Based on in-depth analysis, extensive interviews, and a journalist's keen insight, An Empire of Schools provides a new framework to explore the misunderstandings that have arisen between Japan and the United States. The vital determining issue that complicates U.S.-Sino communications, Cutts says, is not the cultural incompatibilities of the people or economies but the fact that all Japanese leaders emerge from the same educational treadmill or "cartels of the mind". This revered system, crowned by five national and private universities, and from which almost all Japanese leaders emerge, teaches its students that they are inherently incapable of sharing their values, civic or personal, with those of any other civilization. Describing an educational system that has been left fundamentally unchanged since the Meiji Empire, Cutts depicts the elites who graduate from the system, describes what ethical philosophy is imparted to those graduates, and warns of the dangers of nationalist elitism that arise from the system. Filled with personal anecdotes as well as critical interviews, An Empire of Schools traces the potential consequences to Japan and the Pacific Rim of an educational system that begins imparting an elitist doctrine in kindergarten that extends to the highest levels of Japanese government.

Poor or marginal whites occupy an uncharted space in recent identity studies, particularly because they do not easily fit the model of whiteness-as-power proposed by many multiculturalist or minority discourses. Associated in mainstream culture with "trashy" kitsch or dangerous pathologies rather than with the material realities of economic life, poor whites are treated as degraded caricatures rather than as real people living in conditions of poverty and disempowerment. White Trash situates the study of poor whites within the context of several academic disciplines, public-policy analysis, and popular or mass-media representations. Arguing that white racism is directed not only against people of color but also against certain groups of whites, the contributors to this volume explore the ways in which race and class in America are often talked about and represented in hidden, coded, or half-realized ways. In so doing, they demonstrate why the term white trash itself embodies yet another way in which some whites generate a debased "other" through pejorative naming practices.

This collection is devoted to exploring stereotypes about the social conditions of poor whites in the United States and comparing these stereotypes with the social reality, unmasking the racial and class assumptions behind the term 'white trash'.

Focusing on the working-class experience of gentrification, this book re-examines the enduring relationship between class and the urban. Class is so clearly articulated in the urban, from the housing crisis to the London Riots to the evocation of housing estates as the emblem of 'Broken Britain'. Gentrification is often presented to a moral and market antidote to such urban ills: deeply institutionalised as regeneration and targeted at areas which have suffered from disinvestment or are defined by 'lack'. Gentrification is no longer a peripheral neighbourhood process: it is policy; it is widespread; it is everyday. Yet comparative to this depth and breadth, we know little about what it is like to live with gentrification at the everyday level. Sociological studies have focused on lifestyles of the middle classes and the working-class experience is either omitted or they are assumed to be victims. Hitherto, this is all that has been offered. This book engages with these issues and reconnects class and the urban through an ethnographically detailed analysis of a neighbourhood undergoing gentrification which historicises class formation, critiques policy processes and offers a new sociological insight into gentrification from the perspective of working-class residents. This ethnography of everyday working-class neighbourhood life in the UK serves to challenge denigrated depictions which are used to justify the use of gentrification-based restructuring. By exploring the relationship between urban processes and working-class communities via gentrification, it reveals the 'hidden rewards' as well as the 'hidden injuries' of class in post-industrial neighbourhoods. In doing so, it provides a comprehensive 'sociology of gentrification', revealing not only how gentrification leads to the displacement of the working class in physical terms but how it is actively used within urban policy to culturally displace the working-class subject and traditional

The sociopolitical, and cultural, implications of the provision and consumption of elite education are dizzyingly complex and controversial. Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, one of the most publicized and contested areas of research focuses on the education of elites, and the institutional and power structures which such groups reinforce and reproduce. Now, answering the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of this disputatious body of thought, Routledge announces a new title Elites in Education which brings together in one easy-to-use 'mini library' foundational major works and the very best cutting-edge contributions.

