Malaise in the Western Middle Classes

Rewealthization in twenty-first century Western countries: the defining trend of the socioeconomic squeeze of the middle class

“…The trend of rewealthization varies across countries, but upward trajectories are particularly stark in Europe, notably France, Spain, and Sweden, as well as in North America, notably Canada (Chauvel and Hartung 2016). What we see is a doubling of the WIR over time, though the financial crisis of 2008 hit some countries, such as Spain, Greece or Ireland (Whelan et al, 2017) particularly hard.…”

“…While income is more easily measured than wealth, the latter shows unambiguous transformations (Piketty 2014;Saez and Zucman 2016;. Analyzing joint relations between income and wealth may help explain the process of a squeezed middle class, and the contradictory nature of progressive tendencies (e.g., educational expansion, gender parities) yoked together with destabilizing tendencies (e.g., legitimation of elitism, middle-class malaise) to differing degrees across welfare regimes (Gornick and Jäntti 2013;Cowell and Van Kerm 2015;Mijs 2019;Skopek 2015;Chauvel and Hartung 2016;Cowell et al 2017;.…”

Job precariousness among lawyers in Spain

“…The main purpose of the research from which this article stems is to analyse the situation of these liberal professional groups in the context of the sub-prime crisis, and even in the context of the arguable middle-class crisis (Atkinson and Brandolini, 2013;Streeck, 2013;Hernández, 2014;Chauvel and Hartung, 2016;Milanovic, 2016). To do so, we have chosen three professional profiles: lawyers, architects and journalists, who represent occupations that are very much identified with the new salaried middle classes with further education as well as with the old middle classes with independent jobs in their own offices.…”