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Abstract

This paper takes issue with the thesis of embourgeoisement in all its various manifestations; from its initial presumption of manual workers having become normatively as well as materially enhanced, to its most recent version depicting the working class as beset by predatory acquisitiveness and crass hedonism to an extent where their previous social betters have found themselves compelled to adopt their `cash on the table' mentality in sheer self-defence. Yet, a comprehensive range of empirical data fails to offer objective warrant for such sets of assumption. The question of the ideological background underlying the myth of The New Acquisitiveness is then examined under three separate headings; namely those of positional exigencies; intensified contradictions; and, new corporatism. The stucture of Corporatism, with its emphasis upon functional hierarchy, social homogeneity, and organic cohesion suggests itself as the most likely explanatory framework.

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The Newly Acquisitive Affluent Worker?

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