Around 5.6 million British nationals live outside the United Kingdom: the equivalent of one in every ten Britons. However, social science research, as well as public interest, has tended to focus more on the numbers of migrants entering the UK, rather than those leaving. This book provides an important counterbalance, drawing on the latest empirical research and theoretical developments to offer a fascinating account of the lives, experiences and identities of British migrants living in a wide range of geographic locations across Europe, Asia, Africa and Australasia. This collection asks: What is the shape and significance of contemporary British migration? Who are today's British migrants and how might we understand their everyday lives? Contributions uncover important questions in the context of global and national debates about the nature of citizenships, the 'Brexit' vote, deliberations surrounding mobility and freedom of movement, as well as national, racial and ethnic boundaries. This book challenges conventional wisdoms about migration and enables new understandings about British migrants, their relations to historical privileges, international relations and sense of national identity. It will be valuable core reading to researchers and students across disciplines such as Geography, Sociology, Politics and International Relations.

Chris Given-Wilson provides an authoritative and vivid reconstruction of the true nature of political society in late medieval England. He looks at the social structure of the time, discussing what contemporaries meant when they talked of the nobility, always emphasizing the close relationship between social status and political influence. He describes the noble household and council, and examines the territorial and familial policies of local and national affairs.

The 43rd Volume of Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change continues the series' tradition of publishing peer reviewed chapters, which advance our understanding of peace, political contention, and social change, by offering new ways to research and theorize attempts to challenge divides. Dedicated to the memory of Gregory M. Maney, Bringing Down Divides engages with and continues Maney's work on international conflicts, peace and justice movements, and community-based research. The volume is organized around three types of divides: Attributional divides, meaning the quality or feature of people around which resources, rights, and powers are distributed unequally, such as race, gender, and ethno-nationality. Ideological divides which encompass the systems of meaning, ideas, and beliefs that split and polarize people, such as conservative vs. progressive and antiwar vs. pro-war. Epistemological divides, namely the types, productions, and usages of knowledge over which conflicts occur, such as the academic-activist divide. The contributions to each of these sections focus on a variety of global issues, including the changing nature of political murals in Northern Ireland; armed actors' responses to civilian demands in Colombian peace territories; boundary-blurring in Turkey's leftwing-Islamist movement; and community-based action research. This makes Bringing Down Divides essential reading for those working and researching within the social movement field.

Originally published in 1976 The Rise of the Medical Profession combines a sociological and historical approach to the rise of the medical profession in England. Sociologically it offers a theoretical framework which for the first time links the study of social mobility and professionalism with the theory of stratification. Historically, it examines the movement which led to the unification of the medical profession arising from effective social organisation among the surgeon-apothecaries in the early nineteenth century. It demonstrates that through the successful pursuit of the occupational strategy of professionalism the doctors have been able to raise their income and status in the community and to dominate the institutions and organisations of medical care. In their relationship with the state, they have been generally successful in securing a recognition of their privileged position. The future of the medical profession and of professionalism is discussed in the context of the changing balance between state power and that of free private occupation associations, whether of the type based on professionalism or unionism. The ideal-type conception of the middle class as essentially individualistic is challenged by the exploration of middle class collective action, particularly professionalism.

The linguistic origin of the term Dalit is Marathi, and pre-dates the militant-intellectual Dalit Panthers movement of the 1970s. It was not in popular use till the last quarter of the 20th century, the origin of the term Dalit, although in the 1930s, it was used as Marathi-Hindi translation of the word "Depressed Classes". The changing nature of caste and Dalits has become a topic of increasing interest in India. This edited book is a collection of originally written chapters by eminent experts on the experiences of Dalits in India. It examines who constitute Dalits and engages with the mainstream subaltern perspective that treats Dalits as a political and economic category, a class phenomenon, and subsumes homogeneity of the entire Dalit population. This book argues that the socio-cultural deprivations of Dalits are their primary deprivations, characterized by heterogeneity of their experiences. It asserts that Dalits have a common urge to liberate from the oppressive and exploitative social arrangement which has been the guiding force of Dalit movement. This book has analysed this movement through three phases: the reformative, the transformative and the confrontationist. An exploration of dynamic relations between subalternity, exclusion and social change, the book will be of interest to academics in the field of sociology, political science and contemporary India.

