IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v23y2009i1p49-65.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Stuck in the middle with who? The class identity of knowledge workers

Author

Listed:
  • Abigail Marks

    (Heriot-Watt University, a.marks@hw.ac.uk)

  • Chris Baldry

    (University of Stirling, c.j.baldry@stir.ac.uk)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Abigail Marks & Chris Baldry, 2009. "Stuck in the middle with who? The class identity of knowledge workers," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 23(1), pages 49-65, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:23:y:2009:i:1:p:49-65
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017008099777
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017008099777
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017008099777?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Norman Bonney, 2007. "Gender, employment and social class," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 21(1), pages 143-155, March.
    2. Carol Stephenson & Paul Stewart, 2001. "The Whispering Shadow: Collectivism and Individualism at Ikeda-Hoover and Nissan UK," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 6(3), pages 72-82, 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.
    1. Michaela Kreyenfeld & Dirk Konietzka & Philippe Lambert & Vincent Jerald Ramos, 2023. "Second Birth Fertility in Germany: Social Class, Gender, and the Role of Economic Uncertainty," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 39(1), pages 1-27, December.
    2. Laurence Romani & Patrizia Zanoni & Lotte Holck, 2021. "Radicalizing diversity (research): Time to resume talking about class," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 8-23, January.
    3. Chris Warhurst & Dennis Nickson, 2007. "A new labour aristocracy? Aesthetic labour and routine interactive service," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 21(4), pages 785-798, December.
    4. Martí López-Andreu, 2020. "Breaking Fragmentation through Mobilization: The Development of a Collective Identity during Movistar’s Contractors’ and Technicians’ Strike in Spain," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(4), pages 661-677, August.
    5. David Peetz, 2010. "Are individualistic attitudes killing collectivism?," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 16(3), pages 383-398, August.
    6. Jo McBride, 2006. "Mapping worker collectivism," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 20(3), pages 583-591, September.
    7. Syed Imran Saqib & Matthew M C Allen & Miguel Martínez Lucio & Maria Allen, 2024. "Sustaining Solidarity through Social Media? Employee Social-Media Groups as an Emerging Platform for Collectivism in Pakistan," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(3), pages 636-656, June.
    8. Birgit Apitzsch & Maximiliane Wilkesmann & Caroline Ruiner & Mona Bassyiouny & Ronny Ehlen & Lena Schulz, 2023. "Labour market collectivism: New solidarities of highly skilled freelance workers in medicine, IT and the film industry," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 44(4), pages 1149-1175, November.
    9. Linda Glover & Mike Noon, 2005. "Shop-floor workers’ responses to quality management initiatives," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 19(4), pages 727-745, December.

    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:sae:woemps:v:23:y:2009:i:1:p:49-65. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    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.