ABSTRACT
I address myself here to the concept which provided the ‘unofficial’ theme of the conference on which this symposium is based, a concept which is invoked at several points in the discussion of research reports and which is dealt with at some length by Westergaard in his contribution above. The views expressed in this connection may be summarized by saying that the 1966 paper foreclosed rigorous analysis of what Parkin (1971, p.97) has termed ‘radical meaning systems’ among the working class by its imposition of a truncated set of categories that allowed only for the comparison of a traditional proletarian worker with a new privatised worker. Neither of these types, so it is held, manages to capture the socio-economic situation and social imagery of a putative, new, radical working class which, although existing mainly as a potential formation and making its presence felt only intermittently, is nevertheless an important point of reference: and not only for political reasons but also because, theoretically considered, it represents a type of working class which is characterised by a fusion and a higher development (dare I say ‘Aufhebung’!) of attributes of both the proletarian and privatised workers.
