Professional Employees’ Transformative Potential: Labour Aristocracy or New Working Class
Abstract
Class forces founded in production relations are basic agents of continuity and change in all societies today. The main distinction is between those who own means of production and those they hire to produce goods and services, along with others they hire to coordinate and control the producers. Of course, these class differences interact with relations based on race, gender, age and other specific conditions. But those analysts who choose to focus on these factors while either ignoring class relations or reducing them to cultural distinctions are missing the underlying profit-driven dynamic of advanced capitalism. The aim of this paper is to identify the basic classes producing goods and services in advanced capitalism and assess their disposition to progressive change. If we want to move toward a sustainable equitable future, we need to 'find the horses' to get us there. Are non-managerial professional employees’ likely candidates?
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