First published in 1985. Too often aspects of working-class life have been treated as distinct and separate. The contributors to this volume are aware of the dangers of such atomisation and have attempted to bring together a collection of studies which add to our knowledge of life in that time. The examinations of family, health, work, leisure and criminal trends form the basis of this work, and suggest that the everyday lives and values of the working-class were even more varied, creative and complex than is generally believed. This title will be of interest to students of history.

How do you solve a problem like understanding Iraq? For Hanna Batatu, the solution to this conundrum lay in generating alternative possibilities that effectively side-stepped the conventional wisdom of the time. Historians had long held that Iraq - like other artificial creations of ex-colonial European powers, who drew lines onto the world map that ignored longstanding tribal, ethnic and religious ties - was best understood by delving into its political and religious history. Batatu used the problem solving skills of asking productive questions and generating alternative possibilities to argue that Iraq's history was better understood through the lens of a Marxist analysis focused on socio-economic history.The Old Social Classes concludes that the divisions present in Iraq - and exposed by the revolutionary movements of the 1950s - are those characterized by the struggle for control over property and the means of production. Additionally, Batatu sought to establish that the most important political movements of the time, notably the nationalist Ba'athists and the pan-Arab Free Officers Movement, had their origins in a homegrown communist ideology inspired by local conditions and local inequality. By posing new questions - and by undertaking a vast amount of research in primary sources, a rarity in the history of this region - Batatu was able to produce a strong, new solution to a longstanding historiographical puzzle.

This title was first published in 2002: Numerous reports have identified the serious problems of under-representation of, and discrimination against, minority ethnic groups in the British NHS. It is widely argued that this both raises issues of social justice and undermines the quality of service to minority ethnic patients. Nowhere are these problems more acute than among the largest occupational group in the NHS - nurses. This book reports the results of research carried out for the English National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting to evaluate NHS equal opportunities policy. Drawing on additional original research involving interviews with key policy actors, this fascinating book examines the prospects for a national strategy linking the business and justice cases for the delivery of greater equity in employment and service delivery.

First published in 1984. Shopkeepers and master artisans had a striking presence in the history of nineteenth-century Europe, not only in the development of industrial and urban economies, but also the fabric of social life and the politics of protest. The experience of 1848, the differing pace of various forms of nationalism and liberalism and, at the end of the century, the shift towards right-wing nationalist or Catholic political movements reflected a developing 'crisis' in the petite bourgeoisie. The essays examine the nature of this crisis and ask critical questions about the social relations of the petite bourgeoisie with the developing working classes. This book as a whole provides a fresh and integrated approach to the world of these shopkeepers and master artisans and illuminates much else besides in the social history of nineteenth-century Europe.

This book presents studies from across Latin America to take up the challenge of exploring the plurality of social inequalities from a global perspective. Accordingly, it identifies the structural forces of social inequalities on a world scale as they shape asymmetries observed in a wide array of phenomena, such as racial and gender inequality, urbanization, migration, commodity production, indigenous mobilization, ecological conflicts, and the "new middle class". A rich contribution to the study of the interconnections between the global social structure and multiple local and national hierarchies, Global Entangled Inequalities brings consistently together a variety of conceptual approaches, ranging from ethnographies to legal genealogies, and will therefore appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in social theory, power analysis, intersectionality studies, urban studies, and global social and environmental justice.

In a world where the effects of inequality occupy an increasingly prominent place on the public agenda, this book provides up-to-date and thorough analysis from the perspective of a group of researchers at the forefront of social stratification analysis. Exploring Social Inequality in the 21st Century is a clear and critical overview of current debates about social inequality. It includes new information, tools, and approaches to conceptualising and measuring social stratification and social class, as well as informative case studies. Throughout, the researchers describe the direct and indirect costs of social inequality. Divided into two parts - Conceptualising and Measuring Inequality; and Costs and Consequences of Inequality in the areas of Education, Employment, and Global Wealth - it includes new findings about the growth of wealth inequality in the G20 countries, and a detailed examination of tax policies designed to reduce inequality without affecting economic growth. With substantial contributions to the analysis of inequalities in education, and explanations of the processes and consequences of social and gender-based exclusion, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding contemporary social inequality. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Contemporary Social Science.

