24 June 2004 - Accademia dei Lincei, Rome

The question of the middle classes has received quite a bit of press coverage in recent months. It is an issue that has actually been simmering for some time. Statistics, readers' letters and comments have shown that a large percentage of the middle classes has been finding it difficult to keep up their usual levels of revenue and consumption. Politicians have been taken by surprise, and in one way or another have appropriated the issue. Sociologists too have been caught unawares by this development.

They have never been particularly fond of the question of the middle classes. There are many reasons for this, and they are all more or less understandable, but perhaps the main reason is they have never found a way to deal with those categories that find themselves in the middle. When talking about figures in the middle of the social pyramid, they sometimes say "classes", and sometimes "ranks", in the plural or in the singular: it is a slippery path, one that not many are willing to risk.

Traditional classification schemes distinguish between old middle ranks (or middle classes) independent (craftsmen, merchants, farmers) and new middle classes, namely clerical workers; the latter group are in turn broken down into public and private, two figures that have always been viewed as having different social attributes. It follows that these and other distinctions are justified if they help to systematically describe different values, lifestyles, expressions of interest, political affiliations and so on. Categories such as the one indicated above retain an analytical value, but with the fall of industrial capitalism the diversification of roles and professional status has increased considerably: social fragmentation and individualisation are two recurrent terms to describe tendencies that complicate our problem.

The first question that I raise is thus: in an era of social diversification and individualisation, is it possible to still consider all of the middle classes in the same way? Can we - is it worth our while - talk about the middle classes, and under what conditions? If so, why is it important to consider the question? Basically, I shall only try to answer these questions. Let me say straight away that I shall not talk about a lot of things, including topics that are not at all secondary ones, especially regarding what is above and below the middle classes. But it is just an introduction to a subject that has been neglected for too long.

Read here the whole lecture.