This handbook, - presents an authoritative account of the development of movements, thoughts, and policies of OBCs (Other Backward Classes) in India, - is a comprehensive work on the politics of identity and plurality of experiences of OBCs in India, and is the first of its kind, - will be essential reading for scholars and researchers of exclusion and discrimination studies, diversity and inclusion studies, Global South Studies, affirmative action, sociology, Indian political history, Dalit Studies, political sociology, public policy, development studies, and political studies.

-book explores the effects of the gradual liberalisation of capital markets and the expansion of consumer credit on poorer households in the UK, with particular attention to the precariousness caused by a lack of savings and a reliance on debt -the author draws on Michel Foucault's theory of subjectivation as well as Louis Althusser's interest in class, actively theorising the constraints of low income or precarious work on financial planning, alongside the reorganisation or rollback of government benefits - shows how finance stratifies individual subjects rather than simply individualising and separating them

This volume challenges the concept of the 'new African middle class' with new theoretical and empirical insights into the changing lives in Sub-Saharan Africa. Diverse middle classes are on the rise, but models of class based on experiences from other regions of the world cannot be easily transferred to the African continent. Empirical contributions, drawn from a diverse range of contexts, address both African histories of class formation and the political roles of the continent's middle classes, and also examine the important interdependencies that cut across inter-generational, urban-rural and class divides. This thought-provoking book argues emphatically for a revision of common notions of the 'middle class', and for the inclusion of insights 'from the South' into the global debate on class. Middle Classes in Africa will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines, as well as NGOs and policy makers with an interest in African societies.

Privileges an interdisciplinary approach, and qualitative methods, bringing together historians, sociologists, cultural geographers, an architect and an anthropologist. Brings together field inquiries and reflections from Europe and India, connecting urban locales through the urban global North and South. The different case studies presented here privilege the examination of citizens' new requirements with respect to the city, which they inhabit and where they work. The focus on citizen participatory practices broadens its audience to practitioners of urban planning, architects and artists.

This book addresses what is perhaps the most salient issue in American politics today: the decline of the middle class. It is this single issue that drove the outlier presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump to national prominence, and undergirded the electoral victory of Donald Trump. While there are other longer studies exploring in detail the structural forces, most prominently the loss of manufacturing in the US, that have caused the contraction of the middle class, none offer in shorter form practical policy solutions directly geared towards practitioners in government and the private sector. This work focuses specifically on combining both an academic analysis of the subject combined with detailed policy recommendations. These recommendations are designed to be implemented; they take into account the latest set of real world political variables such as actual current legislative and institutional agendas currently in play on the federal and local levels.

Exploring the structural causes and consequences of inequalities based on a person's race, class, and gender, Poverty, Racism and Sexism: The Reality of Oppression in America concentrates on this formidable set of disadvantages, demonstrating how Americans are adversely affected by just one or a combination of three social factors. Grounded in sociological thought, the text highlights unfolding stories about major social inequalities and relentless campaigns for people's rights. Weaving together such concepts as individualism, social reproduction, social class, and intersectionality, the book provides a framework for readers to understand the vast injustices these groups encounter, where and why they originated, and why they continue to endure. Poverty, Racism and Sexism is a compact, versatile volume which will prove an invaluable resource for those studying social inequality, social problems, social stratification, contemporary American society, social change, urban sociology, and poverty and inequality.

Marx expected the working class to create 'a movement of immense majority, in the interests of immense majority'. However, there is not and never has been such a movement. At least a part of the reason is that the traditional Marxist picture of a two-class polarisation bears little resemblance to the diverse and complex society of today's Western world. In this book, Michal Polak attempts to move beyond the austerity of the two-class model to come closer to the empirical realities. In the process, the author re-examines the very foundations of the Marxist theory, demonstrating how an important critique of the theory can in fact be fruitfully interpreted as a generalisation of it. While remaining true to the Marxian spirit, he comes up with original and innovative extensions of the traditional concepts, which finally allow for the explanation of the diverse class map of the advance capitalist societies.

