Wages and the Politics of Life in Postwar France

Citizens of the modern welfare state negotiated their status through questions of consumption. Material goods such as tap water came to represent and embody contested social hierarchies. Welfare and wages were measured by standards of living, the goods required for a socially acceptable quality of life. As an ever greater number of citizens entered the economy of wage work and mass consumption, that distinction became an important class marker. Class conflict was objectified in debates over water, toilets, and basic goods. Here, Simmons examines the convergence of class politics, science, and consumption in the modern welfare state of France.