Affluent Workers Revisited: Privatism and the Working ClassFiona Devine's important new book offers a qualitative re-evaluation of the Affluent Worker study conducted by John Goldthorpe and his colleagues in Luton nearly thirty years ago. Drawing on her intensive interviews with Vauxhall workers and their wives, Devine examines the motivations, processes and consequences of geographical mobility and explores working-class lifestyles and the extent to which they may be described as privatised or communal. Contrary to the predictions of the older study, Devine's findings suggest that working-class lifestyles are neither exclusively family-centred, nor entirely home-centred. No evidence of a singular instrumentalism appears; instead aspirations for material well being form a crucial component of a collective working-class identity, with criticism of the trade unions and the Labour Party being directed at their failure to change the distribution of resources in Britain. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Privatism and the Working Class | 14 |
Geographical Mobility | 32 |
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Affluent Worker study Andrew Bennett Angela Stone attitudes Barbara Wright Britain cent centred child-care class structure Colin Burgess colleagues conjugal roles Conservative Party constraints consumer aspirations daily lives domestic Dorothy Atkinson economic embourgeoisement thesis emphasised enjoyed family life-cycle family-centred fellow workers friends full-time geographical mobility Goldthorpe Grieco hobbies household housework husbands immediate family important individual industrial labour aristocracy Labour Party Lawrence Atkinson leisure activities lived in Luton London Luton team argued Luton team's findings Luton Town Lutonians Marshall men's Michael Clark migrants moved to Luton neighbours nomic opportunities paid and unpaid parents part-time Party supporters patterns of sociability political privatised privatism redundancies Richard Graves sample siblings sociability with kin sociable contact social socialising solidarity standards of living suggested town trade unions traditional Vauxhall workers viewees vote wages weekends wives women interviewees working-class life-styles workmates workplace young Zweig