CONCEPT
Class Consciousness in the AI Transition
The collective recognition, by a socially-situated group, of its shared position and shared interests in the transition — the preliminary condition, in Mannheim's framework, for political action beyond individual adaptation.
Mannheim inherited from Marx the concept of class consciousness but generalized it beyond the proletariat. Any social group whose members share structural conditions can develop consciousness of those conditions and of the interests they produce. The framework knitters had class consciousness: they recognized their shared position as skilled artisans whose expertise was being devalued by power looms. The contemporary displaced expert class — developers, engineers, designers, writers, analysts — has the structural conditions for class consciousness, but has not (yet) produced the collective recognition that class consciousness requires.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The structural obstacle is the ideology of individualism that characterizes the knowledge economy. Success is framed as individual. Failure is framed as individual. Adaptation is framed as individual. The question is always "What are you going to do about AI?" never "What should we demand of the institutions that govern the transition?" This individualism is itself ideological in Mannheim's sense —