Stuck in the middle with who? The class identity of knowledge workers
- 1 March 2009
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Work, Employment and Society
- Vol. 23 (1) , 49-65
Abstract
The coming of the information age has been associated with widespread social transformation and new, or dissolved, class structures. Central to this claim is the emergence of `knowledge workers' including information technology professionals. While previous discussion has focused on the paradox faced by IT workers as both professionals and employees, this article, using empirical data from five software organizations in Scotland, examines their perceptions of class structure and their own class position. It finds that participants clearly retained varying class models of society but expressed conflict between their own self-rated class identity and that which they awarded to their occupation and profession.Keywords
This publication has 26 references indexed in Scilit:
- Assumptions, Assertions and the Need for EvidenceCurrent Sociology, 2008
- Revisiting technical workers: professional and organisational identities in the software industryNew Technology, Work and Employment, 2007
- Class belonging: a quantitative exploration of identity and consciousnessThe British Journal of Sociology, 2007
- Gender, employment and social classWork, Employment and Society, 2007
- Mapping worker collectivismWork, Employment and Society, 2006
- Social Class and Stratification in Late ModernityActa Sociologica, 2002
- The Whispering Shadow: Collectivism and Individualism at Ikeda-Hoover and Nissan UKSociological Research Online, 2001
- Labouring under an illusion? The labour process of software development in the Australian information industryNew Technology, Work and Employment, 2001
- Class Analysis and the Reorientation of Class Theory: The Case of Persisting Differentials in Educational AttainmentThe British Journal of Sociology, 1996
- Job Content, Fragmentation, and Control in Computer Software WorkIndustrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 1986