流浮山拔刀齋
2024-03-22 13:55:11
我講漏咗教育水平,仲有工作性質,係我錯咗
在香港,根據香港中文大學社會學系教授呂大樂的界定,收入並不能夠成為被強調的起點。呂大樂說「這(收入)不是一個太有用的分類」。「就香港而言,月薪2萬到5萬港幣完全可以排到中等收入群體了,但是,這並不是等同於你就成了中產階級,還要看你住的房子的房價,你的消費方式,是否住在體面的樓盤,是否有定期的渡假等等」。呂大樂界定中的香港中產階級更重要的是按職業群體劃分,同時強調「他們是成功透過教育渠道和憑着學歷文憑而晉身。」按照這樣標準,香港的中產階級最多佔到人口比例的20%到30%。
美國社會學家C. Wright Mills在1951年撰寫White Collar: The American Middle Classes一書,當中對中產有四項形容:(1)依附龐大機構,專職管理與技術服務;(2)無固定私產;(3)靠知識和技術謀生,收入穩定而豐厚;(4)思想保守,生活機械單調,對革命缺乏熱情,但為維持其體面和其地位形象而拒絕庸俗和粗鄙的大眾趣味。
The size of the middle class depends on how it is defined, whether by education, wealth, environment of upbringing, social network, manners or values, etc. These are all related, but are far from deterministically dependent. The following factors are often ascribed in the literature on this topic to a "middle class:"[by whom?]
Achievement of tertiary education.
Holding professional qualifications, including academics, lawyers, chartered engineers, politicians, and doctors, regardless of leisure or wealth.
Belief in bourgeois values, such as high rates of house ownership, delayed gratification, and jobs that are perceived to be secure.
Lifestyle. In the United Kingdom, social status has historically been linked less directly to wealth than in the United States,[15][16] and has also been judged by such characteristics as accent (Received Pronunciation and U and non-U English), manners, type of school attended (state or private school), occupation, and the class of a person's family, circle of friends and acquaintances.[17][18]
In 1977 Barbara Ehrenreich and her then husband John defined a new class in the United States as "salaried mental workers who do not own the means of production and whose major function in the social division of labor ... [is] ... the reproduction of capitalist culture and capitalist class relations;" the Ehrenreichs named this group the "professional–managerial class".[26] This group of middle-class professionals is distinguished from other social classes by their training and education (typically business qualifications and university degrees),[27] with example occupations including academics and teachers, social workers, engineers, accountants, managers, nurses, and middle-level administrators.[28] The Ehrenreichs developed their definition from studies by André Gorz, Serge Mallet, and others, of a "new working class," which, despite education and a perception of themselves as middle class, were part of the working class because they did not own the means of production, and were wage earners paid to produce a piece of capital.[29] The professional–managerial class seek higher rank status and salaries[30] and tend to have incomes above the average for their country.[31]
流浮山拔刀齋
2024-03-22 13:56:58
美國社會學家C. Wright Mills在1951年撰寫White Collar: The American Middle Classes一書,當中對中產有四項形容:(1)依附龐大機構,專職管理與技術服務;(2)無固定私產;(3)靠知識和技術謀生,收入穩定而豐厚;(4)思想保守,生活機械單調,對革命缺乏熱情,但為維持其體面和其地位形象而拒絕庸俗和粗鄙的大眾趣味。
同時期的美國學者,亦從觀察中產父母遠較基層父母緊張子女觀看哪些電視節目,因此指出「與眾不同的品味」(discriminating taste)是階級分野功能之一。可見早於60年前,對中產的理解已涉及生活品味和態度。
所以,中產不只是會消費,而是訴諸不會和大眾一般方式的消費。以財爺舉例為例,中產喝的咖啡,不是六元有交易的便利店即沖咖啡,而是索價起碼四、五十元的咖啡座即磨咖啡;中產看的電影,不是每年4月香港電影金像獎宣布的得獎作品,而是法國5月藝術節推介的冷門好戲。
有人曾以十項條件定義中產,當中不少條件都是關乎生活品味或方式,大家不妨按圖索驥對號入座:1. 有度假小屋或別墅; 2. 有一輛看上去不錯的車; 3. 有豐富的夜生活,卻非去夜總會或者打麻將,而是去音樂會; 4. 有外國身份,或至少在外國呆過三年以上; 5. 對時髦文化不感興趣,但對於古老文化卻非常感興趣,對各個國家的古文明有一定知識,特別是有古玩方面的知識; 6. 知道各種禮儀,風格是美式的,但心裏卻崇拜歐洲; 7. 知道最新上演的歌劇和芭蕾舞劇; 8. 談話中經常夾雜外語單詞,對方不懂再用中文解釋; 9. 衣着隨便,但不是普通的隨便,而是一種「刻意不經意」的隨便; 10. 有田園情結、享受寂寞、孤獨自守、喝紅酒、聽爵士樂