Proletariat

How it is used

Used mainly in theory courses and Marxist writing; empirical studies usually say working class instead. Related words are proletarian, proletarianisation and precariat, a newer term for people in insecure, short-term work.

Example sentences

1. According to Marx, the proletariat would eventually become conscious of its shared interests.

2. Some sociologists argue that platform workers form a new digital proletariat.

Common collocations

• the industrial proletariat
• class consciousness of the proletariat
• proletarian revolution

Related terms

• bourgeoisieIn Marxist theory, the capitalist class that owns the means of production, such as factories, land and capital, and lives on the profit made from other people's labour.
• working classThe social class made up of people who mainly do manual, routine or service jobs for wages and usually have less income, job security and control over their work.
• capitalismAn economic system in which the means of production are mostly privately owned and goods and labour are bought and sold in markets for profit.
• alienationIn Marx's theory, the separation of workers under capitalism from the products of their labour, from the work process, from other people and from their own human potential.

More terms: Class, Stratification and Inequality

• social class
• social stratification
• inequality
• social mobility
• middle class
• poverty
• cultural capital
• social capital
• socioeconomic status (SES)
• intersectionality
• social exclusion