Occupational change and bourgeois proliferation: a study of new middle class expansion in New Zealand, 1896-1926

Abstract

The major aim of this thesis was to contribute to a further and more satisfactory understanding of occupational change in the early decades of the twentieth century. As it happens it became increasingly a study of white collar expansion, for the growth of office workers,salespeople and salaried professionals was, overwhelmingly, representative of the major thrust of occupational change in the 1896-1926 period. This thesis, therefore, describes and analyzes the emergence of a new middle class in New Zealand. It attempts to put the appearence and growth of urban white collar workers into a wider perspective by firstly exploring the nature of growth changes throughout the occupational structure generally; and secondly by linking these shifts in the social composition of the workforce to changes in the institutional framework and organizational basis of early twentieth century New Zealand. Finally, an attempt is made to assess the impact that new middle class expansion has had on the social pattern of this country. As part of this process, special reference is made to the character and mentality of this new urban bourgeoisie and the likely implications for the nature of New Zealand society as it evolved in the first few decades of this century. After the introductory chapters the main body of this thesis divides itself into two broad parts. The first quantifies the nature and extent of changes in the structure of New Zealand's male workforce during the 1896-1926 period. The main trends and developments are highlighted, with the major emphasis centering around the marked proliferation of white collar job openings in new middle class employment - amongst salaried professionals, clerks and managers, salespeople. The second part follows as a logical progression from the first - it takes various major aspects of the growth changes delineated in earlier chapters and subjects them to a more exhaustive treatment. This section contains chapters that deal with: bureaucratization and the multiplication of office workers, the decline in self-employment, professionalization within the male workforce, rising consumer spending and its implications for tertiary industry, the questions of social mobility, social character, the pattern of success and the nature of new middle class occupational organizations. It is to be hoped that, collectively, all the aspects of occupational change explored in these chapters can contribute to a better understanding of the social processes which, in the 1896-1926 period, saw New Zealand transformed by a rapid proliferation of salaried white collar workers.