Vivek Chibber on how we should understand capitalism’s middle strata — and why so many professionals are moving toward anti-capitalist politics.
The “professional-managerial class” (PMC) has become a staple of political debate on the Left.
In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber explains why the PMC is better understood as a heterogeneous layer within capitalism rather than a distinct class, how and why the middle strata have expanded, and what has pushed so many professionals toward anti-capitalist politics. While skeptical of the PMC as a precise analytical category, Chibber argues that the term still captures something real about one of the most politically influential groups in modern America.
Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. You can listen to the full episode here. This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Melissa Naschek
I’m really excited to be back and to talk about our topic today, which is the PMC — drumroll please — also known as the “professional-managerial class.” This was a concept that was a big source of debate when I joined the Left, so it was pretty cool revisiting some old pieces and looking back at essays that I was reading at that time. And I started, of course, with the essay that kind of kicked this all off, which was Barbara and John Ehrenreich’s 1977 essay, “The Professional-Managerial Class.”
Looking back, especially on that essay, I think this concept of the PMC is really important for a couple of reasons. On the one hand, I think it helps us make sense of…
Auteur: Vivek Chibber
