Fantasies of the new class

new criticism, Harvard sociology, and the idea of the university

Stephen Schryer

pp. 147-166

in: Pamela L. Caughie (ed), Disciplining modernism, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009

Abstract

In The Future of Intellectuals and the Rise of the New Class (1979), sociologist Alvin Gouldner predicted that a "new class' of professional knowledge workers would soon displace the moneyed bourgeoisie (the "old class") as the pre-eminent elite in modern U.S. society. This new class encompassed a broad array of occupations: teachers, engineers, scientists, professors, anyone who laid claim to a saleable body of knowledge acquired at the post-secondary level of education—what Gouldner, echoing Pierre Bourdieu, called "cultural capital." Hitherto, the class had been divided between two groups—humanistic intellectuals and the technical intelligentsia. The former's interests were "primarily critical, emancipatory, hermeneutic and hence often political" (48). The latter's interests were technical and concerned with improving the means of production owned by the old class. Gouldner imagined, however, that the two groups were united by their joint dependence upon the university and the "culture of critical discourse" that it fosters. Because of this institutional and cultural tie, the intellectuals and intelligentsia would join together into a single class that would promote a fusion of morality and techne in the modern state. The old class was powerless to prevent this, since it depended upon the technical capabilities of the intelligentsia and thus had to support the new class's institutions. Gouldner thus imagined the emergence of a new social order of professionals, centered in the university, that would extend and perfect the U.S. welfare state.

Cited authors

Bourdieu Pierre