Demonstrating distinction at ‘the lowest edge of the black-coated class’: the family expenditures of Edwardian railway clerks

Scott, P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1230-9040 and Walker, J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3477-0236 (2015) Demonstrating distinction at ‘the lowest edge of the black-coated class’: the family expenditures of Edwardian railway clerks. Business History, 57 (4). pp. 564-588. ISSN 1743-7938 doi: 10.1080/00076791.2014.965384

Abstract/Summary

Families at the bottom end of the Edwardian white-collar income spectrum demonstrated middle-class status through observable consumption, at the cost of squeezing other expenditures, including ‘necessities’. This had negative economic impacts, lowering living standards due to inefficiently high budget shares for positional goods. Drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, we examine how railway clerks sought to demonstrate ‘distinction’ from manual workers through certain conspicuous expenditures and how this strategy was progressively undermined by falling real incomes over the Edwardian period.