ABSTRACT
If the dialectics of proletarian habituation are addressed more comprehensively as a problem of the reproduction of the relations of production, the authors need consider not only conditions and forces of production, but also the manner in which proletarian consciousness and culture articulate with these forces. The locus of working-class culture in the epoch of competitive capitalism was in what Salaman terms the Occupational community. After years of trying to suppress the hedonistic component of working-class culture in the interests of productive efficiency, capital now finds it necessary to encourage private hedonism but collective restraint. What is more significant for our purposes is that the culture of resistance developed by working-class school students seems to have begun to be transferred, in differently articulated forms, to the workplace. Resistance to supervisory authority, sabotage, bad timekeeping, and absenteeism among young workers have manifested themselves strongly, even during periods of economic crisis and high unemployment.