Successfully bringing together accessible readings that cover the broad range of issues of importance to those studying politics and society, this new edition of Power and Inequality provides a unique mix of theoretical and empirical pieces, such as state and electoral politics, that address both classic issues in political sociology and more recent developments, such as globalization. With strong integration of race and gender throughout, this collection offers a coherent analysis of power that reflects the contributions of a variety of critical perspectives, including Marxism, feminism, critical race theory, postmodernism, and power structure theory.

In recent years dramatic changes in Asia's social and economic systems have seen the burgeoning of a substantial middle-class. This has captured the imagination of the West, in large part because the new middle-class represents massive new markets for Western style products. But what are the implications of the emergence of Asia's 'new rich'? Will they bring with them the institutions of liberalism, democracy, rule of law and new institutional freedoms? Or is Asia's 'new rich' quite different?
The New Rich in Asia: Mobile phones, McDonald's and Middle-class Revolution introduces a new series examining the social, political and economic construction of the new rich in East and South East Asia. It raises central issues about the nature of the 'new rich', including their social, economic and political impact on the region.
The contributors are acknowledged experts on the social and political systems they dissect. Each study, based on detailed research, combines theoretical and empirical material. This volume provides a valuable insight into the composition and global economic impact of these newly emerging classes and highlights a common inheritance of rapid economic growth.

First published in 1977, "The Samurai - A Military History" is regarded as a standard work of reference, but out of print in recent years. Now reissued, it serves as one of the most authoritative works on samurai life and warfare published outside Japan. Set against the background of Japan's social and political history, the book records the rise and rise of Japan's extraordinary warrior class from earliest times to the culmination of their culture, prowess and skills as manifested in the last great battle they were ever to fight - that of Osaka Castle in 1615.

eBook available with sample pages: HB:0415113350

This work describes the emergence of the professions in late tsarist Russia and their struggle for autonomy from the aristocratic state. It also examines the ways in which the Russian professions both resembled and differed from their Western counterparts.

This work describes the emergence of the professions in late tsarist Russia and their struggle for autonomy from the aristocratic state. It also examines the ways in which the Russian professions both resembled and differed from their Western counterparts.

This study places the British middle classes in their historical and regional contexts in order to explain how they exercise a powerful impact in British society. It develops a theoretical perspective on the middle classes, criticizing theories of "the service class", and draws upon the works of Ohlin-Wright and Bourdieu to develop a theoretical realist perspective which is sensitive to the variety of ways in which middle class formation takes place. It argues that the British middle class have been split between a cohesive and well-established professional middle class, and an insecure and marginal managerial and self-employed middle class. This text argues that recent changes in economic restructuring have enabled the professional middle class to consolidate its position of dominance. The managerial middle class are however becoming more marginal and insecure. The book explores the implications of this position by analyzing processes of social and spatial mobility, cultural practices and political mobilization.

The modern professions have a long history that predates the development of formal institutions and examinations in the nineteenth century. Long before the Victorian era the emergent professions wielded power through their specialist knowledge and set up informal mechanisms of control and self-regulation.
Penelope Corfield devotes a chapter each to lawyers, clerics and doctors and makes reference to many other professionals - teachers, apothecaries, governesses, army officers and others. She shows how as the professions gained in power and influence, so they were challenged increasingly by satire and ridicule. Corfield's analysis of the rise of the professions during this period centres on a discussion of the philosophical questions arising from the complex relationship between power and knowledge.

This intriguing book re-evaluates a narrative of cultural decline that developed in the wake of Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. For Weber, and a group of influential sociologists that followed, Western modernity is marked by growing disenchantment with the beliefs and values that had previously given a sense of structure and meaning to life. Despite its unparalleled material achievements, the modern West in this reading is suffering from a crisis of meaning and is no longer able to provide authoritative answers to the only really important question: 'What shall we do and how shall we live?' This book examines two influential responses to this question: the German bourgeois ideal of the late nineteenth century and the mid-twentieth century American celebration of the middle class. In each period, the exploration is guided by a close reading of a contemporary and retrospective text. For Germany, Gustav Freytag's novel Debt and Credit (1855) is read against Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks (1901), and, for the US, the domestic comedy Father Knows Best (1954-1960) is read against the cable television drama Mad Men (2007-2015). The Anxiety of Ascent casts Weber's narrative in a more optimistic light, pointing towards the redemptive possibilities contained within everyday life. As such, it will appeal to sociologists and cultural studies scholars interested in cultural sociology, social theory, morality, meaning and the culture of middle-class life.

