Social Class

Rubin, M. (2012). Working-class students need more friends at university: A cautionary note for Australia’s higher education equity initiative. Higher Education Research and Development, 31, 431-433.

by Mark Rubin

I argue that working-class students need to be better integrated into social life at university in order for them to... more I argue that working-class students need to be better integrated into social life at university in order for them to have a better opportunity to succeed. I discuss this issue in the context of (a) a recent meta-analyses showing the working-class students are less integrated at university than middle-class students and (b) the Australian Government's recent initiative to increase the number of working-class students at Australian universities.

The effect of social class on weight control in mid-aged women: A longitudinal study Evidence from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health

by John Germov

Poster presentation

The effect of social class on mid-age women's weight control practices and weight gain

by John Germov

Multiple Forms of Perceived Discrimination and Health among Adolescents and Young Adults

by Eric Anthony Grollman

Published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, June 2012: http://hsb.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/05/14/0022146512444289.abstract

Research on perceived discrimination has overwhelmingly focused on one form of discrimination, especially race... more Research on perceived discrimination has overwhelmingly focused on one form of discrimination, especially race discrimination, in isolation from other forms. The present article uses data from the Black Youth Culture Survey, a nationally representative, racially and ethnically diverse sample of 1,052 adolescents and young adults to investigate the prevalence, distribution, and mental and physical health consequences of multiple forms of perceived discrimination. The findings suggest that disadvantaged groups, especially multiply disadvantaged youth, face greater exposure to multiple forms of discrimination than their more privileged counterparts. The experience of multiple forms of discrimination is associated with worse mental and physical health above the effect of only one form and contributes to the relationship between multiple disadvantaged statuses and health. These findings suggest that past research may misspecify the discrimination-health relationship and fails to account for the disproportionate exposure to discrimination faced by multiply disadvantaged individuals.

Open Secrets: Individualism and Middle-Class Identity in the Songs of Rush

by Chris McDonald

Published in 'Popular Music and Society' 31/3, July 2008

This article examines how the songs of the progressive rock group Rush can be understood as a manifestation of North... more This article examines how the songs of the progressive rock group Rush can be understood as a manifestation of North American middle-class identity, and considers how individualism and escapism play integral roles in the formation of a largely male, middle-class, suburban world view. The article contextualizes and critiques the individualistic nature of middle-class identity, as it is presented by Rush in songs such as “Subdivisions” and “Tom Sawyer.”

Taste Regimes and Market-Mediated Practice

by Zeynep Arsel

Co-authored with Jonathan Bean. Forthcoming in Feb 2013.

Taste has been conceptualized as a boundary making mechanism, yet there is limited theory on how it enters into daily... more Taste has been conceptualized as a boundary making mechanism, yet there is limited theory on how it enters into daily practice. In this paper, we develop a practice-based framework of taste through qualitative and quantitative analysis of a popular home design blog, interviews with blog participants, and participant observation. First, we define a taste regime as a discursively constructed normative system that orchestrates practice in an aesthetically oriented culture of consumption. Taste regimes are perpetuated by marketplace institutions such as magazines, web sites and transmedia brands. Second, we show how a taste regime regulates practice through continuous engagement. By integrating three dispersed practices—problematization, ritualization, and instrumentalization—a taste regime shapes preferences for objects, the doings performed with objects, and what meanings are associated with objects. This study demonstrates how aesthetics is linked to practical knowledge and becomes materialized through everyday consumption.

Pauline Universalism: Anachronism or Reality?

by Eliezer Gonzalez

Published in Journal  of  Asia  Adventist  Seminary 14.1 (2011): 65-­‐‑77

Are we able to attribute a modern concept such as universalism (in the sense of the opposite to particularism) to Paul... more Are we able to attribute a modern concept such as universalism (in the sense of the opposite to particularism) to Paul in the formation of his communities, or is such an idea hopelessly anachronistic? This paper suggests that although Paul’s universalism does not fully conform to modern definitions, there is a universalistic dimension to his formation of the ἐκκλησία that was radical within his own culture in both Jewish and Hellenistic terms. Nevertheless, there were some first-century social and philosophical currents that would have provided some implicit support for his application of universalistic principles. However, the roots of Paul’s approach are to be found not so much in Hellenistic philosophical currents, but rather in his understanding of divine convenantal condescension. These considerations allow us some insights to understanding the status of different genders, ethnicities, and socio-economic classes in the Pauline communities.

