New Technology and the Class Structure: The Blue-Collar/White-Collar Divide Revisited

Gallie, Duncan; Lane, .

doi:10.2307/591363

Cited by 23 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Market situation comprises one's income, job security and promotion prospects. British research shows that while routine non‐manual and skilled manual workers receive similar incomes the former enjoy better levels of job security and greater promotion prospects than the latter (Gallie 1996). Australian research likewise shows that the incomes of the two occupational categories are similar (Western 1991).…”

Section: Market and Work Situationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Is it individual workers or the occupational category? For example, aggregate data shows that routine non‐manual workers enjoy better market and work situations on average than manual workers do (see Gallie 1996). As Lane (1996) notes however, the use of aggregate data to compare the non‐manual and manual categories can conceal the differences that exist within such categories.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Are clerical workers proletarian? A case study of the Australian Public Service¹

Matheson

2007

British Journal of Sociology

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This paper explores whether clerical workers have been proletarianized by using the Australian Public Service (APS) as a case study. It shows that before the late 1980s the market, work and status situations of APS clerks were predominantly proletarian since they were typified by limited career prospects, low skill requirements, restricted autonomy; low organizational status and estrangement from senior management. This proletarian class situation was reflected in an order taker's culture of informality, cynicism, hedonism and alienation. Since the late 1980s however technological change and workplace restructuring have markedly reduced the number of unskilled and lower paid jobs in the APS, thereby belying widespread predictions of deskilling. I conclude that proletarianization is more likely to have arisen from a decline in the status of clerical work during the course of the twentieth century rather than from a process of deskilling. Notwithstanding the fact that their class situations were predominantly proletarian, most clerks have identified as middle class. We can attribute this not only to the fact that their class situations differ from those of manual workers, as noted by Lockwood, but also to a widespread tendency to identify as middle class, the tendency of many female clerks to base their class identity on their husband's occupation and the fact that popular stereotypes tend to equate class with occupation. It is difficult to decide if clerks are proletarian since 1. Their class situations display a mixture of proletarian and middle-class characteristics 2. They exhibit diverse class identities, social origins, marriage partners and cultural attributes and 3. They occupy different positions on different aspects of inequality. We are therefore unable to allocate them en bloc to a single uniform class. I conclude that while a minority of clerks are proletarian most are better described as middle class.

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Section: Market and Work Situationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are clerical workers proletarian? A case study of the Australian Public Service¹

Matheson

2007

British Journal of Sociology

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“…This structural change is said to be a function of technology, globalisation, and specialisation (Gallie, 1996;Green and Owen, 2006). There is comprehensive literature addressing major aspects of the changes in technology, economy and the labour market.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is comprehensive literature addressing major aspects of the changes in technology, economy and the labour market. The most distinct aspect is that traditional industries have undergone large job losses, while service jobs have grown tremendously (Gallie, 1996;Castells, 1996;Meisenheimer, 1998;Ntermanakis, 2000;Green and Owen, 2006;Oesch, 2006). Restructuring from heavy, male-dominated labour intensive physical production to one based upon the production and exchange of information, the provision of business and consumer services, the strong growth in part-time working, expanding employment of women in parttime jobs constitute some of the main features of this ongoing process (Elias and Purcell, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Trends and Challenges in the Occupational Composition of Employment in the Eu15 and in Turkey

Sümer

2010

eab

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Any fundamental change in a society has a deep effect on the structure and composition of employment. In the era of knowledge society, this structural transformation brings about the creation of new jobs and the extinction of certain traditional jobs. An analysis of employment by occupations may show the new jobs created by new technologies and industries, and also may reveal labour market risks related with non-decent jobs.In this paper an analysis of occupational composition of employment in the EU15 and Turkey has been made for the purpose of highlighting the dual increase in both skilled and non-skilled jobs created by the ongoing structural changes; and labour market risks related with low-skilled occupations. The study is supported with empirical data, and it concludes that people having nondecent jobs in services and elementary jobs are in need of social protection; and that new jobs can be generated in certain subgroups.

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Blackcoated Worker

Zhang

2017

The Wiley‐Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Theory

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Blackcoated worker refers to workers who engage in non‐manual work, in which people exercise their brain instead of brawn . These workers form an important occupational group that comprises different levels of professionals, clerks, managerial, and administrative staff in a wide variety of office settings spread across many sectors of society, such as civil service, commercial, and industrial. Also known as “white‐collar proletariat,” “pencil pusher,” and “pen driver,” these workers display unique economic characteristics, social attributes, and status marks, which carry special implications on their position in the class stratification of society. It is also the title and subject of a seminal study of class position and class consciousness by British sociologist David Lockwood.

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New Technology and the Class Structure: The Blue-Collar/White-Collar Divide Revisited

Cited by 23 publications

References 6 publications

Are clerical workers proletarian? A case study of the Australian Public Service¹

Are clerical workers proletarian? A case study of the Australian Public Service¹

Trends and Challenges in the Occupational Composition of Employment in the Eu15 and in Turkey

Blackcoated Worker

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New Technology and the Class Structure: The Blue-Collar/White-Collar Divide Revisited

Cited by 23 publications

References 6 publications

Are clerical workers proletarian? A case study of the Australian Public Service1

Are clerical workers proletarian? A case study of the Australian Public Service1

Trends and Challenges in the Occupational Composition of Employment in the Eu15 and in Turkey

Blackcoated Worker

Contact Info

Product

Resources

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Are clerical workers proletarian? A case study of the Australian Public Service¹

Are clerical workers proletarian? A case study of the Australian Public Service¹