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Petit-bourgeois (sometimes Anglicized petty bourgeois) is a French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
 term that originally referred to the members of the lower middle social class
Social class

Social class refers to the hierarchy distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. Usually most societies have some notion of social class , but concretely defined social classes are not found in every known type of human societies....
es in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

Starting from the mid-19th century, the term was used by Karl Marx
Karl Marx

Karl Heinrich Marx was a Germanphilosophy, political economy, historian, sociologist, humanism, political theorist and revolutionary credited as the founder of communism....
 and Marxist
Marxism

Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism holds at its core a Marxist analysis of Critique of capitalism and a theory of social change....
 theorists to refer to a social class
Social class

Social class refers to the hierarchy distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. Usually most societies have some notion of social class , but concretely defined social classes are not found in every known type of human societies....
 that included shop-keepers and professionals. Though distinct from the ordinary working class
Working class

Working class is a term used in academic sociology and in ordinary conversation to describe, depending on context and speaker, those employed in specific fields or types of work....
 and the lumpenproletariat
Lumpenproletariat

Lumpenproletariat is a term first defined by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in The German Ideology and later elaborated on in works by Marx....
, who rely entirely on the sale of their labor-power for survival, the petty is different from the haute bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie

Bourgeoisie is a classification used in analyzing human societies to describe a social class of people. Historically, the bourgeoisie comes from the middle or merchant classes of the Middle Ages, whose status or power came from employment, education, and wealth, as distinguished from those whose power came from being born into an aristocrati...
, or capitalist
Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system in which wealth, and the means of producing wealth, are private property and controlled rather than commonly, publicly, or state-owned and controlled....
 class, who own the means of production and buy the labor-power of others to work it.






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Petit-bourgeois (sometimes Anglicized petty bourgeois) is a French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
 term that originally referred to the members of the lower middle social class
Social class

Social class refers to the hierarchy distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. Usually most societies have some notion of social class , but concretely defined social classes are not found in every known type of human societies....
es in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

Starting from the mid-19th century, the term was used by Karl Marx
Karl Marx

Karl Heinrich Marx was a Germanphilosophy, political economy, historian, sociologist, humanism, political theorist and revolutionary credited as the founder of communism....
 and Marxist
Marxism

Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism holds at its core a Marxist analysis of Critique of capitalism and a theory of social change....
 theorists to refer to a social class
Social class

Social class refers to the hierarchy distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. Usually most societies have some notion of social class , but concretely defined social classes are not found in every known type of human societies....
 that included shop-keepers and professionals. Though distinct from the ordinary working class
Working class

Working class is a term used in academic sociology and in ordinary conversation to describe, depending on context and speaker, those employed in specific fields or types of work....
 and the lumpenproletariat
Lumpenproletariat

Lumpenproletariat is a term first defined by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in The German Ideology and later elaborated on in works by Marx....
, who rely entirely on the sale of their labor-power for survival, the petty is different from the haute bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie

Bourgeoisie is a classification used in analyzing human societies to describe a social class of people. Historically, the bourgeoisie comes from the middle or merchant classes of the Middle Ages, whose status or power came from employment, education, and wealth, as distinguished from those whose power came from being born into an aristocrati...
, or capitalist
Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system in which wealth, and the means of producing wealth, are private property and controlled rather than commonly, publicly, or state-owned and controlled....
 class, who own the means of production and buy the labor-power of others to work it. Though the petite bourgeois may buy the labor power of others, in contrast to the bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie

Bourgeoisie is a classification used in analyzing human societies to describe a social class of people. Historically, the bourgeoisie comes from the middle or merchant classes of the Middle Ages, whose status or power came from employment, education, and wealth, as distinguished from those whose power came from being born into an aristocrati...
, they typically work alongside their own employees; and although they generally own their own businesses, they do not own a controlling share of the means of production. More importantly, the means of production in the hands of the petite bourgeoisie do not generate enough surplus to be reinvested in production; as such, they cannot be reproduced in an amplified scale, or accumulated, and do not constitute capital properly. In modern usage "petite bourgeoisie", a class that lies between the workingmen and the capitalists, is often used, usually derisively, to refer to the consumption habits and tastes of the middle class
Middle class

Middle class is the group of people in contemporary society who are between the working class and nobility. This socioeconomic class includes professionals, highly skilled workers, and lower and middle management....
 and the lower middle class
Lower middle class

In developed nations across the earth, the lower middle class is a sub-division of the greater middle class which constitutes the largest socio-economic class....
 in particular. However, Marxist terminology relates the petite bourgeoisie exclusively to its relationship to the means of production and work rather than to tastes, habits of consumption, or lifestyle.

See also

  • Xiaozi
    Xiaozi

    Xiaozi , is a Chinese cultural term describing a lifestyle chasing Western culture taste , living standards, and arts. Originally the term was a Chinese translation of petite bourgeoisie....