ABSTRACT
One group of workers performs challenging work that requires a high level of qualification, while another group performs simple tasks under very restrictive conditions. Since the work itself also has an impact on the consciousness of the workers, this polarization of industrial work also leads to different levels of worker consciousness in the subgroups. According to Karl Marx, individuals have the possibility of finding themselves through work—to develop their identities as agents—so long as the conditions of production allow it. The bracket Marx uses to bring together society and the individual is his class concept. The class society derived from the conditions of production can be contrasted with concepts of equality which developed with modern society. Representatives of the class-differentiation approach take advantage of the possibility already suggested by Marx and Friedrich Engels of the formation of intermediate class positions and further differentiation within the capitalist and the working class.
