This volume explores the lives and work of those who are kept out of poverty by their employment, but who occupy tenuous social positions and subaltern jobs.

Presenting a score of household portraits - urban, suburban, and rural - the authors examine what it means to 'get by' in France today, considering the material and symbolic resources that these households can muster, and the practices that give meaning to their lives. With attention to their aspirations and disappointments - and their desire to be 'like everyone else' in a supposedly egalitarian society that nonetheless gives them little credit for their effort - this book offers a sociological interpretation of their situations, offering new insights into what it means to be 'working class' in a 21st-century post-industrial society. Combining statistical analyses with ethnographically-based examinations of how changes in the structure of the employment market relate to plans for upward mobility, Subaltern Workers in Contemporary France sheds light on the ways in which class identity - along with all its associated practices, tastes, and aspirations - has changed since the sociological classics on the working classes were published over half a century ago.

As such, this book will appeal to sociologists with interests in the sociology of the family, social class, and the sociology of work.

About the Author

Olivier Masclet is a Professor of Sociology at the Universite de Limoges and co-director of the GRESCO Research Centre, France.

Thomas Amosse is a researcher at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers, Lise-CEET Research Centre, Paris, France.

Lise Bernard is a researcher at CNRS and a member of the Centre Maurice Halbwachs, Paris, France.

Marie Cartier is a Professor of Sociology at Nantes University, France.

Marie-Helene Lechien is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the Universite de Limoges, France.

Olivier Schwartz is a Professor of Sociology at the Universite Paris Cite, France.

Yasmine Siblot is a Professor of Sociology at the Universite Paris 8, CRESPPA-CSU Research Centre, France.

Reviews

'Olivier Masclet and his team of expert researchers have produced an exemplary account of those in the middle tier of the working class today: those who are not so poor and insecure as to be the subject of moral panic and political censure but not so affluent and privileged as to be on the edge of the middle class. They are getting by, struggling on, trying to be "like everyone else", with hopes, dreams, struggles, failures and fears for the future. Embedding rich, detailed case studies of individuals and couples within rigorous reviews of the changes sweeping France as much as any other Western social order, the team skilfully manage to unpick the effects of declining working class solidarity, precarisation and feminisation of employment, changing gender relations and the race for credentials on the everyday experiences, biographies, self-perceptions and self-evaluations of workers and families in the 21st century. This is a must-read for anyone interested in working-class life in contemporary Europe'. Will Atkinson, Professor of Sociology, University of Bristol, author of The Class Structure of Capitalist Societies and Beyond Bourdieu

Book Information
ISBN 9781032360577
Author Olivier Masclet
Format Paperback
Page Count 356
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 689g