This title was first published in 2002: The trade union movement in twentieth-century Britain has been a cornerstone for society's marginalized members - women, disabled people, lesbians and gay men and people from black and ethnic minority communities. As these groups of workers self-organized to reform their unions, they built a bridge between the old social movement based around class position and labour identity and the new social movements based around civil rights and status stratifications. This book presents a detailed look at self-organization within public sector unions through the emergence of four self-organized groups within NALGO and later, UNISON. Drawing upon unique insider knowledge of the alliances and antipathies between the self-organized groups and the host union, the book also provides fascinating revelations of the tensions between self-organized groups themselves. This study will be essential reading for students of political sociology and industrial relations.

This edited collection explains the importance of community empowerment in advancing public policy, and gives examples of how professionals have successfully mobilized the public in the past. Written primarily for students, academics, and lawyers, this book also attempts to bridge the widely publicized gap between professional advocates and grassroots organizations. The authors hope to demonstrate two basic principles: that the democratization of research and specialized practice enables the production of new insights; and that professionals' participation in the process of empowerment of low-income communities is transformative in ways that are enriching both professionally and personally.

Why is it that children from disadvantaged backgrounds find it so difficult - and often impossible - to achieve? Few questions are of such fundamental importance to the functioning of a fair and effective society than this one, yet the academic and political narratives that exist to explain the problem are fundamentally contradictory: some say the root of the problem lies in racial prejudice; others that the key factor is class; others again argue that we should look first at laziness, government's commitment to provide demotivating 'safety nets,' and to the appeal of easy money earned from a criminal lifestyle. Jay Macleod's seminal work of anthropology is one of the most influential studies to address this issue, and - in suggesting that problems of class, above all, help to fuel continued social inequality, Macleod is engaging in an important piece of problem-solving. He asks the right questions, basing his study on two different working class subcultures, one white and largely devoid of aspiration and the other black and much more ambitious and conformist. By showing that the members of both groups find it equally hard to achieve their dreams - that there really 'Ain't no makin' it,' as his title proposes - Macleod issues a direct challenge to the ideology of the American Dream, and by extension to the social contract that underpinned American society and politics for the duration of the twentieth century. His work - robustly structured and well-reasoned - is now frequently studied in universities, and it offers a sharp corrective to those who insist that the poor could control their own destinies if they choose to do so.

Human beings are hierarchical animals. Always and everywhere, people have developed social ranking systems. These differ dramatically in how they are organized, but the underlying causal mechanisms that create and sustain them are the same. Whether they are on the top or bottom of the heap, people attempt to be superior to some other persons or group. This is the root of Melvyn L. Fein's thesis presented in Human Hierarchies: A General Theory. Fein traces the development of changes from hunter-gatherer times to our own techno-commercial society. In moving from small to large communities, humans went from face-to-face contests for superiority to more anonymous and symbolic ones. Societies evolved from hunting bands where the parties knew each other through big-men societies, chieftainships, agrarian empires, patronage chains, caste societies, estate systems, and market-oriented democracies. Where once small groupings were organized primarily by strong forces such as personal relationships, the now standard large groupings are more dependent on weaker forces such as those provided by social roles. Bureaucracies and professional roles have become prominent. Bureaucracies allow large-scale organizations to maintain control of people by limiting the potential destructiveness of unregulated tests of strength and by clarifying chains of command. Their rigidity and unresponsiveness requires that they be supplemented by professional roles. At the same time, a proliferation of self-motivated experts delegate authority downward, thereby introducing a more flexible decentralization. This analysis is a unique and significant advance in both the sociology and anthropology of stratification among humans.

