Abstract: | This article begins as a test of two types of explanation of working-class consciousness. The first focuses upon structural factors. The second identifies nonwork variables as the critical determinant of workers' consciousness. Based on information collected from manual workers in two plants in Edmonton, Canada, the present research finds that neither perspective emerges as a significant determinant of worker ideology. The second part of the article addresses this issue and offers an explanation of the failure to account for much of the variation in workers' ideological thinking. |