economic structure. Rather than treating “society” as a full-blown reality (reifying it into an entity with its own life), we seek to understand the present as a reflection of the economic and political history that has created the social relations which dominate the moment we have selected to study. The shift means that crime becomes a rational response of some social classes to the realities of their lives. The state becomes an instrument of the ruling class enforcing laws here but not there, according to the realities of political power and economic conditions. There is much to be gained from this re-focusing of criminological and sociological inquiry. However, if the paradigmatic revolution is to be more than a mere fad, we must be able to show that the new paradigm is in fact superior to its predecessor. In this paper I have tried to develop the theoretical implications of a Marxian model of crime and criminal law, and to assess the merits of this paradigm by looking at some empirical data. The general conclusion is that the Marian paradigm provides a long neglected but fruitful approach to the study of crime and criminal law.

Editor's Note

Kuan Feng and Lin Lü-shih's work on reinterpreting pre-Confucian thought in the Yin-Chou period in the light of social class interests and conflicts shows a highly sophisticated use of Marxist methodology. It also uncovers many interesting problems, such as the basic modes of thinking in the Chou-i, the "Hung-fan," Yin Chi-fu, and Shih Po. By presenting the ancient thought in a reasoned manner, the Marxist methodology loses its forbidding dogmatic aspect and assumes a reasoned appearance open to argumentation. Kuan and Lin's work thus becomes a testing ground not only for an adequate understanding of ancient Chinese thought and its background, but for the adequacy of Marxism as a tool of understanding.