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Introduction: Thinking about the Middle Class
Currently there is no shortage of scholars willing to proclaim that class, both as a concept and as an influence on political events, is dead or, at the very least, in need of major resuscitation (Clark and Lipset, 1991; Clark, Lipset and Rempel, 1993; Pahl, 1993; Grusky and Sorensen, 1998). The general tenor of the argument is that under conditions of 'post modernism' or 'post industrialism,' peoples' interests and identities are no longer anchored in occupational or economic activity. This is evidenced by a decline in class voting and electoral behaviour that corresponds less and less readily to the traditional polarity of the 'left-right' ideological dimension. 'Class,' it is suggested, has been swept away with the rise of 'post-material values' (Inglehart, 1977; 1990).
However, amidst these claims, there is, ironically, evidence of a counter trend: growing interest in the nature of one group hitherto neglected in studies of class formation -- the middle class. Indeed, among students of social stratification not necessarily persuaded that class has become an irrelevance, the middle class is now receiving more attention than it ever did in the past. There is little doubt that this development is attributable to its growing size and diversity (Savage et. al., 1992; Butler and Savage, 1995; Langford, 1996). In contrast to a contracting manual working class, the focus of most post war debates about the changing class structure, there has been a huge expansion of professional and managerial positions -- core jobs in any body's classification of the middle class -- over the past two or three decades (Cuneo, 1983; Myles, 1988; Statistics Canada, 1988; Clement and Myles, 1994).
However, recognition that the professions and management are key elements in its conceptualization does not imply agreement about the nature of the contemporary middle class. Indeed, recent exercises in re-mapping the middle class highlight distinctions, as well as commonalities, between its two principle occupational components (Goldthorpe 1982; Torstendahl, and Burrage, 1990).
Moreover, debate about the modern middle class is not restricted to its structural determinants: there is a parallel dialogue about its political role and ideological tendencies. Over the past thirty odd years it has been conceived, variously, as: a new class (Biggs, 1979; Gouldner, 1979); a new governing...