Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Urban Studies
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Borel-Saladin, J.
Right arrow Articles by Crankshaw, O.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Social Polarisation or Professionalisation? Another Look at Theory and Evidence on Deindustrialisation and the Rise of the Service Sector

Jacqueline Borel-Saladin

Department of Sociology, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch, Western Cape, 7701, South Africa, jsaladin{at}iafrica.com

Owen Crankshaw

Department of Sociology, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch, Western Cape, 7701, South Africa, Owen.Crankshaw{at}uct.ac.za

The debate over whether or not the deindustrialisation of cities is accompanied by the occupational and income polarisation of their working populations has been characterised by some confusion over the relationship between incomes and occupations in the service sector. Specifically, many scholars have misunderstood the significance of middle-income service-sector occupations for their interpretations of the post-industrial class structure of cities. Through a comparative study of deindustrialisation in Cape Town, evidence is presented to show that the growth of service-sector employment can produce a large middle-income occupational class of clerks, sales and personal services workers. The growth of this class can offset the decline of middle-income jobs caused by the loss of artisans, machine operators and drivers in the declining manufacturing sector. These results therefore suggest that many studies have overestimated the extent of occupational polarisation and underestimated the extent of professionalisation.

Urban Studies, Vol. 46, No. 3, 645-664 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0042098008100999
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?