The Individualisation of Class Struggle Paul Bagguley

"Rather than class based collective action being in decline, it is argued that its repertoire of contention has changed, both in terms of its form and content. People pursue their economistic class interests in an individualised manner, but they are dependent on collective actors such as unions in pursuit of these interests."

"Individuals have conflicts with their employers around their economic rights as employees, and their economic rights as members of status groups such as gender, disability and ethnicity. However, these struggles often require and make use of collectivised resources – the trade union. Where they do not, they make use of other sources of support such as Citizen’s Advice Bureaux (Abbott, 1998; Towers, 1997: 236). "

"These detraditionalizations happen in a social surge of individualization. At the same time the relations of inequality remain stable… Against the background of a comparatively high material standard of living and advanced social security systems, the people have been removed from class commitments and have to refer to themselves in planning their individual labour market biographies. (Beck, 1992: 87) "

The jurifidication of work place issues in unfair dismissal tribunals etc As the decline of collective expressions of class difference can be taken as an easy shorthand to illustrate the fall of the clas narrative by the end of class theorists, the use of other data such as sick days when contextualised within the framework of stress as an injury of class, or cases to tribunals for unfair dismissal etc illustrate otherwise.

A quote that would accurately sum up the Joanne Delaney situation is "… even some forms of defiance which appear to be individual acts … may have a collective dimension, for those who engage in these acts may consider themselves to be part of a larger movement. Such apparently atomized acts of defiance can be considered movement events when those involved perceive themselves to be acting as members of a group, and when they share a common set of protest beliefs. (Piven and Cloward, 1979: 4) "

Non payment campaigns are individuated yet collectivised.

"Whereas, in the traditional moral economy people defended traditional rights and customs (Thompson 1993: 188), in the modern moral economy they defend their legal rights as citizens. This is based on modern ideas of social norms and the obligations that employers have towards their employees. Unfair practices by employers offend modern sensibilities of fairness and morality. Thompson saw the traditional moral economy as approving direct action by the crowd to seek redress (Thompson 1993: 212), however, the modern moral economy encourages individual action through institutionalised legal channels albeit often with collective support both formal and informal. Thompson saw that the food riot required little organisation and was an ‘inherited pattern of action’ (Thompson 1993: 238). However, this modern moral economy requires ‘expertise’ and specialised knowledge, as a pattern of action has to be learnt, and this learning has partly led to the widespread recourse to these institutionalised and juridified forms of redress."

traditional moral economy particular and localised, modern moral economy universalised and institutionalised in state institutions just as they represented the institutionalisation of the mob..

Gallie, D. (1996) ‘Trade Union Allegiance and Decline in British Urban Labour Markets’, in Gallie et. al. (eds) Trade Unionism in Recession, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Waddington, J. and Whitson, C. (1997) ‘Why Do People Join Unions in a Period of Membership Decline?’ British Journal of Industrial Relations, 35, 4: 515-46.