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In this paper, we develop a working theory examining how the organizational apparatuses of colleges and universities, as well as larger trends in higher education, contribute to unequal outcomes for faculty from working-class backgrounds and their upper- and middle-class counterparts. Based on 30 interviews with a nationwide sample of academic faculty and graduate students in sociology, we adapt an analytical approach introduced by Victor Ray, a theory of racialized organizations, to identify several common mechanisms in higher education that hinder working-class faculty members' ability to form professional relationships and gain prestige at post-secondary institutions, disrupt efforts to diversify faculty bodies socioeconomically, and preserve class-based inequalities by masking the saliency of social class in faculty settings. Adapting Ray's analysis, we divide these organizational features of higher education into three categories—superstructure (collective ideologies), structure (policies and norms), and substructure (individual schemas)—illustrating how these features uphold and reinforce one another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the development of the sociology of death. It begins by tracing some of the major trends in sociology more generally that have influenced understandings of the social impact of mortality. The question is then raised as to why sociologists of death have hitherto largely failed to research into working-class cultures of death. Following a brief discussion of some of the literature that has considered working-class practices, a number of explanations are offered for this relative neglect: that social class is no longer relevant in postmodern societies; that the creation of death studies as a specialism in sociology has isolated academics from the conceptual concerns of mainstream sociology; that the personal-political agendas of middle-class academics working in this field have shaped the preoccupations of researchers. The last of these explanations is explored in greater depth by linking work on death to the sociology of the body and that of the emotions. To examine some key social class distinctions, the assertion of working-class stoicism is contrasted with a middle-class privileging of verbal communication. The paper concludes with an appeal to sociologists of death to reinstate social class as a significant factor in understandings of the social nature of mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents list of several books, published between 1979 and 1981. These books were assigned for review, but reviews were never submitted by the persons who had agreed to review them, nor were the books returned so that they might be reassigned to others. In all of the cases, two or more reminders were sent. Editors apologize for the delinquency of the reviewers to both the authors of the books and to the readers of the journal "Contemporary Sociology." Names of books include "Game Theory: Mathematical Models of Conflict," by A.J. Jones, "Longitudinal Research in the Study of Behavior and Development" by John R. Nesselroade and Paul B. Baltes, "Ideas, Individuals, Interaction: A Formal Theory," by Dan Jonsson, "Studies of the Modern World-System," edited by Terence K. Hopkins and Immanuel Wallerstein, "Goodbye to the Working Class," by Roy Greenslade, "People, Power and Process: Sociology for Canadians," by Alexander Himelfarb and James Richardson and "Structural Change and Development Policy," by Hollis Chenery.

ABSTRACT. The notion social class attains a well-defined theoretical content in the works of the classical political economists, who defined classes on the basis of the specific income form that each category of people (class) obtains. This approach to class constitutes a first form of a "friendly merger" between political economy and sociology. When combined with the classical labor value theory, it has led to a theory of class exploitation of the laboring class by the capitalist class. As economic theory became increasingly apologetic after the "Marginalist Revolution" (setting itself the aim of justifying capitalism), the theory of class has been totally banished from the corpus of "modern (neoclassical) economic science." This paper claims that the scientific elements inherent in classical political economy's class theory were preserved by the Marxist class theory, which further revolutionized the classical approach, creating a new, purely non-economistic and non-mechanistic "relationist" class theory, and forming thus a vivid economic-sociological approach to social classes. On the basis of the Marxist approach, complex problems concerning the class structure of contemporary societies can be tackled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines survey data relating class mobility to satisfaction and dissatisfaction with seven different domains of everyday life among nationally representative samples of men and women living in ten industrialized nations. The evidence is set against competing pessimistic and optimistic accounts of the mobility experience found in earlier literature. Results show that individuals who move from working-class origins to middle-class destinations are no more likely to be systematically satisfied or dissatisfied with life than are the socially immobile or even those downwardly mobile from advantaged backgrounds into the working class. Indeed, in all nations, the overall association between class experience and satisfaction with life is both weak and uneven across the different life-domains. The study also serves to illustrate an important principle of research methodology more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a brief examination of neo-Marxist and neo-Weberian arguments it is demonstrated that the class nature of the new middle class has yet to be established. The paper goes on to show that as well as differences arising out of material conditions (i.e. class differences), inequalities based on expectations of entitlement or norms are also significant in capitalist society. Weber's treatment of status has not encouraged an adequate understanding of the concept, and an alternative is outlined. The paper then argues that the differences between the so-called new middle class and the working class are reasonably understood on a number of criteria as differences between status groups which form part of a single class. Not only does this approach remove a number of difficulties from accounts of the salariat, it also helps explain the different political alignments of social collectivities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we review the empirical legacy that developed out of the theoretical and methodological agendas of class analysis and comparative methods of the 1970s and 1980s. Our review is restricted to studies that