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Muddying the Waters

Changes in Class and Identity in a Working-Class Cultural Organization

Institute of Education, University of London

This article charts and analyses the debates and discussions about class and identity over the last 30 years in the Federation of Worker Writers and Community Publishers (Fed).The Fed fostered a class identity that was sharpened through discussions about the role of middle-class sympathizers. Narrow definitions of class were continually widened as groups of women, black and gay groups asserted an autonomous identity and set up separate groups, sometimes in direct opposition to class. While one section of the Fed clung to a narrow conception of class, the majority welcomed the changes but were unwilling to jettison class.This evidence brings into question academic arguments that tended to assert that class, as a monolithic presence, has been simply undermined or replaced by new identities and new social movements.Too little attention has been paid to the persistent but changing meanings of class.

Key Words: culture • identity • working class

Sociology, Vol. 39, No. 5, 1001-1018 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0038038505058384


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