Global forces and accountability once again converge in this volume, illustrating the significant and multifaceted nature of the role of accounting in societies. The accounting discipline in its numbers, its silences, its privileging of select classifications over others, it is continually constructing knowledge, cultivates meaning, and impacts public policy in the intersection of socio-political-economic realms. The research in this volume responds to calls for examining accounting as an interdisciplinary role in neoliberal governance by examining migration, race, gender, class and the creation of the 'other'. Each paper uniquely contributes toward significantly exploring accounting's role in disenfranchising populations while identifying participants actualized and potential role in emancipatory struggles. By recognizing marginalized groups embedded power rather than casting them as victims, the authors reject an inevitability of widening inequalities and forms of violence to world populations. Rather these critical accounting researchers seriously tackle the task of transformation, providing pathways for thinking differently and aspiring for change.

1) This is a comprehensive volume on the rise of the new middle class in India. 2) It contains case studies from all major cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Patna, and, Surat in India. 3) This will be of interest to departments of South Asian studies across UK.

Originally published in 1972, this book aimed to provide the student with a basic understanding of the main theories of social stratification and to acquaint them with current methods of research, with the results from modern research (with emphasis on British research), and with current issues in this field. The first two chapters are concerned with theory and are followed by chapters on slavery and the caste system. These are intended to illustrate concepts and theory and to offer the student a comparative perspective in which to view stratification in modern society - which is dealt with in a final lengthy chapter. The book has been written primarily for first-year university students, but also with sixth-formers and students in colleges of further education in mind.

Social Movements and Global Social Change teaches students not only about how social change occurs but also how social movements can contribute to this change. The book links two concepts in sociology that are often related in real life, but that can seem disconnected in traditional approaches to teaching these courses. The book examines different types of social movements, including those often ignored in social change textbooks, such as riots, migration, and disorganized protest. It also looks at citizens' rights and inequality in connection to social movements and change. The book features global perspectives and examples throughout.

J. W. von Archenholtz's England is a political and sociological description of Great Britain during the second half of the 18th century. Based primarily on Archenholtz's firsthand observations from 1769 to 1779, England looks with precision and anecdotal detail at the behavior of Britons of all ranks. Never without an attitude, Archenholtz conveys a wide range of topics from debates in the House of Commons to the garb of serving women. Whether describing the newly formed militia or the shenanigans of James Graham and his "celestial bed," he provides a focused, point-driven account that will inform history enthusiasts.

This book presents an analysis of representations of white, heterosexual, working-class masculinities in British culture between 1945 and 1989 to trace the development of the sociocultural and material conditions that shaped the masculinities which are helping to shape contemporary culture. This book seeks to fan the 'spark of hope' in the past that informs our present. The period which saw the establishment of the welfare state and the construction and breakdown of the post-war consensus in British politics was of great significance in the formation and maintenance of working-class masculinities and their correspondent representations. The author engages with a variety of cultural texts across various modes and media including films (Alfie), plays (Don't Look Back in Anger), television (Boys from the Blackstuff), and music (The Beatles), and employs the analysis of the representation of working-class masculinities as a lens through which to examine a range of historical and cultural moments. This book reinstates class as a central precept in the study of British cultural representations and offers a timely intervention in ongoing debates around class and gender identities in Britain. The book will be key reading for students and researchers with interests in twentieth-century social and cultural British history, masculinities and gender studies, twentieth-century British literature, British television, and cultural studies more broadly.

M. N. Srinivas is acclaimed as a doyen of modern sociology and social anthropology in India. In this book, A. M. Shah, a distinguished Indian sociologist and a close associate of Srinivas's, reflects on his legacy as a scholar, teacher, and institution builder. The book is a collection of Shah's five chapters on and an interview with Srinivas, with a comprehensive introduction. He narrates Srinivas's life and work in different phases; discusses his theoretical ideas, especially functionalism, compared with Max Weber's ideas; deliberates on his concept of Sanskritisation and its contemporary relevance; and reflects on his role in the history of sociology and social anthropology in India. In the interview, Srinivas responds to a large number of questions from the style of writing to the dynamics of politics. It shows that while his scholarship was firmly rooted in India, it was sensitive to global ideas and institutions. This book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers in sociology, social anthropology, history, and political science. The general reader interested in these subjects will also find it useful.

