In Search of the Finnish New Middle Class

Abstract

The way of life and essence of the Finnish new middle class are discussed. Within a theoretical framework that one might call Bourdieuan, the analysis is based on a questionnaire by Pierre Bourdieu in his book La Distinction (1979) and an interview material consisting of life stones of Finnish new middle class people As a preliminary conclusion, it is argued that taste is by no means as important a criterion for the new middle class in Finland as it is in France In the Finnish middle class emphasis is rather on subjectivity, on personal relations and their therapeutic nature, i e. on the way of life in a broader sense. Also, it is argued that the so-called ambivalent type of the new middle class is something specific with regard to both class and modernity.