David Lockwood, who has died aged 85, changed the way British sociologists view and study class with groundbreaking books such as The Blackcoated Worker (1958). Researching the class consciousness of clerical staff from the mid-19th century onwards, he found that they saw themselves as "of different clay" to manual workers. Clerks had greater job security, different workplace experiences and a sense of superiority (encapsulated by the black coats they wore). The book was a rebuke to those on the left who criticised clerks for having a "false consciousness" failing to realise that they had the same interests as manual workers. It showed that, far from being self-deceiving, clerks did in fact have a unique class position.
Lockwood's approach to class was hugely influential, with researchers subsequently applying it to the study of several different occupations, from coalminers and shipbuilders to farm workers and farmers.
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