Bourgeois

[AlwaysAnarchy]

Can someone please tell me exactly what this word means? There seems to be many definitions of it. I understand it to be mean capitalist but is it a certain way of thinking as well, not just an economic title?

PS And why is this word used so often? Just because Marx liked to use it??

[Organic Revolution]

the bourgeois are the land owning, or buissness owning upper class.

[RedCommieBear]

The simple definition is that the bourgeois are the capitalists who control the means of production.

The owner of the textile factory; bourgeois. He employs other workers and gets the profit.
The owner of the local hardware store; petty bourgeois. She/He is either self-employed or employs others but works with their employees.
The worker employed at the textile factory; proletariat. The majority who are employed for a wage.
The homeless person on the street; lumpenproletariat. Doesn't have any connection to the hardware store nor the textile factory.

Edit: Added part descriptions of classes.

[RedStruggle]

As you point out, 'Bourgeois' can also be used as a term of abuse for behaviour or people that display moral values and worldviews associated with the capitalist mode of production. This stems from Marx's materialist analysis (economic determinism) in which he argued that the social, political, and cultural structure of society is determined by the underlying form of economic organisation (the mode of production)

Someone who appears to be decadent (engaging in seemingly pointless pleasures avaliable only to those with high incomes) and takes a disparaging view of others, particuarly those of a lower class in the capitalist relations of production, could be said to be bourgeois.

Highly paid workers in positions of power (sometimes called the coordinator class) may be called bourgeois based on their behaviour even if they have no control or ownership of the means of production.

[YSR]

In addition to this good stuff:
Bourgeois also describes the class with historic background. That is to say, the burger class of the late medieval towns.

The bourgeousie morals supplanted the decadent morality of the aristocracy in many places. Whereas the aristocracy had a reasonably open view of sex and family life (if not expressed, then certainly acted upon) bourgeois views tend towards restriction. These people are highly inspired by the Protestant ethic (in the West, at least).

So I disagree with RedStruggle somewhat. Used incorrectly, bourgeois refers to decadence. More accurately, bourgeois is used as a descriptor for moral behaivor that tends to condemn joy, creation, and autonomy.

(I think the term means a lot of different things in different contexts. I suppose I'm presenting it for more of a sociological perspective.)

[AlwaysAnarchy]

So it seems there are many different defitions of the word...or am I supposed to take it that ALL the above definitions are correct to some extent??

And will someone answer question 2 - Why is this word used so much by revolutionaries, is it only because Marx liked it?

[BreadBros]

So it seems there are many different defitions of the word...or am I supposed to take it that ALL the above definitions are correct to some extent??

Well, as with any word, the meaning depends on the context. Using "bourgeois" as a pejorative is obviously different than if you're talking about economic class and historical changes and the such. Most of the definitions above strike at a certain meaning however: the bourgeoisie is the ruling class of a certain historical epoch, of which much of the world can be said to be living in at the moment. It controls and determines economic structure, namely production and distribution of goods, and as such its cultural and political values and norms tend to be the dominant ones in society. More specific definitions can be applied depending on who you are asking. To Marx, the bourgeoisie was the class that owned the means of production and extracted surplus value from the working class, or proletariat, which sold its labor for income/survival. The Marxist definition is the most predominant one used and is, in my opinion, the one that can be said to be most historically accurate.


And will someone answer question 2 - Why is this word used so much by revolutionaries, is it only because Marx liked it?

Well its not because he "liked" it. Marx and other writers have provided the theoretical tools with which to analyze the world, historical materialism namely. Central to Marx's theoretical view of the world is that its defined by the competition between economic classes. In other words, since the dawn of hierarchical society (which can be said to be sometime shortly after the invention of agriculture) humans have been divided into economic classes depending on their economic function within society. As Marx put it, history constitutes the competition between these classes. The ruling class determines the economic structure of society and therefore, the cultural, social, etc. Bourgeois the name Marx gave the economic class that rules and in many ways "created" capitalism after the bourgeois revolutions (such as the French revolution). Because he saw communism as emerging out of capitalism, bourgeois is used so much because its central to an understanding of class society at this moment and for the creation of a classless society. Just as the bourgeois class overthrew the aristocratic/feudal ruling class, so, according to Marx, will the proletariat overthrow the bourgeois. Since most revolutionaries at this moment are either Marxists or anarchists (many of whom subscribe to similar theories or at least recognize the bourgeois class as being integral to current society) it is used a lot. I hope that answered your question? If not, feel free to ask a follow-up :)

[AlwaysAnarchy]

Thanks for all your well thought out responses Bread Bros. :)

I've just always been curious as to how a French word (bourgeois) became so popularized among revolutionaries.

[BreadBros]

Well the French aspect of it easy to explain. While many countries that have capitalism can be said to have gone through some sort of bourgeois revolution, the historically defining one is the French revolution of 1789. Besides being the first or among the first, unlike other countries that had slower developments, it was explosive and the class distinctions within it were easy to see. It was also where other bourgeois revolutions drew their iconography, slogans, inspiration, etc. Thus the word emerged out of analysis of that defining event and it stuck. In its origins the word is not even explicitly Marxist or revolutionary, it was commonly used. Its still used today, although in mainstream culture it tends to be divorced from the meanings Marx and other early theorists imbued it with.