The Salvation Army is well known for its work with the poor and disadvantaged. There is, however, much more to the story of the Salvation Army than their highly commendable good works. They have been so closely identified with a programme of social action that their wider history has been marginalized. This history includes a period of astonishing levels of opposition and religious persecution which the Army faced in its early years. Many Salvationists were badly injured in violent street riots against them while at the same time facing imprisonment as the force of the law was brought to bear on their evangelism. Among all those places in Britain where the Salvation Army was persecuted, that in the south-coast town of Eastbourne during the 1880s and 1890s stands out as worthy of attention. The Sussex seaside resort played a hugely important part in the wider anti-Salvation Army narrative as it was in Eastbourne that opposition was among the most violent and protracted. Significantly and surprisingly, the vehemence and savagery was supported by the local Council and Mayor. The narrative of The Mob and The Mayor is chronological and entirely evidence based. It includes: Eyewitness accounts; newspaper reports; Parliamentary papers; Eastbourne Council & Watch Committee Meetings Minutes; and Salvation Army documents. Britain was at times at war with itself as the country came to terms with urban poverty resulting from the Industrial Revolution. The persecution of the Salvation Army at the Victorian seaside sheds a wider light on the struggles to promote social betterment for all.

This book, the second title in the Rethinking Community Development series, starts from concern about increasing inequality worldwide and the re-emergence of community development in public policy debates. It argues for the centrality of class analysis and its associated divisions of power to any discussion of the potential benefits of community development. It proposes that, without such an analysis, community development can simply mask the underlying causes of structural inequality. It may even exacerbate divisions between groups competing for dwindling public resources in the context of neoliberal globalisation. Reflecting on their own contexts, a wide range of contributors from across the global north and south explore how an understanding of social class can offer ways forward in the face of increasing social polarisation. The book considers class as a dynamic and contested concept and examines its application in policies and practices past and present. These include local/global and rural/urban alliances, community organising, ecology, gender and education.

Middle class executives are the people who've done everything right - gotten college degrees, developed marketable skills and build up impressive resumes - yet they have become repeatedly vulnerable to financial disaster. In Bait and Switch, Ehrenreich enters a shadowy world of Internet job searches, lonely networking events and costly career-coaching sessions, a world in which 'professional' mentors and trainers offer pop-psychology and self-help mantras to desperate would-be employees. Poignant and blackly funny, Bait and Switch delivers a stark warning about the future that faces corporate employees everywhere and calls for collective action to guard against it.

1) This is a comprehensive book on understanding equity in the context of the northeastern states in India. 2) It contains case studies from all seven states in the north eastern region. 3) This book will be of interest to departments of South Asian studies and Development Studies across UK and USA.

The transition to twenty-first century post-industrial capitalism from the 'welfare' industrial capitalism of the twentieth century, has affected the ways in which class is lived in terms of relational inequality and the factors that structure identity. Class After Industry takes a complex realist approach to the dynamics of individual lives, places, the social structure and analyses their significance in terms of class. A wide range of quantitative and qualitative studies are drawn on to explore how 'life after industry' shapes class, and the consequent potential for social change. The book will be of interest across the social sciences and beyond, to those concerned with how class forms might translate into political action.

This book examines the phenomenon of intelligentsia as political discourse, civic action, and embodied practice, focusing especially on the political agendas and personal choices confronting intellectuals in modern Russia. Contributors explore the role of the Russian intelligentsia in dismantling the Soviet system and the unanticipated consequences of the resultant changes which threaten the very existence of the intelligentsia as a distinct group. Building on the legacy of John Dewey and Jurgen Habermas, the authors make the case that the intelligentsia plays a critical role in opening communications, widening the range of participants in public discourse, and freeing social intercourse from the constraints nondemocratic political arrangements impose on the communication sphere. Looking at current trends through a variety of different lenses, this book will be of interest to those studying the past, present, and future of the Russian intelligentsia and its impact not only in Russia, but around the world. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Russian Journal of Communication.

