Class and Urban Identities
- Created by: KDallers-
- Created on: 17-06-19 18:18
Intro to Class and Marxist Outlook
Class is at the CENTRE of historical analysis, and looks at context and theory; MARX - sees class as the natural division of society - the 'haves and have nots' - the CLASSES OF INDUSTRIAL CAPITALISM - aristocracy, bourgeoisie, proletariat - have various economic relationships to the MEANS OF PRODUCTION
- HISTORY develops through CONFLICT between the classes - mainly BOURGEOISIE and PROLETARIAT - develops as classes form 'consciousness' of their situation (ie proletariat see how they are being exploited) and BECOME POLITICAL ACTIVE so that they can change this; the MATERIAL FACTORS shape their IDEAS - anti-Hegelian
- The PROLETARIAT only have their labour as a product, which is stripped from them as soon as they go to work - therefore, they become UNHAPPY with their situation, and STRUGGLE to change things - the classis UNIFIED and has a COLLECTIVIST IDENTITY which they pursue
- MARX - suggests this explains reality and is a FRAMEWORK FOR CHANGE - links to the Social Transformation from 1945-1990 (Hobsbawn); there was a changing way of like - death of peasantry? Death of working class?
Marxist Theory in More Detail
"THE HISTORY OF ALL HITHERTO EXISTING SOCIETY IS THE HISTORY OF CLASS STRUGGLE" - about the history of conflict being a pattern in history, specifically between "Haves" and "Have Not" - capitalist struggle was predated by LORDS VS PEASANTS (feudal), slaves vs slave owners (slavery) etc - HISTORICAL MATERIALISM
- How does this work? The bourgeoisie hold 'BOURGEOIS REVOLUTIONS' so their economic power can become political power - things like the English Civil War (Hill), Great Reform Act 1832 (Cannadine)
- After this, the proletariat take action through their OWN REVOLUTIONS - consciousness relates to the shift, and their revolutions drive history to the next stage - a MECHANISTIC AND TELEOLOGICAL APPROACH - applied to Britain by E.P Thompson
- However - adapting this to real life situations is never that easy - never maps out EXACTLY to an example and has to be more NUANCED - E.P Thompson saw class as a SOCIAL RELATIONSHIP in Britain, for example, and Cannadine suggests class has NO REVOLUTIONARY CAPACITY in Britain, so it turns to democratic socialism and welfare instead
Death of Class as a Concept
"Rise and Fall of Class" - important, as class can be seen as a 'British' issue to politicians etc.; is class a CHALLENGE to political discourse? John Major's 'classless society' and class as a 'communist concept' to Thatcher - CLASS AS A PERVERSION OF HISTORY in the 1980s
- History sees class as a key analytical factor, but due to deindustrialisation and fragmentation of the working class due to a changing economy, may have been 'dismissed' - things were more SPEICALISED now, and there was MORE DEFERENCE and less consciousness
- A more complex social order - labour no longer unified people, whereas things like being a woman and skin colour did - more IDENTITY POLITICS - history would EXPLAIN CLASS, not vice versa (Cannadine)
A good example is also the DEATH OF THE PEASANTRY - universally, a HALVING of the peasantry from 1945-1980s, apart from in India, China, Africa, Turkey, South East Asia - in most developed places, great decline (x5 in Japan and Finland); this was due to new, CAPITAL-INTENSIVE PRODUCTIVITY in the West, and more URBANISATION in the global South
- 42% lived in cities by the 80s, and Third World cities were especially growing - Mexico City, grew by X5; also new 'great cities' with lots of rural people migrating to them - Nairobi
Death of the Working Class
Victorian Britain - since this point, the 'working class' has changed due to deindustrialisation - lost 25% of manufacturing from 1980-84, and the RISE OF SERVICES - the 'working class' had now diversified - not just factories, but varied jobs - decline of CONSCIOUSNESS - this made class MORE LIKE 'CULTURE' (Lawrence)
- Runciman - class was about social behaviour rather than the economy from WWI onwards; class was 'evolving' - decline also supported by McKibbin, who agreed with Montpellier's triadic model of class - less homogenous, as WHITE VS BLUE COLLAR divisions emerged (Runciman)
- More fragmented due to CORPORATISM (Middlemas), technology, consumerism and greater SECULARISATION - workers were now more affluent, so less conscious of oppression - post-Fordism
- Manual labour was on the decline due to greater automation, which also led to the decline of unionism - 1984-85 Miners' Strike showed this - undermined traditional socialism in favour of 'new capitalism'; there was now an 'upper' and 'lower' class of workers
- What replaced this? IDENTITY POLITICS - more immigrants in the 'proletarian' work force, leading to racism and HOMOGENEITY of workers turning quickly to FRAGMENTATION
Rise of Identity Politics as a Response
Why did Marxist views of class only speak of WHITE MEN - created tension - what of WOMEN?
- Feminist critiques led by Joan Scott, Anna Clarke - women now formed a part of the WORKING CLASS which was growing in size following DEINDUSTRIALISATION, and more jobs in the services industry - however, they were still in 'subaltern positions' (Hobsbawm) - things like cleaning; however, this still provided a NEW ROLE FOR WOMEN
- New role gave rise to 2ND WAVE FEMINISM - looking at issues like abortion, divorce and liberalisation of laws, as well as female access to education; HOWEVER, in many nations, women still had a DUAL RESPONSIBILITY - home and work (in USSR, for example); FUNDAMENTALISM of family roles was UNDERMINING TRUE EQUALITY
- 1990 - there were only 16 women political leaders; however, among the middle classes, there was a sense that women had 'conquered masculinity'; WOMEN had their OWN CAREERS, and men were no longer able to INTERFERE with womens' lives - progression?
