White-Collar proletariat the industrial behaviour of British civil servants

This book is concerned with the industrial behaviour of a group of white-collar workers in Britain. Civil Servants. I test whether changes in the industrial behaviour of these workers can be ex plained with reference to the sociological concept of proletarian ization. I proceed by delimiting the concept of proletarianiza tion, by an examination of some of the work of Marx where the concept originates, then by specifying the way in which the con cept has been used by subsequent writers. I draw attention to a number of key variables which sociologists have taken as critical in the study of proletarianization. These are level and source of income, social origins and the organization of work. I argue that most of the formulations of the concept of proletarianization are inadequate from an empirical or theoretical point of view. examine the variables in the context of white-collar workers in the Civil Service. My empirical focus is the Civil Service, because within that organization there are a variety of white collar occupations which may be compared and there is much avail able material on the Civil Service, including evidence presented to Royal Commissions, government statistics, autobiographies of retired or serving Civil Servants and trade unionists, minutes of

union conferences and the trades union journals. I have found in the Civil Service a degree of change in the pattern of industrial behaviour (such as resort to strike action. and other forms of militancy) but I argue that this cannot be explained by the concept of proletarianization. of reasons for this and in my conclusion suggest alternative modes I suggest a number of explanation for white-collar militancy. These findings are then placed in the general context of mainstream sociology.