ABSTRACT
What do we actually mean by the term “working class”? Does it only refer to people working at lower-paid jobs including the so-called ‘blue-collar’ jobs, and those who did not attend university? In a parallel vein, who is classified as the “middle class”? Is it their salaries meeting or exceeding median income levels in society? Those who have a university degree, own a home, and work in a ‘white-collar’ office position? In addition to presenting the numerous scholarly debates across multiple disciplines including political economics and sociology on what constitutes class, this chapter first explores the confusions around each term and recontextualizes them through both alternative theories and actual lived practices drawing on people’s experiences at and from their workplace. It then addresses and critiques the narrowness of neoliberal identity politics as it relates to class. The chapter concludes with possible future directions for sociolinguists in researching the lived dynamics of classed identities and enactments.
