ABSTRACT
The Weberian literature available on the middle class is immense. The analysis of the middle class makes an apt illustration of Giddens's theory. He argues that dichotomous theories of class must all necessarily fail because people cannot recognise a middle class. Giddens therefore argues that there are well-defined class differences between manual and white-collar workers. The market capacity of middle-class occupations is conferred by educational and technical qualifications. The familiar fragmentation of the middle class prevents any coherent politics other than political indifference or a tendency to support whatever political interest is in the ascendant. Lockwood's aim is to explain the class-consciousness of clerks, which he takes to be indicated by the relationship of the blackcoated worker to the trade union movement. There are, then, a number of sources of structuration which intervene between market capacities and social classes.