Illustrated by a range of case studies of affordable housing options in Canada, this book examines the liveability and affordability of twenty-first-century residential architecture. Focussing on the architects' and communities' commitment to these housing programmes, as well as that of the private building sector, it stresses the importance of the context of the neighbourhoods in which they are placed, which are either in the process of urban transition or already gentrified. In doing so, the book shows how, and to what extent, twenty-first-century dwelling architecture developments can help to create an integrated sense of community, diminish social and demographic exclusions in a neighbourhood and incorporate people's desires as to what their buildings should look like. This book shows that there are significant architectural projects that help to meet the needs and desires of low- to middle-income households as well as homeowners, and that gentrification does not necessarily lead to the displacement of low-income families and singles if housing policies such as those highlighted in this book are put into place. Moreover, the migration of the middle class can result in a healthy mix of classes out of which everyone can enjoy a peaceful and habitable coexistence.

For minorities in today's society, there may be a greater complexity and risk to moving about in the retail, restaurant, and other consumer marketplaces than some might expect. Based on 20 in-depth interviews with people from various backgrounds across the country, the purposes of this book is threefold. Firstly, to bring greater awareness to minority marketplace experiences both for consumers and marketplaces by offering a tapestry of what shopping and otherwise moving about and engaging in the consumer marketplaces may look like for minorities, even today. Secondly, to increase sensitivity to this issue for all involved. And third, to provide some of the steps and resources that others have taken in an attempt to interrupt, disrupt, or ameliorate the inappropriate handling of minority consumers. To an extent, this book is about not only shopping, but also humane living in America, surviving and making sense of experiences, what to do about it, and the larger issues and contexts that surround the marketplace for minorities.

Since the financial crisis, the issue of the 'one percent' has become the centre of intense public debate, unavoidable even for members of the elite themselves. Moreover, inquiring into elites has taken centre-stage once again in both journalistic investigations and academic research. New Directions in Elite Studies attempts to move the social scientific study of elites beyond economic analysis, which has greatly improved our knowledge of inequality, but is restricted to income and wealth. In contrast, this book mobilizes a broad scope of research methods to uncover the social composition of the power elite - the 'field of power'. It reconstructs processes through which people gain access to positions in this particular social space, examines the various forms of capital they mobilize in the process - economic, but also cultural and social capital - and probes changes over time and variations across national contexts. Bringing together the most advanced research into elites by a European and multidisciplinary group of scholars, this book presents an agenda for the future study of elites. It will appeal to all those interested in the study of elites, inequality, class, power, and gender inequality.

Peasant rebellions are uncommon. "Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance" explores peasants' foot dragging, feigned ingorance, false compliance, manipulation, flight, slander, theft, arson, sabotage, and similar prosaic forms of struggle. These kinds of resistance stop well short of collective defiance, a strategy usually suicidal for the subordinate. The central argument about peasant resistance is presented in the opening chapter by James Scott in which he summarizes and extends the thesis of his book on Malaysia's peasantry, "Weapons of the Weak". Scott's ideas are employed and refined in the ensuing seven country studies of peasant resistance: Poland, India, Egypt, Colombia, China, Nicaragua and Zimbabwe.

American Exception seeks to explain the breakdown of US democracy. In particular, how we can understand the uncanny continuity of American foreign policy, the breakdown of the rule of law, and the extreme concentration of wealth and power into an overworld of the corporate rich. To trace the evolution of the American state, the author takes a deep politics approach, shedding light on those political practices that are typically repressed in "mainstream" discourse. In its long history before World War II, the US had a deep political system--a system of governance in which decision-making and enforcement were carried out within--and outside of--public institutions. It was a system that always included some degree of secretive collusion and law-breaking. After World War II, US elites decided to pursue global dominance over the international capitalist system. Setting aside the liberal rhetoric, this project was pursued in a manner that was by and large imperialistic rather than progressive. To administer this covert empire, US elites created a massive national security state characterized by unprecedented levels of secrecy and lawlessness. The "Global Communist Conspiracy" provided a pretext for exceptionism--an endless "exception" to the rule of law. What gradually emerged after World War II was a tripartite state system of governance. The open democratic state and the authoritarian security state were both increasingly dominated by an American deep state. The term deep state was badly misappropriated during the Trump era. In the simplest sense, it herein refers to all those institutions that collectively exercise undemocratic power over state and society. To trace how we arrived at this point, American Exception explores various deep state institutions and history-making interventions. Key institutions involve the relationships between the overworld of the corporate rich, the underworld of organized crime, and the national security actors that mediate between them. History-making interventions include the toppling of foreign governments, the launching of aggressive wars, and the political assassinations of the 1960s. The book concludes by assessing the prospects for a revival of US democracy.

