Author: Oliver Platt
Class is one of the most recognized sociological concepts. Coined by Marx and Weber it is present in the everyday understanding of social realities. In sociology, however, it lost its relevance during the 80s and 90s following debates on individualism and particularism. According to mainstream modernization theory the assumption prevailed that relational inequalities according to class were dissolving and at the same time living conditions were becoming more diverse. Consequently, vertical inequalities were overlooked in research. Discourses about a leveled middle-class society (nivellierte Mittelstandsgesellschaft1) that continue to this day are an example of this individuum-oriented shift. Just recently, it gained more attention2 – which is strongly connected to large-scale changes in the political landscape, economic conditions, precarity, and rising social inequality. 3, 4 The “leveling thesis” of has proven to be false, new class conflicts have been observed. This blog shows the class differences that exist even on a small regional level like the county of Marburg-Biedenkopf – and that these have concrete political consequences.
Why class still matters
In this long tradition several theorists developed numerous classifications and definitions for class. Most of them refer to Marx’ prominent distinction between owners of the means of production and workers that are dependent employed. Given the fact that most people are dependently employed, scholars usually subdivide the working class into several sub-classes.5, 6 A key argument is that people, depending on which economic sector they work in, which skills are required, and which encounters are made, have different life realities and, consequently, develop class-specific political views. Even if this views are not necessarily connected to class awareness in a classical sense, we can assume that class membership is associated with class-specific attitudes.7
One attempt is to highlight different types of employees daily work experiences. Whether an occupation involves administrative as well as bureaucratic expertise, technical knowledge or inter-personal and social skills, workers primary orientations differ in several ways.8 The Federal Employment Agency (Agentur für Arbeit) takes a similar approach and defines 5 occupational segments according to the homoegeneity of their work logic: (1) production jobs like manufacturing professions, (2) personal service occupations like healthcare as well as cultural service professions, (3) commercial and business-related service professions, (4) IT and scientific service professions, and (5) other economic service professions like cleaning jobs.9 Look at the map, to see how these occupational classes are distributed in Marburg-Biedenkopf district! Here you can see the percentage shares of the occupational classes in all employees.
Note: Data is displayed on the level of voting districts, i.e. the area assigned to a single election office
Regional Distribution of Occupational Classes and Regional Inequality
In the Marburg-Biedenkopf district we see a clear segregation of occupational classes. For example, along the Perf river which is part of the north-western Hinterland region, the proportion of employees in production occupation is particularly high. In this region, many small and medium-sized industrial companies offer a large number of manufacturing jobs. This is also the case around the municipality of Stadtallendorf in the East of the county. Quite the opposite is true for personal service jobs. The quota of workers in this segment is in particular high within Marburg – with the exception of the Richtsberg district. Here, are especially other economic service jobs like security, logistics and cleaning prevalent. IT and Science Workers are mainly clustered in the rural areas of the municipality of Marburg.
How can we interpret this? First of all, one should recall that we have data on the level of electoral districts – not on individuals. Therefore, we can’t draw conclusions on individuals. Instead, we should interpret this patterns as the regional prevalence of a given work-logic. In turn, this work-logic is strongly associated to regional economic conditions like the presence of jobs, housing costs, and access to mobility. This creates regions with a structural advantage or disadvantage.10 For instance, workers occupied in manufacturing jobs are differently vulnerable to economic crises than cultural service professions. In short, the regional distribution of occupational classes can be seen as a proxy for regional inequalities.
Voting Behavior through the Lenses of Inequality and Class
Why is that important? We have noted that occupational class goes hand in hand with class-specific attitudes and regional inequality. Consequently, its regional distribution should be also reflected in political behavior. The graphs below show the correlation between the share of an occupational class in percent and the share of the second vote for a party in the state election in Hesse (2023). Here you can choose which occupational classes and which parties interest you the most. What do you notice?
References
1Schelsky, H. 1965. Die Bedeutung des Klassenbegriffs für die Analyse unserer Gesellschaft. Auf der Suche nach Wirklichkeit, Hg. Helmut Schelsky, 352–388. Düsseldorf, Köln: Eugen Diedrichs.
2Altreiter, C. Soziale Klasse in der Arbeitssoziologie. Zur Relevanz eines totgesagten Begriffs. Österreich Z Soziol 43, 251–266 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11614-018-0310-1
3Piketty, T., & Saez, E. (2014). Inequality in the long run. Science, 344(6186), 838-843.
4Castel, R. (2012). Die Krise der Arbeit: Neue Unsicherheiten und die Zukunft des Individuums. Hamburger Edition HIS.
5Erikson, R., Goldthorpe, J. H., Portocarero, L (1979). Intergenerational class mobility in three Western European societies: England, France and Sweden. The British Journal of Sociology. 40(3), 415-441.
6Wright. E. O. (1985). Classes. Verso.
7Kohn, M. (1989). Class and conformity: A study in values. University of Chicago Press.
8Oesch, D. (2006). Redrawing the class map. Stratification and institutions in Britain, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland. Palgrave Macmillan.
9Erikson, R., Goldthorpe, J. H., Portocarero, L (1979). Intergenerational class mobility in three Western European societies: England, France and Sweden. The British Journal of Sociology. 40(3), 415-441.
10Lieberson, S. (2019). Understanding ascriptive stratification. Some issues and principles. In D. Grusky (Ed.), Social stratification, class, race, and gender in sociological perspective, Second Edition (pp. 781–780). Routledge.
