Proletarianization

Proletarianization is the process by which individuals or groups move from independent or self-employed work toward wage labor within a capitalist economy, resulting in ownership of the means of production passing to others. In Marxist theory, it describes the historical transformation of the workforce during industrial capitalism, wherein artisans, smallholders, and independent producers lose autonomy and sell their labor to capitalists who own the means of production.

The mechanisms of proletarianization include the enclosure of land and commodification of resources, the rise of the factory system, the division of labor that reduces craft skills, outsourcing and subcontracting, wage dependence, and automation that standardizes tasks. As production concentrates, workers increasingly become a class whose relation to production is mediated by wages rather than ownership.

Consequences typically involve greater class polarization between capital and labor, erosion of traditional livelihoods, increased job insecurity and precariousness, and social and geographic reshaping of communities. Proletarianization can affect various sectors, including agriculture, artisanal trades, and, in more recent times, parts of the service and knowledge economies where labor is commodified and controlled by employers.

Critiques of the concept note that it may overemphasize labor-market changes without fully accounting for variations in worker agency, state policy, and social protections. Some scholars also discuss processes of deproletarianization, wherein workers regain some control or form cooperative or alternative arrangements. Overall, the term remains a central analytic for understanding changes in class structure and capitalist dynamics.