Sociology of the Middle Classes

Questioning residential (dis)continuities: personal residential trajectories, cultural capital and social (de)mobility

by Michaela Benson

I gave this paper at BSA Annual Conference, Leeds University, April 2012 and am currently working it up for publication. If you are interested in seeing the draft copy, please contact me directly.

Drawing on interview data collected in five neighbourhoods in and around London, this paper questions how the middle... more Drawing on interview data collected in five neighbourhoods in and around London, this paper questions how the middle classes mobilize their residential histories – in particular prior residential locations – as they make claims to belonging in their current neighbourhoods and what these histories do for them. It takes as its starting point an understanding of claims to belonging as integral to processes of distinction, part of a dynamic process whereby people seek recognition for their residential choices. On the one hand, it becomes clear that people are keen to draw out the similarities in the places that they have lived, posturing a 'habitus' that makes it almost second nature for them to live in their current neighbourhood. On the other hand, others clearly present their current choice of neighbourhood as distinct from previous places that they have lived, recalling a trajectory out of neighbourhoods, that from their current standpoint, are less desirable, or, conversely, more desirable. The examination of these residential histories are telling, demonstrating that residential pasts may serve as a source of cultural capital under particular circumstances, while for others the social distance of their current neighbourhoods from prior neighbourhoods is indicative of their social (de)mobility. Claims to belonging and what these do for people thus need to be understood within wider discourses about people's residential trajectories.

Beyond representations and into everyday life: exploring why and how British migrants stay in rural France

by Michaela Benson

I will be presenting this paper at the RGS-IBG conference in Edinburgh in July 2012

British migration to rural France, as in the case of other pro-rural migrations, is influenced by socio-cultural... more British migration to rural France, as in the case of other pro-rural migrations, is influenced by socio-cultural representations that valorize rural living. Drawing on an ethnographic study of the British residents of the Lot, an inland department in southwest France, this paper demonstrates how, in life following migration, such representations play a more-than-representational role in the migrants’ lives, with ideas about what constitutes rural living becoming increasing refined and significant to individuals as they engage in an ongoing quest for a better way of life. As the paper demonstrates, following migration representations of rural living transmute into reflections on how to live an authentic life, embedded more widely within the context of individual migration and life histories. While these are, in part, caught up with concerns over how to distinguish their lives and lifestyles from those of their middle-class compatriots also living in rural France, such reflections additionally express a concern with self-authenticity. As this paper argues, recurrent reflections on how to live reveal how their migration to rural France is part of an ongoing life project, articulated in the sense that there is always something more to life, in which concerns over class position and self-identity intersect.

Touristic Paradises: A Critical Rendering of Modern Vacationscapes

by Chaim Noy

Chapter in Rachel Elior (ed.), A Garden Eastward in Eden Traditions of Paradise. Jerusalem: The Hebrew University Magnes Press. Pp. 395-409. (2010). (Hebrew)

In this chapter I argue that in late-modernity, the industry of mass-tourism has re-produced, monopolized and mediated... more In this chapter I argue that in late-modernity, the industry of mass-tourism has re-produced, monopolized and mediated both symbolic paradisal images and concrete paradisal spaces. Tourism industry has accomplished the institutionalization and commercialization of contemporary paradises, via the uncanny and immensely profitable combination of mass-communication (mainly commercials), and mass-transportation, both of which are typical of the late-modern epoch. After I delineate several dichotomies due to which the tourism industry blossoms, regarding the differentiations between ‘home’ and ‘away,’ and between alienated and mundane living, and authentic paradisal existence, I adopt a feminist neo-Marxist perspective on one of the world’s greatest exploitative industries. I conclude by suggesting a few alternatives, and a brief neo-Marxist re-reading of the biblical story of the creation of Eden

Commodified Imagined Spaces: A few Critical Remarks on Tourism’s (in)visibilities

by Chaim Noy

Chapter in Arnon Soffer, Jacob, O. Maoz, and Ronit Cohen-Seffer (eds.), Cultural Landscape Patterns (honoring Yoram Bar-Gal). Haifa University Press, Haifa. Pp. 221-232. (Hebrew). (2011)

