Historically, the bourgeoisie were a social class of people, characterized by their ownership of capital and the related culture. They were a part of the middle or merchant classes of European feudalism, where their power came from employment, education, and wealth, as distinguished from those whose power came from being born into an aristocratic family of land owners. The bourgeoisie emerged from late feudal and early modern towns, through the c...
more
Historically, the bourgeoisie were a social class of people, characterized by their ownership of capital and the related culture. They were a part of the middle or merchant classes of European feudalism, where their power came from employment, education, and wealth, as distinguished from those whose power came from being born into an aristocratic family of land owners. The bourgeoisie emerged from late feudal and early modern towns, through the control of long distance trade and petty manufacture.
In contemporary capitalist societies, the term bourgeoisie is often used as a metaphor for the rich or influential or their lifestyle and values.
The word bourgeois originates in French language, and the word has stronger connotations of retiring, sitting room culture in European contexts. Bourgeois often refers to the cloistering, socially conservative, idle customs of the newly rich.
Bourgeoisie is a French word that was borrowed directly into English in the specific sense described above....
less
