The “professional-managerial class” (PMC) has become a staple of political debate on the Left.

In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber explains why the PMC is better understood as a heterogeneous layer within capitalism rather than a distinct class, how and why the middle strata have expanded, and what has pushed so many professionals toward anti-capitalist politics. While skeptical of the PMC as a precise analytical category, Chibber argues that the term still captures something real about one of the most politically influential groups in modern America.

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. You can listen to the full episode here. This transcript has been edited for clarity.