Middle Class Neighbourhood Attachment in Paris and Milan: Partial Exit and Profound Rootedness

by Alberta Andreotti

In T. Blokland, & M. Savage (a cura di), Networked Urbanism: Social Capital in the City (pp. 127-143). Ashgate.
co-authored with Patrick Le Galès

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition that the nature of urban social capital is affected not only by... more In recent years, there has been a growing recognition that the nature of urban social capital is affected not only by the problems of the urban poor, but also by the strategies of the affluent middle classes. European cities have historically been characterised by greater social integration than found in the US. However, contemporary urban trends in Europe, for instance associated with gentrification, segregation, and more generally ‘the end of urbanism’ may entail significant shifts in the social fabric of European cities. This chapter, based on an exploratory comparative empirical research in France and Italy, examines whether we can detect the partial “exit” of upper middle class both from their national society and from the cities in which they live. We tackle this question from a micro perspective, looking at the experience of the individuals, their narratives and focusing on a specific angle: the social networks of managers and engineers in Paris and Milan.

Globalising European Urban Bourgeoisies? Rooted middle classes and partial exit in Paris, Lyon, Madrid and Milan

by Alberta Andreotti

with Patrick Le Galès and Francisco Javier Moreno Fuentes

Introduction to a fothcoming book:
This book aims at empirically testing the role of urban upper middle classes... more Introduction to a fothcoming book:
This book aims at empirically testing the role of urban upper middle classes in the transformations experienced by contemporary European societies, linking our analysis to the debate on the emergence of a transnational bourgeoisie. In this book we argue (and try to provide empirical evidence to prove) that these groups are becoming at the same time more cosmopolitan AND more locally rooted. European urban upper
middle classes have to be analysed in relation to their strategies to gain resources from the international world, and to escape the constraints of national society, while remaining part of it (we call this “partial exit”). 
MEANWHILE, they are also part of urban societies, remain deeply rooted at the local level, and develop strategies to mix with other social and ethnic groups in some domains, while staying away and increasing distance in some others. Beyond simple analysis of secession or gentrification, this book makes
sense of this “partial exit” logic both from the national and from the urban point of view. 
We argue that European urban middle classes are becoming more mobile, partially “exiting” from the national society, and we bring evidence of this (friends, networks, children, jobs, holidays, values). They also invest resources in the cities and neighbourhoods where they live, they only look for secession or
gated communities strategies in certain contexts, but remain in control of the social and spatial distance they want to keep in relation to diverse social and ethnic groups.
 Is a new European managerial service class in the making in European metropolis in relation to European/global processes?
 Is there some pattern of social differentiation emerging, is this segment of the population adopting “exit” or “partial exit” strategies in respect to the nation state?
 Is this segment of the population adopting “exit” or “partial exit” strategies emerging from urban
practices and attempts to “exit” from the urban fabric? 

Postmodernizm, fin-de-siècle

by Piotr Puldzian Płucienniczak

[Postmodernism, fin-de-siècle]
Published in "Refleksje na temat ponowoczesności", M. Lubecki (ed.), Kraków 2012.

The Post-Industrial Regime of Production/Consumption and the Rural Gentrification of the New West Archipelago

by J. Dwight Hines

The contemporary American West is undergoing a round of rapid restructuring, which has been characterized as the shift... more The contemporary American West is undergoing a round of rapid restructuring, which has been characterized as the shift from landscapes of production to landscapes of consumption. Here I propose that a more effective description of current changes, which allows us to retain focus on the relevant inter- and intra-class-based dynamics of an ongoing capitalist-Modernity, is as a result of the transition from the prior dominance of a regime of production/consumption of commodities/natural-resources to the increasing ascendancy of the production/consumption of “experiences.” The rising dominance of this regime is, in large part, the result of the locally dramatic in-migration by ex-urban members of the post-industrial middle class to the “amenity-rich” counties of the region. This process of rural gentrification exacerbates preexisting social, geographic, and environmental disparities within the region creating an “archipelago” of changing communities commonly referred to as the “New” West. Drawing on almost two years of ethnographic research from one such “island” community in south-central Montana, I describe local-level change between the relative primacy of the two regimes of production/consumption.

