Suchergebnisse

The state of class consciousness of working-class children in China has received scant attention in the scholarly literature. This study examines the class consciousness of rural migrant children as they are about to join their migrant parents and become "China's new workers." Qualitative investigations were conducted in two primary schools in Beijing. Focus group and individual interviews were held with 87 fifth- and sixth-grade migrant children in the two case schools and 324 valid student questionnaires were collected. The findings reveal that migrant children are aware of the unequal class relationships suffered by migrant workers; however, their interpretations of class-based injustices exhibit false consciousness, shadowed by individualism, meritocracy and the duality of images. Family and school may play vital roles in shaping migrant children's class consciousness. (China Q / GIGA)

AbstractThe state of class consciousness of working-class children in China has received scant attention in the scholarly literature. This study examines the class consciousness of rural migrant children as they are about to join their migrant parents and become "China's new workers." Qualitative investigations were conducted in two primary schools in Beijing. Focus group and individual interviews were held with 87 fifth- and sixth-grade migrant children in the two case schools and 324 valid student questionnaires were collected. The findings reveal that migrant children are aware of the unequal class relationships suffered by migrant workers; however, their interpretations of class-based injustices exhibit false consciousness, shadowed by individualism, meritocracy and the duality of images. Family and school may play vital roles in shaping migrant children's class consciousness.

THIS ARTICLE EXAMINES THE GROWTTH OF KENYA, WHERE A CNETRALZED STATE AND COMMERRICALIZATION OF THE ARGICULTURAL ECONOMY HAVE MARGINALIZED SIGNIFICANT PROPORTIONS OF THE RURAL POPULACE, PRESUMABLY CREATING CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS FLOURISHES, THOUGH KENYA IS LARGELY A PLEASANT SOCIETY, ELITES ARE NEVERTHELES ABLE TO EXTRACT RESOURCES IN AN INDIRECT AND IMPERSONAL FASHION, THUS SILENCING THE EXPRESSION OF CLASS INTERESTS AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL.

Using data collected in Athens, Greece in the spring of 1977, an effort was made to test the relationship between several objective socioeconomic indicators and subjective class perceptions and political attitudes. Our main concern was the effect of subjective class awareness and consciousness on selected political issues (pro‐Western foreign policy, civil liberties, and economic conservatism) and voting. Our findings show that class and socioeconomic variables tend to be stronger predictors of socio‐political attitudes than are status indicators. In addition, subjective perceptions of class (particularly capitalist political influence and limited societal opportunity), father's politics, and age are major explanatory variables for political attitudes and the way people perceive national and international issues. Perception that the upper class benefits most from clientelism was related to voting and economic conservatism. Working‐class consciousness was important in explaining voting in 1977. Our research strategy suggests that for the future we should broaden the study of class consciousness and awareness by viewing it as multidimensional and including measurements based on both closed‐ and open‐ended questions.

The Comparative Project on Class Structure and Class Consciousness

In Lukács' early Marxist thought in the 1920s, crisis is understood as an expression of a deeper dissonance of social life that reveals the violence inflicted upon humans even in "normal" social conditions. The experience of crisis can thus lead to new forms of social consciousness and, consequently, to a "revolutionizing praxis." However, this transition is in no way mechanically necessary, as crisis can also be perpetuated and temporarily "overcome" through the restoration of dominant power relations. However, the relative instability of the system during a crisis calls us to think about the appropriate forms of organizing collective political practice to effectively intervene in the historical continuum, instead of letting historical automatism be restored.