Communities of the Postindustrial City

1. Wright (1985) made the distinction between classes according to the resources that they own and/or control. The major division is between those who do and do not own property (i.e., productive assets, such as factories, stocks, and shares). This distinguishes classes of owners from classes of nonowners. Classes of owners are capitalists (bourgeoisie—the elite) and the petite bourgeoisie (essentially the self-employed). Classes of nonowners are the working class and the middle classes. Classes of nonowners are distinguished according to whether they have control over work process and/or have independence in work processes. Those who have one or both of these assets are the middle classes; those who have neither of these assets are the working classes. Those who have both organizational assets and credentials are expert managers, those who only have credentials are expert nonmanagers, and those with organizational assets only are nonexpert managers. It is important to note that class structure—and Wright’s specifically—is different from an occupational classification, such as that of Reich’s (1992). For example, a self-employed physician would, in class terms, be defined as petite bourgeoisie, but a physician who is an employee would be a member of one of the middle classes. Yet according to Reich’s occupational schema, both are symbolic analysts because both are professionals.

2. Both the occupation score and the industry score were calculated using factor analysis. In both cases, the relevant variables are included in a factor analysis and the relevant factor scores derived. These factor scores then became the summary variables accounting for occupation and industry structure. Variables with higher importance in the data set are given higher weightings.