examine the variants in the class structures of the developed capitalist democracies. The paper is organized into four main sections. In part one. we examine variations in the organization of capital; part two takes up the still little-studied resurgence of the petite bourgeoisie and small capital; in part three, we review studies that have examined national variations in the size and composition of the new middle class; and part four reviews the postindustial and gendered nature of the working class. Our conclusion highlights important labor market developments of the 1980s that have largely been missed by conventional class models and comments on their significance for the future of empirical research in class analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper recognizes the contribution made by Robert Miles to marxist scholarship on 'race' and class in Britain but it suggests that his central thesis is flawed in that a consideration of gender and community should be as central to the analysis as that of social class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'New Working Class' theory, popularised in French sociology during the 1960s and 1970s, envisages the advent of a politically inspired class movement that rekindles the vision of a new social order as the technicians rise to become its vanguard. According to writers like Mallet and Touraine, these technical 'white-collars' tend to take over from the traditional manual groups in posing as the 'standard-bearers' of class-based industrial radicalism and solidarity. This paper proposes to trace the recent vein of discussions on the class implications of occupational and technological transformation from such a neo-Marxian perspective. It also attempts to apply these arguments to interpret the characteristics of a new occupation in Hong Kong -- the technicians working m the electronics and related industries, with reference to an empirical study carried out in the early 1980s.[1]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a paper on the theory of working-class Conservatism. In any study of voting behavior in industrial society, social class would figure prominently as a predictor of party choice and political loyalty. Whilst it is obvious that other influences are brought to bear upon individuals which help to shape their political commitments, such as religious, historical, ethnic, regional factors, and so forth, social class membership has proved to be one of the most reliable single indices of voting behavior. This theory of working-class conservatism would make the notions of deference and class perception unnecessary, in so far as it seeks to encompass both of these within its explanatory orbit. These two concepts differ from the ones employed here in that they are essentially socio-psychological in character, in the sense that they focus upon individual attitudes and perceptions as a means of explaining political behavior.

The purpose of the article is to set up agenda that has been missing in the Czech sociology so far. It aims at foreclosing the paradigmatic and methodological assumptions that frame class as a constitutive and important category in the social science research. The paper also introduces the author's own ethnographic research of working class that in the first phase focuses on the class consciousness and on the class in the context of the gender structure of society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we generalize the Breen and Goldthorpe model of relative risk aversion hypothesis that explains the class differentials in educational attainment, in order to specify the condition that an advancement rate of children from service class origin exceeds that of working class origin. By expressing an advancement rate as an explicit function of parameters of a model, we also analyze an inequality of educational attainment by odds ratio that can be expressed as a function of theoretical advancement rate. Our model shows the condition that the odds ratio increases. Moreover, we reformulate a process of succeeding educational transition and analyze a function of theoretical advancement rate. We investigate the condition that the effect of class origin declines across transitions. One of the conditions is that median of distribution of subjective probability of success decrease as education level proceeds. This may reduce advancement rate for service class origin. The other condition is that the advancement rate for working class origin increases as much as that of service class origin when student from working class origin prefer service class to working class. These mechanisms may cause decline of class origin effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Marxian theory of social class has always been troubled by the fact that the coalitions that individuals form have not, by and large, been consistent with the pattern of asset ownership. The purpose of this paper is to add another dimension to some of the existing approaches to this 'goodness-of-fit' problem. This is done by using n-person game theory to examine the coalitions that individuals would be expected to form in a struggle over division of the surplus. This provides a partial analysis of fragmentation within the working class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Class is often overlooked in sociological studies of death, just as studies of class overlook death. The controversial media coverage of the death of Jade Goody provides a useful focus for exploring contemporary class-making. Recent sociological analyses of class representations in popular culture have demonstrated how denigration and humiliation serve as mechanisms which position sections of the white, working class (chavs) as repositories of bad taste. We argue that these are not the only (or even the most prevalent) affective mechanisms for class-making. In this article, we explore how cultural imperatives for ‘dying well’ intersect with what could be perceived as more positive or even affectionate representations of Jade to produce ‘good taste’ as naturalised properties of the middle class. As such, we demonstrate that the circulation of inequalities through precarious and dynamic cultural representations involves more complex affective mechanisms in class boundary work than is often recognised. