This paper explores the structural and cultural location of petty bourgeois opal miners at Coober Pedy who work on their own account. It is argued that a purely structural categorisation of the petty bourgeoisie ignores the extent to which occupancy represents the out come of a value orientation and cultural choice. Opal miners' cultural values and attitudes are explored in relation to economic and social action and, while certain common beliefs are distinguished, sufficiently divergent patterns of meaning are uncovered to warrant the identifica tion of two main ideological groups, the 'entrepreneurial' and the 'alienated'. The conclusion is drawn that the minority (the 'entre preneurial') look to the capitalist mode of production and to instru mentally rational forms of economic action, while the majority (the 'alienated') display a cultural orientation away from traditional capitalist relations of production and towards the simply commodity mode.
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