Middle strata

couches moyennes

Worked through in 7 videos · 13 passages.

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani takes from Michel Clouscard the distinction between the "middle class", a notion too broad because it includes almost everyone, and the "middle strata", a notion he considers more useful as a tool of analysis1 2. He defines them as an intellectual petty bourgeoisie whose capital is the diploma, in charge of mediating between those who direct and those who carry out3. They use the discourse of the dominant without owning the productive forces or deciding the relations of production4. He presents them as buffer strata produced by the new capitalism, which pushes people to consume, and by generalised wage labour, in order to counter the dual logic of capital and labour5 6. The dates he gives for their emergence vary: the late 1960s, with May 68 as their "14th of July", the economy born of the Marshall Plan, or the late 1950s, at the same time as rock and the vogue for the baroque. He sees their post-war happiness as ambivalent. He also applies the term to Figaro, Suzanne, Julie and Wolmar, and to their shift in the 1930s towards the Popular Front or Nazism.

Summary produced automatically from 13 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.

Talks · 23 May 2026NEO-FASCISM AND THE IDEOLOGY OF DESIRE: Is Michel CLOUSCARD still relevant? - with Dominique PAGANI

36:09Distinct from the middle class, they have the discourse of the dominant without possessing the productive forces or deciding the relations of production.
1:28:23In the crisis of the 1930s, their swing decides the Popular Front in France and Nazism in Germany.

Season 12 · 24 Jun 2024For a "fresh and joyful" apocalypse?

3:43A crucial distinction from Clouscard: the middle class encompasses almost everyone; the middle strata arise from the economy born of the Marshall Plan.
2:05:34The new middle strata emerge at the end of the 1950s, at the same time as rock music and the vogue for the baroque.

Series · 14 Jul 2021EVERYTHING'S ALLOWED, BUT NOTHING IS POSSIBLE! Michel Clouscard, May 68, French Theory & Capitalism

9:51Intellectual petty bourgeoisie whose capital is the diploma, assigned to mediating tasks between those who direct and those who execute.
12:57Buffer strata created by generalized wage labor to counter the dual logic of capital and labor.

Series · 20 May 2021Cynicism of the extreme centre or epistemic heroism? The dialectic of the middle • Dominique Pagani

29:36Clouscard's concept replaces the middle class, too broad; these strata are produced by the new capitalism of the late 1960s, which pushes people to consume.

Series · 11 Jan 2021Musicosophy 8. Happiness and unhappiness in music

45:57A notion more operative than "middle classes," too vast; strata that have escaped the factory and are thirsty for jouissance.
1:41:44Their postwar happiness is ambivalent: the worst and the best coexist there.

Series · 6 Jan 2015W for Wolmar

4:11Figaro, Suzanne, and Julie belong to the new rising middle strata who gain access to leading roles.
9:36Wolmar, aristocrat though he is, is part of these rising strata.

Series · 29 Jan 2012Everything is allowed but nothing is possible - Michel Clouscard - 1

41:42Created as buffers at the end of the 1960s; May 68 is the July 14 of a new middle stratum riding the train already in motion.
43:40A participant: intellectual petty bourgeoisie, a mediating class between dominant and dominated, blocked in its rise in France, Italy and Spain.