"New Class"? Weber Redux! (was Re: whatever [something about objectivity])

jlgulick at sfo.com jlgulick at sfo.com
Fri Feb 18 12:34:52 PST 2000


On Thu, 17 Feb 2000, Chris Kromm wrote:


> How come no one references Erik O. Wright (whom some stupidly dismiss as
> insufficiently radical because he hews to the notion of "revolutionary
> reforms" -- but I digress) in these discussions on class? His books make the
> most convincing argument I've seen: that people have contradictory class
> locations based on three axes: their control over WHAT things are produced,
> HOW things are produced, and legal ownership. Thus people like managers and
> supervisors; small employers; and semi-autonomous wage earners (many
> professionals) all have contradictory positions which need to be taken into
> account.

Sorry for sounding more neo-Weberian than the Weberian Marxists, but don't those segments of the working class (defined in standard Marxist terms) who own their own housing (and thus have a stake in seeing landed property values rise) or have pension funds in the stock market qualify as having "contradictory class location" ?

John Gulick



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