This book offers a new concept of inclusion of the marginalised in India - the Broad-basing Process. The author examines how through this process increasing numbers of marginalised social groups can enter into the social, political and economic mainstream and progressively derive the same advantages from society as the groups already part of it. The book critically reviews how the broad-basing process has worked in the past in India both before and after its independence. It examines how social groups like Dalits, OBCs, Muslims, women and the labour class have fared, and how far economic development, urbanisation, infrastructure development and the digital revolution have helped the marginalised and promoted broad-basing. It also offers mechanisms to speed up broad-basing in poorer economies. A first of its kind, this volume will be useful for scholars and researchers of political studies, sociology, exclusion studies, political economy and also for general readers.

Gendered processes of globalisation, transnationalisation and urbanisation are increasing local and global inequalities and widening the gap between the rich and the poor. The global finance industry plays a key role in these processes, directing its operations from local command points in global cities such as London. Drawing on empirical data collected after the 2008 financial crisis - in depth interviews with male City of London bankers who are also fathers, in depth interviews with the bankers' wives, observational data of work and family spaces, and banks' promotional online material -this book explores the day-to-day individual and institutional social practices of wealthy City bankers and banks. The book's analysis offers insight into how the spaces of work and home are integrally linked in ways that mutually shape, support and sustain the gendered dominance of the industry and its highly paid workers. This book will appeal to postgraduate students, researchers and academics interested in the fields of gender studies, critical studies of men and masculinities, urban and metropolitan studies, sociology, studies of globalisation and transnationalisation, anthropology, cultural studies and business management. It will also be interesting for those concerned about the role of the finance industry and neoliberal capitalist ideologies, values and practices in ever-widening local and global inequalities.

Based on a critical Marxist ethnography, conducted at a state primary school in a former coalmining community in the north of England, this book provides insight into teachers' perceptions of the effects of deindustrialisation on education for the working class. The book draws on the notion of social haunting to help understand the complex ways in which historical relations and performances, reflective of the community's industrial past, continue to shape experiences and processes of schooling. The arguments presented enable us to engage with the 'goodness' of the past as well as the pain and suffering associated with deindustrialisation. This, it is argued, enables teachers and pupils to engage with rhythms, relations, and performances that recognise the heritage and complexities of working-class culture. Reckoning and harnessing with the fullness of ghosts is essential if schooling is to be refashioned in more encouraging and relational ways, with and for the working class. This text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in the sociology of education, and social class and education in particular. Those interested in schooling, ethnography, and qualitative social research will also benefit from the book

African American homebuyers continue to pay more for and get less from homeownership. This book explains the motivations for pursuing homeownership amongst working-class African Americans despite the structural conditions that make it less economically and socially rewarding for this group. Fervent adherence to the American Dream ideology amongst working-class African Americans makes them more vulnerable to exploitation in a structurally racist housing market. The book draws on qualitative interviews with sixty-eight African American aspiring homebuyers looking to buy a home in the Chicago metropolitan area to investigate the housing-search process and residential relocation decisions in the context of a racially segregated metropolitan region. Working-class African Americans remained committed to homeownership, in part because of the moral status attached to achieving this goal. For African American homebuyers, success at the American Dream of homeownership is directly related to the long-standing dream of equality. For the aspiring homebuyers in this study, delayed homeownership was a practical problem for the same reasons, but they also experienced this as a personal failing, due to the strong cultural expectation in the United States that homeownership is a milestone that middle-class adults must achieve. Furthermore, despite using perfectly reasonable housing search strategies to locate homes in stable or improving racially integrated neighborhoods, the structure of racial segregation limits their agency in housing choices. Ultimately, policy solutions will need to address structural racism broadly and be attuned to the needs of both homeowners and renters.

Why were the European middle classes ready to acquiesce in neo-liberalism? This book argues that upward mobility, the growth of individual and family assets, the growing significance of private provision, and processes of individualization contributed to a major transformation of the middle classes, making them more prone to embrace inequality and market principles. It shows how the self-interest of large sections of the middle classes undermined social democracy and paved the way for neo-liberal reforms, making their socio-economic positioning ever more precarious and reducing their political power. Central to the debate is the question of how the middle classes can rebalance the relationship between the Market and state intervention, so as to establish a new social equilibrium.