In pursuit of experience: The postindustrial gentrification of the rural American West

by J. Dwight Hines

Contemporary rural gentrification – the colonization of rural communities and small-towns by members of the ex-urban... more Contemporary rural gentrification – the colonization of rural communities and small-towns by members of the ex-urban middle class – is a nationwide phenomenon that contradicts nearly two centuries of US urbanization. While previous research primarily describes such counter-urbanization as representing a profound divergence from previous patterns (i.e. urbanization, mass production/consumption, etc.), I contend that rural gentrification is best understood as the product of both continuity and change relative to the ideas/practices of Modernity and current postindustrialization. Based on ethnographic research conducted in a community in south central Montana, I present evidence that the choice by middle-class newcomers to migrate to the rural US is simultaneously the product of: 1) the continued efficacy of the Modern ideals of authenticity and progress; and 2) their aspirations to distinguish themselves as members of an emerging class faction – the postindustrial middle class (PIMC)– through their emphasis upon the production and consumption of experiences.

Frágiles clases medias y descenso social

by Xavier Martinez-Celorrio

Xavier Martínez Celorrio
El Periódico, 10 Octubre 2011

TURKISH TRANSNATIONAL BUSINESS PROFESSIONALS IN ISTANBUL: GLOBALIZATION, COSMOPOLITANISM AND THE EMERGING ELITE

by Deniz Ilhan

“Turkish Transnational Business Professionals in Istanbul: Globalization, Cosmopolitanism and the Emerging Elite,” a thesis prepared by Deniz İlhan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts Degree from the Atatürk Institute for Modern Turkish History of Boğaziçi University.

This paper has been approved on 18 October 2010.

  The neo-liberal economic transformation that was initiated in post-1980s Turkey has produced a Turkey in the... more   The neo-liberal economic transformation that was initiated in post-1980s Turkey has produced a Turkey in the 2000s that has been integrated to the global economy through processes such as the liberalization of the markets, privatization and opening to transnational economic actors and financial instruments. In this manner, starting from the 1990s, the increase, growth and expansion of foreign and multinational corporations in Istanbul has made possible the emergence of new business people, who are more connected to the globe in their daily lives.
  These business people constitute a portion of a globally available population that has drawn the attention of academic and non-academic circles throughout the globe from 80’s onwards. In the international sociological literature, this population is regarded as the “transnational elite” of the global era and their members are described as people who are embedded in exclusive transnational social networks, who are globally mobile, who share a global business culture and as people who have exclusive consumption practices.
  As for the field research of this thesis, middle and high-ranking business professionals who are employed in foreign and multinational corporations in Istanbul which operate on regional/global levels were interviewed in-depth. In the thesis, these subjects are problematized as political and cultural members of localities and communities that straddle between the local and the global. Within the scope of the interviews, social relations and imaginations of these subjects were discussed through their personal histories and narratives regarding their “selves.” Moreover, their personal opinions regarding contemporary socio-political issues at different geographical levels were discussed.
  The aim of the thesis is to contextualize these subjects as national members of the secular Turkish elite and as the transnational members of the transnational professional elite. In this regard, it was discussed whether transnational exposure and experience contribute to the cultivation of cosmopolitan dispositions in regards to the public sphere. It has been observed that the use of socio-political typologies such as “white Turks,” “neo-Kemalists,” “Yuppies” that emphasize socio-political elitism/ indifference/hostility – although may proficiently describe many Turkish elite positions - oversees pluralist and egalitarian tendencies that can be cultivated within elite circles due to translocal interaction and exposure.

