embourgeoisement

English

Etymology

From French embourgeoisement.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɒmbɔːˈʒwazmɑ̃/ (or as French, below)

Noun

embourgeoisement (uncountable)

1. The process of adopting or the condition of adopting the characteristics of the bourgeoisie; bourgeoisification; the process of becoming affluent.
2. The proliferation in a society of values perceived as characteristic of the middle class, especially of materialism.
   • 2015, John Bryan Starr, Continuing the Revolution: The Political Thought of Mao, page 305:

     Although these reforms were, in some cases, ineffective even when implemented, and, in other instances, impossible to implement because they met with strong resistance from powerful interests unwilling to relinquish the authority they held, the reforms nonetheless focussed attention on and began the process of dealing with the problem of miswielded authority as a cause of embourgeoisement.

3. A shift to bourgeois values and practices.
   • 1972: American Sociological Association, Contemporary Sociology, pp44

     Yet, in a fashion similar to the “Affluent Worker”, MacKenzie constructs a theory of embourgeoisement that is far too narrow historically and consequently, sociologically unsatisfactory.

   • 1983, Russell Duncan Lansbury, Robert Spillane, Organisational Behaviour: The Australian Context, page 140:

     Goldthorpe’s arguments and the ‘embourgeoisement thesis’ have spawned many research studies. Russell Lansbury investigated differences blue- and white-collar workers in social outlook.

   • 1994, Marina Warner, “Magic zones”, in London Review of Books, XVI.23:

     It’s significant that Pasolini turned to the Orient to conjure his rather forced vision of primitive sanity, and that he expressed his resistance to Western embourgeoisement through a honeyed, lyrical and comic picture of nomad culture and its pursuit of joyous, uncomplicated, promiscuous contact.

   • 2003, Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason, Penguin, published 2004, page 282:

     The upstart genre of the novel also marks a decisive embourgeoisement and feminization of culture.

   • 2007: Lesley Thomas, The Observer: Before you sneer at Fergie…, Sunday the 30^th of September

     We mould our children stealthily, force-feeding them allegorical Japanese films from Studio Gibley when they may prefer Shrek; packing them off to toddler yoga when they’d like to be at ballet reinforcing gender stereotypes. As for academic aspirations, check out any ‘up-and-coming’ area of London and witness the parents responsible for the local embourgeoisement elbowing their way into the best state schools.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:embourgeoisement.

Synonyms

• bourgeoisification
• gentrification

Antonyms

• proletarianization

Translations

the adoption the characteristics of the bourgeoisie

• French: embourgeoisement (fr) m
• Galician: aburguesamento (gl) m
• German: Verbürgerlichung f
• Hungarian: polgárosodás (hu)
• Portuguese: aburguesamento m
• Spanish: aburguesamiento (es) m

See also

• upwardly mobile
• upward mobility
• gentrification

Further reading

• embourgeoisement thesis on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Etymology

From embourgeoiser (“to become bourgeois”) +‎ -ment.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑ̃.buʁ.ʒwaz.mɑ̃/

Noun

embourgeoisement m (plural embourgeoisements)

1. bourgeoisification; embourgeoisement
2. gentrification

Further reading

• “embourgeoisement”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.