Class identity work: How apprentices make sense of and frame a positive class self-identity

This article focuses on illustrating how apprentices engage in class identity work and how accounts serve in the class sensemaking process. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 apprentices in Austria in order to investigate their class identity narratives with emphasis on their use of sensemaking accounts and frames. The results show that apprentices make sense of their class identity by emphasizing four forms of narratives, which display individual characteristics, practices, class capital accumulation and forms of differentiation and othering from other identified groups. Occupational identity and societal recognition figure prominently in the identification process. The class identity work results in a positive and coherent middle class identification.