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Subscribe to Working-Class Perspectives - Working-Class Perspectives offers weekly commentaries on current issues related to working-class people and communities. Contributors discuss a variety of issues, from what class means to how it intersects with race and gender to how class is shaping American politics. We welcome relevant comments of 500 words or less.
For questions or comments about this blog, e-mail Sherry Linkon. For assistance with news stories about working-class politics and culture, call or e-mail John Russo, 330-207-8085. Categories
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The State of the Working Class
Listen to Working-Class Perspective editor Sherry Linkon's recent interview about Working-Class Studies on KERA's Think with Krys Boyd.Links
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Tag Archives: inequality
Beyond Economic Populism
Predictably, politicos and commentators spent much of 2020 debating why working-class voters supported Trump and how the Democrats could win them back. Although we’ve occasionally contributed to these conversations, we’re also getting tired of them. They tend to envision “the … Continue reading
Amplified Advantage: Why Education Is Not the Answer to Our Class Problems
Thirty years ago, after having dropped out of college after just one term, unable to pay for my dorm room, I was unsure if I would ever leave the working class. Two years later I was a student at Barnard … Continue reading
Posted in Allison L. Hurst, Class and Education, Contributors, Issues
Tagged higher education, inequality, working-class students
4 Comments
Counting on Class: The Continuing Appeal of Meritocracy
Neither faith in nor critiques of the idea of meritocracy is new. Michael Young’s famous 1958 book The Rise of Meritocracy argued that class privilege and advantage were likely to be amplified as financial and cultural capital passed across generations … Continue reading
Posted in Contributors, Issues, Tim Strangleman, Understanding Class
Tagged inequality, meritocracy
2 Comments
Notre Dame Cathedral and Questions from a Worker Who Reads (after Bertolt Brecht)
When Notre Dame Cathedral caught fire in Paris on April 15, 400 firefighters were deployed to tackle the blaze. One of those workers was seriously injured, and two police officers were also hurt. Emergency workers risked their lives to remove … Continue reading
Posted in Class and the Media, Contributors, Issues, Sarah Attfield, Work
Tagged Class and the Media, inequality, Notre Dame fire, workers
3 Comments
Karl Marx Makes a Comeback
Several months ago the Communist party in Russia updated their visual propaganda by giving three of their most controversial icons—Lenin, Stalin, and Karl Marx—a makeover. In their new poster series, Stalin looks handsome and serious in a puff of vaping … Continue reading
Memo to the Next President: Don’t Forget the Working Class
At the end of most US presidential elections, most Americans are ready to see the last of campaign ads, social media commentaries and tension-fraught news coverage. That’s even more true this year. But more than in most recent elections, we … Continue reading
Inequality and Democrats
American politicians have an ingenious way to avoid discussing uncomfortable or controversial subjects: they declare that we need to have a discussion! When all sides agree that “we need a discussion about race,” for example, they are actually agreeing not … Continue reading
Putnam’s Poignant Folly: Empathetic Blaming
Robert Putnam graduated from high school in 1959 in the small Lake Erie town of Port Clinton, Ohio, and for his widely-praised book Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis he revisits some members of his high school class to … Continue reading
A Tale of Two Cities and Two Activists
Climate change and increasing class inequities are two of the most pressing issues of our time. How are policies and activism addressing these problems? Two young women working for progressive change in two mid-sized cities offer inspiring models, one from … Continue reading
Posted in Contributors, Labor and Community Activism, Nick Coles
Tagged climate change, inequality, Pittsburgh, Plymouth
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Expanding Inequality
In a series of articles in Slate this fall, Timothy Noah traced the growth of income inequality in America and identified several contributing factors: the decline of organized labor, the poor quality of K-12 education, and various government policies among … Continue reading
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