This book makes a comparative analysis of working-class consciousness in Britain, France, Italy and the United States and seeks to answer the question of whether the working class today is a potentially revolutionary force in the West. In France and Italy class conflict and working-class consciousness have reached a higher level of intensity than in Britain or the United States. Both Marxist and functionalist explanations for this are discussed, special attention being paid to the recent French Marxism of Althusser, Mallet and Touraine. Class consciousness is examined as a dynamic process by analyzing the "explosion of consciousness" which often seems to occur in turbulent strike situations. The author concludes that class conflict is more complex than either group of theorists suggest. Working-class consciousness and the relationship between labor and capital are found to be dualistic and fundamentally unstable. Revolutionary potential is greatest in situations of uneven economic and social development when the capital-labor contradiction may be reinforced by other social conflicts. This means that the Marxist claim that the working-class carries in itself the power to be a class for itself must be rejected.

From terrorism to social inequality and from health care to environmental issues, social problems affect us all. The Encyclopedia will offer an interdisciplinary perspective into these and many other social problems that are a continuing concern in our lives, whether we confront them on a personal, local, regional, national, or global level.

This concise and accessible textbook overviews the place and continuing centrality of the concept of class in cultural studies and sociology. The book reopens the debates over class and culture that were very nearly closed down in postmodernism. Andrew Milner offers readers a critical introduction to the Marxist and Weberian accounts of class and relates the significance of class in the new social movements. He also looks at class politics and trends in the character of class relations.

Addressing a number of 'missing links' in the analysis of labour and its geographies, this volume examines how theoretical perspectives on both labour and the organizations of the labour movement can be refined. Issues of agency, power and collective mobilizations are examined via case studies from the 'global north' and 'global south' in order to develop a better understanding of labour market processes in developed and developing countries.

In most globalizing economies, workers engaged in the informal sector occupy the lowest rungs of society. This book examines one such group—stone quarry workers located beyond the expanding rim of south Delhi and beneath the radar of effective law and policy. Drawing upon extensive case studies and personal narratives of this labouring class, Talib focuses on their inner world and interprets their life stories. He records the dwindling oral tradition of these people and brings to the fore the dynamics of survival. Questioning the discourse that views this group as passive objects, the book portrays them as active negotiators of their own circumstances. This work is crucial to an understanding of the current debates on labour and development studies. It presents the workers' story of social exclusion and struggle for survival, which is rarely heard amidst the counter narratives of the formal sector's economic boom.