Agenda Announcements Paper #3 due Dec 5 th Paper #4 due Dec 17 th 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 5 th Class consciousness and Marx DeMott and the Imperial Middle