Pierre Bourdieu and the Distinctive Body

by Nadeem Fayaz

Class Conflict and the United Irish League in Cork, 1900-1903

by John O'Donovan

Offered to 'Saothar: Journal of the Irish Labour History Society', 2011

This paper examines the social undercurrents that drove the United Irish League during the first five years of its... more This paper examines the social undercurrents that drove the United Irish League during the first five years of its existence in Cork. It argues that that UIL was characterised by a number of socio-economic cleavages, some of which broke out into intranationalist violence. It also demonstrates that the UIL was not wholly representative of the Irish nationalist agrarian community.

The global ‘order’, socioeconomic status and the economics of African identity

by Caroline Kamau

Kamau, C. & Rutland, A. (2005).

Chronic elitism within Africa has created a two‐tier milieu in which those Africans who are in a position to take... more Chronic elitism within Africa has created a two‐tier milieu in which those Africans who are in a position to take advantage of the global economic system often do so at the expense of other Africans. The effects of social class and indicators of individual economic mobility on African identity were thus examined. 213 Kenyans participated in this questionnaire‐based study for structural equation analysis. The main finding was that socioeconomic status (SES) positively predicts individual economic mobility, which then negatively influences African identity concepts, and that the significance of economic concepts for African identity depends on social class. For example, in the high SES group, materialism and cynicism about Africa's future economic global prospects were found to have a negative effect on commitment to the national economy and African identity. The general implication is that anti‐group economic behaviour in Africa (e.g. corruption, worker exploitation) is attributable to individual mobility, as well as to intra‐national and global economic structures.

Who are the 'NGO People' in Mostar and Novi Sad?

by Piotr Goldstein

presented at the Balkan Connections Conference, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, June 2011

‘Samsaric Salvation: Prosperity Cults, Political Crisis, and Middle Class Aspirations in Bangkok’. Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity Working Paper Series, WP 10-14.

by Sophorntavy Vorng

MPI-MMG Working Paper

A lifestyle of consumption and the struggle for upward social mobility are central aspects of everyday life for Asia’s... more A lifestyle of consumption and the struggle for upward social mobility are central aspects of everyday life for Asia’s emergent new urban middle classes, not least in competitive Bangkok. In this paper, I argue that the transforming nature of Buddhist religiosity in urban Thai society cannot be considered outside of the overarching framework of social and political aspirations. Thus, while the merit-power nexus linking position in the social hierarchy with Buddhist merit accumulated from past lives is a pervasive ‘official’ discourse and continues to be deployed for legitimatory purposes by Thai political elites vying for power, religious commodification and the proliferation of a wide variety of prosperity cults suggests not only a declining belief in orthodox Buddhist concepts like merit and karma, but also a market-driven shift towards material wealth as the most important basis for power and status in Bangkok. Meanwhile, the emergence of middle class reformist Buddhist movements has provided ideological bases for challenges to the established political order.

‘Incendiary Central: The Spatial Politics of the May 2010 Street Demonstrations in Bangkok’. Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity Working Paper Series, WP 12-04.

by Sophorntavy Vorng

MPI-MMG Working Paper

In May 2010, anti-government demonstrators created a flaming inferno of Central-World Plaza – Thailand’s biggest, and... more In May 2010, anti-government demonstrators created a flaming inferno of Central-World Plaza – Thailand’s biggest, and Asia’s second largest shopping mall. It was the climactic close to the latest major chapter of the Thai political conflict, during which thousands of protestors swarmed Ratchaprasong, the commercial centre of Bangkok, in an ultimately failed attempt to oust Abhisit Vejjajiva’s regime from power. In this paper, I examine how downtown Bangkok and exclusive malls like Central-World represent physical and cultural spaces from which the marginalized working classes have been strikingly excluded. It is a configuration of space that maps onto the contours of a heavily uneven distribution of power, and articulates a vernacular of prestige, wherein which class relations are inscribed in urban space. The significance of the red-shirted movement’s occupation of Ratchaprasong lies in the subversion of this spatialisation of power and draws attention to the symbolic deployment of space in struggles for political supremacy.

