3 WHO FEELS THEY BELONG TO THE WORKING CLASS? QUICK FACTS „ The perception of the working class has become very differentiated. Workers are described as people who work hard, both mentally and physically, receive a low wage and have little scope to assert themselves socially or politically. „ Almost half of the respondents see themselves as members of the working class. The change is evident across the occupational classes. Although there are strongholds among production workers and service workers there are also high proportions among other occupational groups, such as technical(semi-)experts, office clerks, and sociocultural(semi-)experts. We have already emphasised that, purely from an occupa­tional standpoint, there is still a working class today, al­though it is much more differentiated. But regardless of objective categorisation in terms of occupational classes the question arises of whether people regard themselves as workers and members of the working class today. Without such an identification no class consciousness can emerge, which is a condition of common organisation and political interest representation. We therefore needed to find out what the term working class means to people today. What determines a sense of belonging and how is it expressed? And who feels that they don’t belong? The following situation was re-enacted in the focus groups. There’s a knock at the door, someone opens it and before them stands a worker. The participants were asked to describe the person. The first attributes that came to mind primarily concerned traditional ideas about»male production workers« and the underlying conception of labour: »As far as I know workers tend to wear work clothes when they come home from work, and that people who aren’t from the working class tend to wear shirts- not checked shirts, but plain-coloured shirts, I suppose.« (Control and signalling electri­cian, 48 years of age, Leipzig) »So for me there has to be something to do with physical work, that they work with their hands in some way.« (Female warehouse employee, 45 years of age, Essen) »So for me a worker is someone who basically makes something or somehow a product and not just mentally.«(Facility manager in a care institu­tion, 59 years of age, Stuttgart) But the picture quickly changed in the course of the dis­cussion and other factors, such as physical and mental load or strain were also raised that strongly characterise the working class. Thus the working class was expanded to in­clude workers in the service sector and sociocultural (semi-)experts. »For me, a cleaning lady is also a worker, and some­times she works harder than a workman. I wouldn’t make a sweeping judgement that a cleaner isn’t a worker, or that I’m not a worker in the catering in­dustry, because I work my arse off. So I work.«( Ser­vice employee in catering, 29 years of age, Hamburg ) »A delivery driver, for example, is just as stressed these days, or is at the bottom of the service industry, every but as much as a worker who gets their hands dirty or something like that.«( Sewage treatment and energy plant installer, 60 years of age, Bochum) 24 WORKING CLASS IN THE MIDDLE?  NOVEMBER  2024  FES diskurs