IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v7y2018i1p10-d126201.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Pride, Paternalism, Prejudice—Images of the Working Class

Author

Listed:
  • Ove Skarpenes

    (Department of Sociology and Social Work, University of Agder, 4604 Kristiansand, Norway)

  • Rune Sakslind

    (Department of Sociology, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway)

Abstract

What has happened with the image of the working class? The hero in the construction of the Nordic Model was the labor movement (and the working class). For a long time, this was the dominant picture of the Norwegian working class. However, the societal trends of the past decades have, in a peculiar way, given the working class a central place in political discussions and in the public sphere, but now, a more ambivalent image emerges. In a somewhat paternalistic way, the worker image in political and academic debates as well as in part of the public sphere is typically that of a person unsuccessful in the educational system. Even a third image is identifiable in the public sphere—a prejudice imagery—in which the class is labelled as unhealthy, abusing the welfare system, culturally unsophisticated, and politically dangerous, moving toward right-wing populism. The ambition of the paper is to present these different images of the working class.

Suggested Citation

  • Ove Skarpenes & Rune Sakslind, 2018. "Pride, Paternalism, Prejudice—Images of the Working Class," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-13, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:7:y:2018:i:1:p:10-:d:126201
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/7/1/10/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/7/1/10/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elias Le Grand, 2015. "Linking Moralisation and Class Identity: The Role of Ressentiment and Respectability in the Social Reaction to ‘Chavs’," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 20(4), pages 18-32, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:7:y:2018:i:1:p:10-:d:126201. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.