Social class in Italy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Social classes in Italy are bourgeoisie, white-collar middle class, urban petite bourgeoisie, rural petite bourgeoisie, urban working class and rural working class.[1]
In his Essay on social classes the Italian economist Paolo Sylos Labini presented the following classification, based on his analysis of income distribution:
- Bourgeoisie (properly so called), composed by big urban and rural landowners; entrepreneurs and managers of stock companies; autonomous professionals;
- Petite bourgeoisie
- Clerical petite bourgeoisie
- Relatively autonomous petite bourgeoisie : farmers, artisans (including small professionals), traders;
- Petite bourgeoisie composed by particular categories, such as militaries and clergymen;
- Working class;
- Lumpenproletariat.[2]
Contemporary Italian social structure
[edit ]A hierarchy of social class rank in Italy today.
- 1. Bourgeoisie (10% of the working population)[1] includes high-class entrepreneurs, managers, politicians, self-employed people, highest-ranking celebrities, etc.
- 2. White-collar middle class (17% of the working population)[1] includes middle class workers not employed in manual work.
- 3. Urban petite bourgeoisie (14% of the working population),[1] is mainly made up of shopkeepers, small-business entrepreneurs, self-employed artisans etc.
- 4. Rural petite bourgeoisie (10% of the working population)[1] consists of small entrepreneurs or estate owners who operate in the countryside, mainly in agriculture and forestry.
- 5. Urban working class (37% of the working population)[1] refers to the people employed in manual work.
- 6. Rural working class (9% of the working population)[1] consists of people operating in the primary industry, such as farmers, loggers, fishermen etc.