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article draws on recent theoretical developments within sociology which have proposed new ways of looking at and understanding class. Drawing on two contemporary examples, namely the Gambling Bill and the recent 'riots' at Ikea in Edmonton in north London, the article demonstrates some of the ways in which class operates subjectively within the practice of everyday life. Using these examples, I show how class continuously informs identity and how, by looking at a range of contemporary cultural consumption practices, it is possible to gain a sense of how boundaries surrounding rights to middle-class identity are constantly tightened and refined. By presenting a range of responses to these consumer practices, I show how representations of the working class are often problematic and leave important questions about the everyday performance of class unanswered. The article thus offers an alternative understanding of class to those that have often positioned the working class as a dangerous deviant mob, as romantic rebels or simply as victims of an oppressive capitalist state. It concludes by arguing in favour of a renewed sociology of class and for ensuring that class features more prominently on the sociology of consumption agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay advances the proposition that the category of class, when historicized, offers a powerful interpretive tool for the understanding of early modern society. In particular, it develops Sennett and Cobb's insight that unequal social structures engender feelings of humiliation and subordination amongst poorer people; and that such "hidden injuries" are central to the maintenance of social inequality. The essay suggests some ways in which the category of class might illuminate unexplored paths in the social history of early modern England. It then goes on to look at the relationship between social conflicts, plebeian identities and patterns of subordination and domination. Throughout, it seeks to engage with recent historical applications of the work of James C. Scott, arguing that domination and subordination are best conceived as operating in relationship to one another, rather than as polar opposites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on social reproduction focuses predominantly on the working class. Middle-class social reproduction is not as widely studied and is often assumed to be a structurally determined process lacking human agency. Using in-depth interviews with 41 college seniors, I demonstrate that middle-class social reproduction arises out of the interplay between agency and structure, specifically, from individuals’ activation and negotiation of structural advantages. My analysis centers around the themes often invoked to illustrate working-class reproduction: resistance and contestation; the importance of the peer group; and familial structural resources—or the lack thereof. I discuss how these themes are reflected in middle-class social reproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The feminist working-class academic is an exemplary queer subject, someone whose presence (and practice) questions the norms of the academy without ever being able to completely occupy the 'other' term. She is an archetypal late modern subject of reflexivity and mobility. This article explores some consequences of this position by looking at class as lived as a re/location, reflecting on its pleasures and pains. The author looks principally at autobiographically inspired accounts of class, as well as other auto/biographical material, which have influenced these personal narratives. In doing so she alludes to more research-based texts to point to the cumulative importance of this particular class literature to problematise a sociology without a society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from residents of three differentiated working class neighbourhoods in Sheffield, England, this study explores the relative plausibility of three analytical perspectives on the working class formation process (the ecological, sectoral, the socialization perspectives). Expectations drawn from each of these are used to account for observed variations among respondents on several measures of working class formation. The results of several tests provide some support for the ecological and (to a lesser extent) the sectoral perspectives. However, both seem to offer less satisfactory accounts of observed variations in class formation than the socialization perspective. Some suggestions for further research to build upon the findings presented here are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that much recent writing on the development of the ideology of domesticity within the working class and the role in this of struggles for protective legislation suffers from undue neglect of class interests in the construction of family life. As a contribution to a fuller account of the interaction of class and gender concerns, a case study is presented of the analysis of the family, gender and laissezfaire capitalism contained in the writing of Richard Oastler, a leading figure in the British Ten Hours Movement of the 1830s and 1840s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most important recent trends in the recruitment of sociologists, according to our data, are (1) a decline in the proportion from the Midwest and an increase in the proportion from the Northeast; (2) a steep decline in the proportion with rural backgrounds; (3) an increase in the proportion from Jewish families; and (4) an increase in the proportion who are Negro. Perhaps as important as these trends is the lack of evidence for some trends that might be expected for one reason or another. For instance, there apparently has been no re- cent tendency for a larger percentage of sociologists to come from the higher social levels, the South, politically liberal families of orientation, or undergraduate sociology majors. Segments of the population that have not contributed their proportional share of sociologists include Negroes, Catholics, Southerners, the working class, and the rural population. On the other hand, Jews, Westerners, the "lower-middle class;' and families headed by clergymen have contributed considerably more than their proportional share. Our data indicate that a sizable proportion of the people who later become sociologists reject conventional religion and the conservative or moderate political views of their fathers by the time they reach late adolescence. This proportion is almost certainly larger than among other late adolescents, considered as a whole, although we have no strictly comparable data on the others. Therefore, it seems that the liberalism and apostasy prevalent among sociologists result to a large extent from selective recruitment rather than from socialization within the discipline or exposure to sociological perspectives and information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of data gathered from university student political organizations representing the far left and far right suggests that leftist students come predominantly from upper-middle-class backgrounds, while those on the political right are more likely to be lower-middle-class or working-class in origin. These findings are interpreted is sing the "status politics" theory of Hofstadter, Lipset, and others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]