The Class Struggle in Latin America: Making History Today analyses the political and economic dynamics of development in Latin America through the lens of class struggle. Focusing in particular on Peru, Paraguay, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela, the book identifies how the shifts and changing dynamics of the class struggle have impacted on the rise, demise and resurgence of neo-liberal regimes in Latin America. This innovative book offers a unique perspective on the evolving dynamics of class struggle, engaging both the destructive forces of capitalist development and those seeking to consolidate the system and preserve the status quo, alongside the efforts of popular resistance concerned with the destructive ravages of capitalism on humankind, society and the global environment. Using theoretical observations based on empirical and historical case studies, this book argues that the class struggle remains intrinsically linked to the march of capitalist development. At a time when post-neo-liberal regimes in Latin America are faltering, this supplementary text provides a guide to the economic and political dynamics of capitalist development in the region, which will be invaluable to students and researchers of international development, anthropology and sociology, as well as those with an interest in Latin American politics and development.

For undergraduate courses in Social Stratification, Race, Class, and Gender, and Introduction to Gender Studies. Using a concise and easy-to-understand style, this text provides an integrated approach to the implications of social class, race and ethnicity, and gender-explaining how each relates to economic, social, and political inequality.

Exclusion has come to hold a prominent place in the political discourse of all governments in the European Union and in the European Commission itself. As such, it figures importantly in various research agencies' funding priorities attracting academics to develop and conduct major research programmes. But what does it mean? This book analyzes the different meanings the term exclusion has come to convey and surveys a wide variety of actual applications in different European countries.

Review of the hardback edition: 'There are some very thought provoking findings here. While ideologues of neither thge left nor the right will discover much ammunition form their causes, those who expect sociologists to give us an objective account of the structure of our society and how it is changing will find this essential and very rewarding reading. The publication of this book, by any standards, represents a major landmark in the development of British social research. - Times Higher Education Supplement ..."It is a modern scholarly monogragh, sharply focused on issues of importance, technically competent, clear and well written. This is the first paperback edition of a book widely acclaimed upon first publication as a major contribution to the study of contemporary British class structure. The book incorporates three alternative conceptions of class. Erik Olin Wright's structural Marxist account is set alongside John Goldthorpe's occupational class schema, and the Registrar-General's prestige and skill-related categories. The authors use their unique data on inequality and conflict in contemporary Britain to provide, for the first time, a rigourous comparison of Marxist, sociological and official class frameworks. The book ranges widely across such topics as sectionalism in the workforce; privatism of families and individuals; fatalism; gender and class processes; sectoral production and consumption cleavages. The authors conclude that class is still crucial in structuring economic, political and social life.
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The modern world is characterised by pervasive economic inequalities. Strong economic growth in some developing countries has contributed to a degree to a reduction in the levels of inequality between nations, yet inequality within nations remains high and in some cases, continues to increase. Ethnic Stratification and Economic Inequality around the World investigates the reasons for these striking differences, exploring the coincidence and interaction between economic stratification and ethnic differentiation. Drawing on extensive international survey and statistical data, the author develops a new theory and concrete hypotheses concerning the conditions which lead toward extreme inequality and those which tend toward greater equality. A systematic examination of the interaction between class structures, social stratification and ethnic differentiation, this book sheds light on the manner in which the resulting social structures produce different levels of economic inequality, offering a fivefold typology of patterns of ethnic stratification, which can be applied to present-day world regions. Drawing on the work of Max Weber to provide a rigorous investigation of inequality around the world, it demonstrates what 'sociology as a science of social reality' can significantly contribute to our understanding of global economic stratification. The book is relevant for a wide social-scientific audience, particularly for sociologists, economists and political scientists working in a comparative perspective.