Becoming significant: the appropriation of the French rural space by British migrants / L’appropriation de l’espace rural français par les Britanniques

by Michaela Benson

(2008) ‘Becoming significant: the appropriation of the French rural space by British migrants / L’appropriation de l’espace rural français par les Britanniques’, J-P. Diry (ed.) Les étrangers dans les campagnes. Clermont-Ferrand: Presses universitaires Blaise Pascal.

A desire for difference: British lifestyle migration to southwest France

by Michaela Benson

(2009) ‘A desire for difference: British lifestyle migration to southwest France’ in Benson, M.C. and O’Reilly, K. (eds) Lifestyle Migration: Expectations, Aspirations and Experiences. Farnham: Ashgate.

Living the “Real” Dream in la France profonde? Lifestyle Migration, Social Distinction and the Authenticities of Everyday Life

by Michaela Benson

(In press) ‘Living the “Real” Dream in la France profonde? Lifestyle Migration, Social Distinction and the Authenticities of Everyday Life’, Accepted by Anthropological Quarterly

For the British residents of rural France, the desire for authentic (rural) living underscored the decision to... more For the British residents of rural France, the desire for authentic (rural) living underscored the decision to migrate, while through residence they gain more nuanced understandings of authenticity. This article explores the purpose that these authenticities have for my respondents. As the ethnography in the article demonstrates, claims to the authentic are equally claims to distinctiveness, and should thus be read within the context of the continual processes of social distinction in which these migrants engage.

Interweavings: A cultural phenomenology of everyday consumption and social atmosphere within Danish middle-class families

by Jeppe Trolle Linnet

If you are looking for a description and cultural analysis of HYGGE, my article "Money can't buy me hygge: Danish middle-class consumption, egalitarianism and the sanctity of inner space" is available elsewhere on academia.edu.

Linnet, Jeppe Trolle (2011). “Money can't buy me hygge: Danish middle-class consumption, egalitarianism and the sanctity of inner space”. Social Analysis: Journal of Cultural and Social Practice 55 (2): 21-44

Regarding my Ph.d. dissertation that is available here. If you cite manuscript 1 or 2 (referred to in it as M1 and M2), please access and cite the published versions of these, available on academia.edu, and not the manuscripts in the dissertation:

Manuscript 2 on hygge is referenced above.

Manuscript 1 on contextalization in consumption research has been published as:

Askegaard, Søren and Jeppe Trolle Linnet (2011). “Towards an Epistemology of Consumer Culture Theory: Phenomenology, Structure and the Context of Context”. Marketing Theory. 11 (4), pp. 381-404





Best regards

Jeppe Trolle Linnet

Post. doc.
Department of Marketing & Management
University of Southern Denmark

jtr@sam.sdu.dk

Burrows, R. and Butler, T. ‘Middle Mass and the Pit: A Critical Review of Peter Saunders’ Sociology of Consumption’, Sociological Review, 37, 2, 338-364, 1989

by Roger Burrows

Burrows, R. and Butler, T. ‘Middle Mass and the Pit: A Critical Review of Peter Saunders’ Sociology of Consumption’, Sociological Review, 37, 2, 338-364, 1989

by Roger Burrows

Spatializing distinction in cities of the global south: Volatile terrains of morality and citizenship

by Ryan Centner

Introducción to Moralidades, economías e identidades de clase media. Estudios históricos y etnográficos

by Sergio Eduardo Visacovsky

Co-authored with Enrique Garguien. In: Visacovsky, Sergio E. y Enrique Garguin (eds.). Moralidades, economías e identidades de clase media. Estudios históricos y etnográficos. Buenos Aires, Antropofagia, 2009, pp. 11-59. ISBN: 978-987-1238-56-9.

Imágenes de la “clase media” en la prensa escrita argentina durante la llamada 'crisis del 2001-2002'

by Sergio Eduardo Visacovsky

In: Visacovsky, Sergio E. y Enrique Garguin (eds.). Moralidades, economías e identidades de clase media. Estudios históricos y etnográficos. Buenos Aires, Antropofagia, 2009, pp. 247-278. ISBN: 978-987-1238-56-9.