• Embourgeoisement

    Pronunciation

    • IPA: /É’mbɔːˈʒwazmɑ̃/ (or as French, below)

    Origin

    From French embourgeoisement.

    Full definition of embourgeoisement

    Noun

    embourgeoisement

    (uncountable)
    1. (chiefly UK) The taking-up of middle-class attitudes or values; bourgeoisification; the process of becoming affluent.
      • 1972: American Sociological Association, Contemporary Sociology, pp44Yet, 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, pp140: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", 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 2004, p. 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 30th of SeptemberWe 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.
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