class consciousness

American  

noun

1. awareness of one's own social or economic rank in society.

2. a feeling of identification and solidarity with those belonging to the same social or economic class as oneself.

---

class consciousness Cultural  

1. Identification with other members of one's own class and awareness of its relationship with other classes. According to Marxist theory, the proletariat (see also proletariat) will assume class consciousness when workers realize that they are being exploited by the bourgeoisie; then a proletarian revolution will be inevitable. Contrary to this theory, however, the American working class is primarily socially conservative.

---

Other Word Forms

• class-conscious
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of class consciousness

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

We know nothing about the other gladiators, or how they got to the point where a boring speech was enough to suddenly awaken their class consciousness, but at least we know how Hanno got here.

From Salon • Dec. 7, 2024

Generally, Marxism relied on the proletariat, the industrial workers in the factories, gaining class consciousness.

From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022

Historians used to believe that while European societies were burdened by ferocious class antagonisms, Americans had relatively little class consciousness.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 6, 2022

And the record ends with the song “Drowning Man,” which reasserts the pox-on-all-your-houses sentiment with an emphasis on Church’s long-standing strongest political affiliation: class consciousness.

From Slate • Oct. 5, 2018

The class consciousness of the old régime was much clearer and more intelligent.

From Bolshevism The Enemy of Political and Industrial Democracy by Spargo, John