proletarianizationthe

Proletarianization is the process by which individuals or groups are transformed into members of the proletariat—classes that do not own the means of production and must sell their labor to earn a living. In Marxist and sociological usage, the term refers to a historical and ongoing transformation whereby diverse social strata, including peasants, artisans, and petty traders, become wage laborers as economic organization concentrates ownership of productive assets and expands the labor market. While closely associated with industrial capitalism, proletarianization can occur in agrarian, service-based, and global contexts where capital accumulation relies on wage labor.

The mechanisms include dispossession of subsistence means, enclosure and privatization of common lands, technological change, the expansion of factory production, formalization of employment contracts, outsourcing, and financialization that ties livelihoods to wages and debt. These processes erode autonomous or semi-autonomous livelihoods and integrate more workers into wage-dependent employment.

Consequences and interpretations vary. Some accounts emphasize heightened wage dependence, job insecurity, and forms of alienation, while others highlight social mobility, new forms of collective organization, or the persistence of non-proletarian livelihoods within broader capitalist economies. The concept has been used to analyze historical episodes (such as industrialization in Europe) and contemporary trends (such as precarious or gig work) that produce or sustain proletarianized strata.

Notes: "Proletarianization" is the standard term; "proletarianisation" is the British variant. The form "proletarianizationthe" does not correspond to a recognized term and appears to be a typographical error.