Agenda

AnnouncementsPaper #3 due Dec 5th Paper #4 due Dec 17th

Questions on Papers? Results from Midterm Evaluations Examples of Journal Entries Review and Discussion of Marx and Class

Consciousness Review of Discussion of DeMott

Class Consciousness and Marx

Elements of Class Consciousness Identity – an awareness of membership defined

by a relation to production Opposition – a sense that this social identity

creates common interests and a common fate that is not in line with the interests of the capitalist class

Totality – disposition to take collective action in pursuit of these class interests

Class Consciousness and Marx

Conditions that are necessary Concentration and communication Deprivation Economic insecurity Alienation at work Polarization Homogenization Organization and struggle

Class Consciousness and Marx

What are the forces impeding class consciousness? Ideology – culture produced from a certain social

location; ideas fitting people’s material interests Ideas are controlled by force Ideas are controlled by access to material resources Hegemony – the dominant or common sense view

among all segments of society is actually the ideology of the dominant class

Media – reproduces the viewpoint of dominant institutions and presents them as natural and obvious

DeMott and the “Imperial Middle”

Argument: Social class is real and has significant consequences Culture (the media) masks class realities

3 story patterns that perpetuate the myth of classlessness Discovery Upending Renunciations

The Omni Syndrome Social distance is unreal

Review

Paper 3 due Dec 5th

Class consciousness and MarxDeMott and the Imperial Middle