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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 January 2016
The analysis here focuses on mobilization and identity among a significant section of the Milanese petite bourgeoisie, rather than on the formation of a single identity that encompassed all the members of the city's lower middle classes. One has to recognize that these intermediate strata possess many different and, at times, conflicting interests. Most recent historians prefer to use the term petite bourgeoisie to indicate individuals who control their own capital, as opposed to the “new” lower middle classes of salaried employees (Bechhofer 1976: 76–79; Crossick 1984: 6–10). Yet even this more strictly denned grouping of shopkeepers and master artisans embraces both the self-employed and small employers, manufacturers and retailers, and “skilled” and “unskilled” trades. One cannot portray these strata as a class in itself, let alone for itself.