‘Beyond the Urban-Rural Divide: Complexities of Class, Status, and Hierarchy in Bangkok’. The Asian Journal of Social Science (39)5: 674-701.

by Sophorntavy Vorng

Journal Article

The Thai political conflict is often described in terms of an urban-rural class divide. Using an emic, ethnographic... more The Thai political conflict is often described in terms of an urban-rural class divide. Using an emic, ethnographic approach, I problematise this analysis by examining Bangkokian notions of class and status differentiation. These have their bases in the feudal sakdina era as well as notions of Buddhist hierarchy, and privilege cosmopolitanism, foreignness and wealth, as encapsulated by such hybrid concepts as `inter' and `hi-so' — both of which are adopted from the English language phrases `international' and `high society', respectively. Such notions cannot adequately be explained in terms of Western-centric concepts of class, yet are nevertheless shaped by Thailand's historical engagement with Western powers as well as subsequent processes of globalization. Furthermore, status appraisal in Bangkok includes nuanced distinctions of consumption, education, ethnicity, and occupation, amongst other things, while simultaneously having a situational characteristic. This compels us to examine a variety of factors beyond the urban-rural divide in the discussion of the ongoing crisis.

“Hearts for Sale: The French Romance and the Sexual Traffic of Musical Mimicry,” 19th-Century Music 35:1 (2011), 34-71.

by William Cheng

Occupations and British Wage Inequality, 1970s-2000s

by Mark Williams

(forthcoming) European Sociological Review

Occupations provide a central unit of analysis for economic inequality in stratification research for two main... more Occupations provide a central unit of analysis for economic inequality in stratification research for two main reasons. First, occupations are supposed to structure inequality. Second, occupations are supposed to proxy as a source of inequality. Although there was a ‘massive rise’ in British wage inequality, relatively little is known about the relationship between the occupations and growing British wage inequality, and the sparse empirical research is inconclusive. Since sociologists traditionally have tended to place a great deal of emphasis on occupations, we might expect the changing structure of occupations and changing occupational wages to play a key role in accounting for trends in overall British wage inequality. More recent strands of stratification theory, however, have challenged the idea that occupations structure economic inequalities, and argue that the link between occupations and wages might have been weakening over time, instead predicting that growing wage inequality mostly occurs within occupations. We decompose trends in British wage inequality into between-occupation and within-occupation components and show that, although most wage inequality is within occupations, it is inequality between occupations that accounts for the lion’s share of changes in wage inequality trends. Furthermore, trends in between-occupation inequality cannot be ‘explained away’ by fundamental labour market changes such as rising educational attainment and the decline in collective bargaining. We also demonstrate what the rise in between-occupation inequality implies for the British ‘big class’ structure using the NS-SEC social class schema. We show that growing between-occupation inequality can be more or less described as growing between-class inequality.

Globalização e gentrificação: teoria e empiria

by Walter Rodrigues

published in SOCIOLOGIA, problemas e práticas, nº29, 1999

LEARNING TO NOT LABOR: How Working-Class Individuals Construct Middle-Class Identities

by Peter Kaufman

Land reform and social classes in rural Syria

by Sulayman Khalaf

1991. Syria: The society, polity, and culture of a modern nation (SUNY University Press, Albany NY), edited by R. Antoun and D. Quataert, pp. 63-78.

Implicit response: Instructor values and social class in the literacy narrative assignment

by Kara Poe Alexander

This is my dissertation. Contact me if you would like more information.