The Service Industry,Private-sector Employment and Social Class in Chile: New Developments from Labour Process Theory

Abstract

For decades, analysts believed that the expansion of the service sector would lead to a ‘middle-class’ society. By the late 20th century, class analysts and labour process scholars called into question this argument. They showed that distinctions such as that between ‘white-collar’ and ‘blue-collar’ work failed to capture the dynamics of control and exploitation within production. Nevertheless, in Chile and other parts of Latin America, research still contends that the expansion of employment in private-sector service activities accelerated the consolidation of a ‘new middle class’. This article challenges this idea. Drawing upon insights from neo-Marxist class analysis and labour process theory, the article compares the perceptions of control over the labour process of workers from different industries, employment sectors and class locations. Quantitative and qualitative evidence suggest that the most important conclusions of recent research are misleading.