Despite the growing significance of social movements worldwide, scholarship on the subject remains largely Western in nature, with studies written primarily by Western scholars and based on the experiences of Western cultures and societies. This book makes an important contribution to the study of social movements in non-Western societies by examining their development in Iran. With a particular focus on the recent environmental movement, the author sheds new light on the implications and significance of these movements. Drawing on in-depth original research, the case study of the environmental movement is integrated into a historical and comparative analysis. Implementing the new social movement theory of Touraine and Melucci in the Iranian context, the author shows that although the reform movement of Iran is unique, in some aspects it is a continuation of the past social movements. She places emphasis on the role of women in recent Iranian social movements, exploring the significance of social movements in civil society and in instigating social change. Using the case of Iran to offer a critical framework for studying social change and transformation of non-European countries, this book fills an important gap in the existing literature on the topic. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars and students of sociology, political science and Middle Eastern studies.

Elite Schools in Globalizing Circumstances foregrounds the richly theoretical and empirically-based work of an international cast of scholars seeking to break out of the confines of the methodological nationalism that now governs so much of contemporary scholarship on schooling. Based on a 5-year extended global ethnography of elite schools in nine different countries-countries defined by colonial pasts linked to England-the contributors make a powerful case for the rethinking of elite schools and elite class formation theory in light of contemporary processes of globalization and transnational change. Prestigious, high-status schools have long been seen as critical institutional vehicles directly contributing to the societal processes of elite selection and reproduction. This book asserts that much has changed and that these schools can no longer rest on their past laurels and accomplishments. Instead they must re-cast their heritages and tradition in order to navigate the new globally competitive educational field enabling them to succeed in a world in which the globalization of educational markets, the global ambitions and imaginations of school youth, and the emergence of new powerful players peddling entrepreneurial models of curriculum and education, have placed contemporary schooling under tremendous pressure. This insightful and though-provoking volume provides a well-researched perspective on the nature of contemporary schooling in the globalizing era. This book was originally published as a special issue of Globalisation, Societies and Education.

Social Inequality examining our present while understanding our past. Social Inequality and Social Statification in US Society, 1st edition uses a historical and conceptual framework to explain social stratification and social inequality. The historical scope gives context to each issue discussed and allows the reader to understand how each topic has evolved over the course of American history. The authors use qualitative data to help explain socioeconomic issues and connect related topics. Each chapter examines major concepts, so readers can see how an individual s success in stratified settings often relies heavily on their access to valued resources types of capital which involve finances, schooling, social networking, and cultural competence. Analyzing the impact of capital types throughout the text helps map out the prospects for individuals, families, and also classes to maintain or alter their position in social-stratification systems. Learning Goals Upon completing this book, readers will be able to: Analyze the four major American classes, as well as how race and gender are linked to inequalities in the United States Understand attempts to reduce social inequality Identify major historical events that have influenced current trends Understand how qualitative sources help reveal the inner workings that accompany people s struggles with the socioeconomic order Recognize the impact of social-stratification systems on individuals and families

We live in a world that is ever on the move, as is increasingly recognised within research on mobilities. Yet studies of mobility have failed to 'go to sea' with the same enthusiasm as mobilities ashore. When we consider mobility, we most often examine those movements that evidently form part of our everyday lives. We forget to look outwards to the sea. Yet ships have played - and continue to play - a significant role in shaping socio-cultural, political and economic life. This book turns our attention to the manifold mobilities that occur at sea through an exploration of the mobilities of ships themselves as well as the movements of objects, subjects and ideas that are mobilised by ships. The Mobilities of Ships brings together seven chapters that tack through unexplored waters and move between diverse case studies, including pirate ships, naval vessels and luxury yachts. In so doing, The Mobilities of Ships offers a rich insight into the world of shipping mobilities past and present. This book was published as a special issue of Mobilities.

Television and film not only entertain and reflect social change, they may also participate and influence these changes -- the recent success of The Full Monty and Billy Elliot show popular British comedy based on such painful social transformations.

Looking at Class brings together film and television practitioners with academic students of cultural and economic change to examine the media representation of the British working class in the twentieth century -- a time of decline for the manual working class when a complex service-based economy emerged. The book covers a large range of genres from documentaries to soaps and shows that complex cultural transitions can be communicated clearly in prose as well as in screen drama.