Who, what and where is the bourgeoisie of today?
After twelve years of Social Democratic rule, Sweden have since September 2006 been run by a rightwing government. In this issue of Fronesis, we ask ourselves whether this political change entails a return of the bourgeoisie. Before we can answer that question, we need to know what “bourgeois” means today. Who is part of the bourgeoisie of the 21st century? And what is the difference between the middle class and the bourgeoisie? These political transformations and conceptual uncertainties are the point of departure for Fronesis no 24. One way to understand the new bourgeoisie is to start in the changes of production and what can be seen as a “new spirit of capitalism”. In an analysis of management literature, Luc Boltanski och ve Chiapello search after the “new spirit” that permeates today’s capitalism and bourgeoisie. It is a spirit that is more concerned with the alternative cultures of the 1970’s, and their critique of hierarchies, rather than with the strict bourgeoisie of the fin-
