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Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Original Title -- Original Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- 1. Class Analysis and the Entrepreneurial Middle Class -- 2. Technological Change, the Occupational Structure and the Entrepreneurial Middle Class -- 3. The Formation and Growth of Small Businesses: the Case of the Building Industry -- 4. The Self-employed -- 5. Small Employers -- 6. Owner-controllers -- 7. Owner-directors and Family-owned Firms -- 8. Conclusions: Entrepreneurship and the Middle Class -- Methodological Appendix -- Bibliography -- Index.

Discusses the present & potential role of the middle class (Mc) in the development & transformation of Central & Eastern Europe. A number of postcommunist countries have pursued the establishment of a new Mc as a means of promoting economic & political stability. However, this effort has been complicated by a number of circumstances: lack of local capital & class traditions, increasing social resistance to liberal reforms, historical hostility toward the Western concepts of Mc, & the absence of Mc ideology & unity. It is argued that the Mc is not merely the product of liberal economic reforms, but also a creation of these reforms. Although the owner class in Central Europe & intelligentsia of Eastern Europe have been cited as predecessors to the new Mc, it is concluded that the transition toward the ideology & structures of the new Mc is not inevitable, but requires economic & institutional guidance & support. T. Sevier

A review article on a book by Jonas Frykman & Orvar Lofgren, Culture Builders: A Historical Anthropology of Middle-Class Life (Gills, John [Tr], New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers U Press, 1987 [(1979) see listing in IRPS No. 64]). After describing the emergence of general ideas about time, space, family, household, & gender in the Swedish middle class (Mc), 1880-1910, this work focuses on the development of concepts of health, cleanliness, sexuality, & corporeality. It is contended that the evolution of bourgeois life & thought was motivated by a need to distinguish the working class (Wc) from the aristocracy & the peasantry. This self-perpetuating ideology of the bourgeoisie came to be imposed on other social classes as a form of imperialistic cultural warfare. The differences between the bourgeoisie & the peasantry & Wc are elaborated through the themes of the compartmentalization of the world, & the obsession with control in their own lives. It is argued that the notion of control is so prevalent in this work that the Swedish Mc appears culturally straitjacketed, rather than as the creative architects of Swedish culture. J. Sadler

Being Poor in America examines the causes and factors that contribute to poverty. It discusses the experiences of being poor in urban and rural environments, and sheds light on homelessness and the role of education and health care in poverty. Features include a glossary, references, websites, source notes, and an index. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

The formation & eventual decline of the United National Independence Party (UNIP) in Zambia represents an interesting variation to a characteristic transformation from populist to middle class oriented politics experienced in many postindependence African nations. High copper prices meant economic & political prosperity for the Zambian government in the years following independence. The UNIP was able to make use of the copper revenue in the establishment of a patronage system, which served to enhance its popularity with the citizens. As long as the party had sufficient revenue to fulfill campaign promises & maintain patronage to local leaders, the UNIP enjoyed growth & stability. With a decline in copper prices, however, came a resurfacing of party factions. UNIP policies had fostered the development of a middle class on whom it came to depend. With declining resources at hand, the classless orientation that had characterized the early party began to erode, as the new elitist class sought to retain its special position above the masses. The UNIP experience is unique in terms of the length of time it was to suppress inherent class differences that had temporarily united in a common bid for freedom. P. Hoye