A Nation of Shopkeepers: The Unstoppable Rise of the Petite Bourgeoisie

Product Information

Perhaps because he is British, he is unaware of how strongly the desire to attain and retain the objective and subjective power of being an American motivates people’s politics. The inability of the left to take ownership over the campaign against the European Union compared to the situation in the mid-1970s – when even Tony Benn at times veered perilously close to Powellite nativism – was obvious.

stars for the excellent critique of the contemporary Western left, and the very helpful outlining of the petite bourgeoisie as a class defined by precarity and social mobility. This work serves as the foundational catalyst for a fresh perspective in the realms of analysis, discourse, and strategic thinking for Socialists. It should be conceded that Poulantzas’s more orthodox Marxist critics like Ellen Meiksins Wood overstated the extent that class relations are simply ‘given’ in the realm of economic exploitation. While a solely cultural analysis of class is clearly absurd, all too often the labour movement adopts an equally unhelpful position on class, which only looks at the macro-economic reltationship between who owns the ‘means of production’ and who does not.Evans’ political conclusion is that the left needs to harness the anti-bureaucratic, anti-parliamentarian and anti-globalisation instincts of the traditional petty bourgeoisie, whose mobilising potential was demonstrated in the French Gilets Jaunes protest movement.

A left hegemonic strategy is not just about building a popular movement but a popular emancipatory one, ranged against gross economic and social inequality both nationally and internationally. Education is a mark of distinction, the key “social mobility elevator” where relations of competition and individual superiority are bred into children throughout their time at school, and the drive to get young people into university sealed their ideology to that of the petit bourgeoisie.But de-platforming far-right spokespersons has never been the sole prerogative of student activists – Evans might be interested to know the history of trade union militants enforcing a ‘no-platform’ for reactionaries by, for instance, mobbing them off the streets. This individualism is also influenced by the relative autonomy in their labour that many TPB workers exercise, and perhaps even those who do not, such as modern gig-economy workers who are tethered to an algorithm instead of a looming supervisor. Roughly speaking he sees the petit bourgeoisie (new and old) as today constituting as much as a third of society. However, I did observe some shortcomings that limited the usefulness of Evans’s framework: namely, the lack of consideration for the *global* class structure, without which any analysis of class falls short. We are somewhat (though certainly awkwardly) aware that loud Leftists, despite all the tough talk, do not tend to be good workplace organisers.

A deep and vital look at who and what constitutes the 'middle classes', what makes them different to the proletariat and bourgeoisie, and how they've become one of the most powerful blocs in modern British politics. But it is not just those employed as white collar serivce workers or supervisors that encompasses the NPB, which is probably the more controversial claim of Evans’ text.For the old petty bourgeoisie, aspiration is manifested in the accumulation of economic capital – Evans conjures the figure of the South Walian ‘superstar tradesman’ who, with his flash car and multiple properties, has finally ‘made it’. It was overwhelmingly members of this precarious middle who supported Brexit and Boris Johnson, but also petit bourgeois who backed Jeremy Corbyn. They were promised not to have to work that crappy supermarket job and they are angry and disappointed that, actually, they have to after-all.