Embourgeoisement is the theory that posits the migration of
individuals into the bourgeoisie as a result of their own
efforts or collective action, such as that taken by unions in
the US and elsewhere in the 1930 through 1960s that established
middle class status for factory workers and others that would
not have been considered middle class by their employments,
allowing increasing numbers of what might traditionally be
classified as working-class people to assume the lifestyle and
individualistic values of the so-called middle classes and hence
reject commitment to collective social and economic goals. The
opposite process is "proletarianization". Sociologist John
Goldthorpe largely discredited the embourgeoisement thesis in
1963. Charles E. Hurst  describes this change to be a result of
the post-industrialization of society, in which there are far
fewer manual labor jobs, which is the main classification of
blue-collar work. With post-industrialization, former upper-
level blue-collar workers are moving to