- POSTCOLONIAL scholars argue similar points for ethnic minorities; POSTSTRUCTURAL - questions whether class is simply words - look at how we INTERPRET CLASS through language instead; should be more discursive
Other Critiques of Class
Individualism - liberalism now rejected COLLECTIVISM, therefore this took the basis of class consciousness away - no material truth to this, and class is seen as LESS DETERMINISTIC - there is an EVOLVING SOCIAL STRUGGLE with 'categories of people' (Runciman) based on their SOCIO-OCCUPATIONAL STATUS as opposed to class - so, no MATERIAL BASIS
- Class needs to be REEVALUATED - Cannadine based on Montpellier - either hierarchical, tridadic, or adversarial class structure - how can we DESCRIBE INEQUALITY?
- EDUCATION - class no longer seems relevant to education, as many people from ALL BACKGROUNDS now attend university (late 20th century) - class doesn't seem RELEVANT any longer, as 2% of the ENTIRE POPULATION were students - up to 3 in some nations; was a global trend, as PARENTS SAVED to send their children to university
- STUDENTS - were these a new class? Hobsbawm - no - not inside Marxist structure, and student revolutions always triggered a larger, more identifiable class group (like workers) who really drove the revolutions - STUDENTS ARE PRONE TO RADICALISM, however may have overtaken workers - 1968 Revolutions, Tiananmen Square 1980s - were students OVERLOOKED?
History and Development of the City
Cities are integral to the modern world - 50% live in them, increasing to 60% in 2050 - however, what is the city? Key concepts of SPACE - how it is laid out
- Various things distinguish a city - UK until 1888 - a cathedral? Legal status conferred? Population? Tangible (does it feel like a city)? Independent culture (L.Monkford - 'a theatre of social lives')? - WHAT CAN THE CITY BE
- PRE INDUSTRIAL - Pre 1850s - there was a separation of the home and industrial factories, where work took place - only two 'typical cities' of London and Paris, rest were sparsely populated, and distinguised by RESIDENCE or NON-RESIDENCE (of monarch) - also, social activities began to emerge, like coffee houses
- INDUSTRIAL - 1850s-1960s - cities became 'zoned'; there was a shopping/business centre, factories on the outskirts, and inner city housing inbewtween - new housing like apartment blocks, tenements - more property markets, and new TRANSPORT to get around the city
- POSTINDUSTRIAL - 1970s - less heavy industry within cities, leaving a run-down inner city, but more technology, finance and services in the economy, as well as GENTRIFICATION to improve - more high density and more CONSUMER CULTURE - but still, greater inequality
Culture of the City
From INDUSTRIAL PERIOD ONWARDS, there was greater democratisation of high culture in the cities, with the opening of 'royal centres' in places like Berlin, Paris - things like OPERA HOUSES, ART MUSEUMS (like the National Portrait Gallery) - 59 public UK museums 1900
- 'NATIONAL' buildings - this was used to give identity to the city and the building as something people should take pride in - shows how the CITY IS THE BEST, and the same prinicipal applied to municipal building in 2nd cities - like Leeds Town Hall, 1850s
- ARCHITECTURAL STYLE was a focus of the government and philanthropists - wanted to make things look grand to make the city FEEL SPECIAL and give it some form of identity - concentrated on making lives good for the PEOPLE THAT LIVED THERE
- New social activities - rise of simply taking a stroll along the city (Flaneurs) and the rise of LIBERAL ART FORMS - more satirists, more monologues and people went to cabaret; also, rise of the MOVIE THEATRE - 100 in Manchester 1900 - new types of film could be watched
- THE PRESS - this was important in generating an image of the city - more literature for people
- SPORTS - city football/cricket/rugby clubs gave an identity to the city - German SDP support
Responses to Urban Identities
People looked at the SHIFT TO CITY LIFESTYLE and many reflected and were CRITICAL of what was happening - linked to the rise of MODERNISM and the 'AVANT-GARDE'
- More radical views reflected in art and literature - the city was seen to have brought NEW TROUBLES to the life of an individual - political issue; artists would meet up in cities, discuss the issues, and use these converssations as INSPIRATION FOR THEIR WORK - happened in Paris, German cities, Vienna
- People like Klich and Freud stressed the rise of the DARK AND IRRATIONAL as a result of city life - Freudian conceptions of psychoanalysis were radical and linked to how CITIES had CHANGED PEOPLES MINDS
- London, 1904 - The Bloomsbury Group featuring Virginia Woolfe - questioning the new London and how industrialisation had transformed the city - wrote about her grievances; all this led to a GREATER DIVIDE between rural and urban - RURAL - less connected + isolated, but a sense of FREEDOM - URBAN was vice versa - also, more RURAL-URBAN MIGRATION in the 3rd World - death of the peasant? (Hobsbawm)
- OVERALL - city changed radically both culturally and politically - however, many unsatisfied
Key Historians/Concepts of Class and Urban Identit
Marx; Hobsbawm; C.Hill; E.P Thompson; Cannadine; Major and Thatcher; Lawrence; Runciman; McKibbin; Middlemas; J.Scott; A.Clarke
L.Monkford; Flaneurism; Klich; Freud; V.Woolfe
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