China's commercial film industry can be used as a map to understand how class is interwoven into the imaginations that inform and influence social change in Chinese society. Film consumption is important in this process, particularly for young adult urbanites that are China's primary commercial cinema patrons. This book investigates the web between the representation of class themes in Chinese film narratives, local audience reception to these films, and the socialisation of China's contemporary class society. Bringing together textual analyses of narratives from five commercially exhibited films: Let the Bullets Fly (Jiang: 2010), Lost on Journey (Yip: 2011), Go Lala Go! (Xu: 2011), House Mania (Sun: 2011) and The Piano in the Factory (Zheng: 2011); and the reception of 179 Chinese audiences from varying class positions, it investigates the extent to which fictional narratives inform and reflect current class identities in present-day China. Through group discussions in Beijing, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Lanzhou and Taiyuan, the author searches for audiences beyond major cities that are typically the focus of film consumption studies in China. As such, the book reveals not only how deeply and widespread the socialisation of China's class society has become in the imaginations of Chinese audiences, but also what appears to be a preference of both audiences and filmmakers for the continuation of China's new class society. Revealing the extent to which cinema continues to play a key role in the socialisation of class structures in contemporary Chinese society, this book will be important for students and scholars of Chinese Studies, Film Studies, Communication Studies, as well as observers of China's film industry.

Originally published in 1964, this book analyses the unique type of social stratification which is more akin to a social class system in Monrovia, Liberia's capital. Liberia, established in 1847 has no history of rule by a colonial power and is of perculiar sociological interest, having been governed until the first half of the twentieth century by a minority group of immigrants from America and their descendants. The bulk of the population, however, is made up of members of about 20 tribes, between whom and the American descendants a caste-like social system has developed.

This book is about long-term changes to class and inequality in Poland. Drawing upon major social surveys, the team of authors from the Polish Academy of Sciences offer the rare comprehensive study of important changes to the social structure from the communist era to the present. The core argument is that, even during extreme societal transformations, key features of social life have long-lasting, stratifying effects. The authors analyse the core issues of inequality research that best explain "who gets what and why:" social mobility, status attainment and their mechanisms, with a focus on education, occupation, and income. The transition from communist political economy to liberal democracy and market capitalism offers a unique opportunity for scholars to understand how people move from one stratifi cation regime to the next. There are valuable lessons to be learned from linking past to present. Classic issues of class, stratification, mobility, and attainment have endured decades of radical social change. These concepts remain valid even when society tries to eradicate them.

First published in 1934, the majority of this book was developed just prior to the Nazi seizure of power, with additional material which reflects on its aftermath. It assessed the decline of European power and the crisis of Western civilization in the face of conflict between the ruling class and the lower classes, arguing that only by adherence to their inherited 'Prussianism' would Germany have the solidity to be able to combat these dangers. Despite the influence of his previous writings on key Nazi figures, his criticisms of National Socialism led to the book being banned, although not before it had been widely distributed throughout Germany. This work will be of interest to students of 20th century German and European history.

Exploring the lived realities of both poverty and prosperity in the UK, this book examines the material and symbolic significance of welfare austerity and its implications for social citizenship and inequality. The book offers a rare and vivid insight into the everyday lives, attitudes and behaviours of the rich as well as the poor, demonstrating how those marginalised and validated by the existing welfare system make sense of the prevailing socio-political settlement and their own position within it. Through the testimonies of both affluent and deprived citizens, the book problematises dominant policy thinking surrounding the functions and limits of welfare, examining the civic attitudes and engagements of the rich and the poor, to demonstrate how welfare austerity and rising structural inequalities secure and maintain institutional legitimacy. The book offers a timely contribution to academic and policy debates pertaining to citizenship, welfare reform and inequality.