num_pages: 325
description: A Nation of Shopkeepers explores the unstoppable rise of the petite-bourgeoisie one of the most powerful but underexplored classes in modern society.The petite-bourgeoisie  the insecure class between the working class and the bourgeoisie  is hugely significant within global politics. Yet it remains something of a mystery.Initially identified as a powerful political force by theorists like Marx and Poulantzas the petit-bourgeoisie was expected to decline as small businesses and small property were gradually swallowed up by monopoly capitalism. Yet far from disappearing structural changes to the global economy under neoliberalism have instead grown the petite-bourgeoisie and the individualist values associated with it have been popularized by a society which fetishizes aspiration home ownership and entrepreneurship. So why has this happened?A Nation of Shopkeepers sheds a light on this mysterious class exploring the class structure of contemporary Britain and the growth of the petite-bourgeoisie following Thatcherism. It shows how the rise of home ownership small landlordism and radical changes to the world of work have increasingly inculcated values of petite-bourgeois individualism; how popular culture has promoted and reproduced values of aspiration and conspicuous consumption that militate against socialist organizing; and most importantly what the unstoppable rise of the petit-bourgeoisie means for the left.
language: English
title: A Nation of Shopkeepers: The Unstoppable Rise of the Petite Bourgeoisie
publisher: Repeater