Elite Discourse examines how language and communication - or just discourse - define, mediate and legitimize class privilege. It does so from the perspective of those people and places who often stand to gain most from inequality. Collectively, chapters consider language and communication that is elitist in its appeal to distinction, excellence and superiority; they also describe the ways in which various groups and institutions lay claim to 'eliteness' as a way to position themselves (or to be positioned by others) as elite or non-elite. As such, chapters are concerned as much with discourse about elite status as they are with the discourse of elites - those groups commonly defined by their material wealth, political control, or demographic rarity. Ultimately, Elite Discourse views 'elite' as something we do, rather than something we necessarily have or are. Indeed, elite status and eliteness point us to the rhetorical strategies by which many people differentiate themselves and by which they access symbolic-material resources for shoring up their status, privilege and power. This book was originally published as a special issue of Social Semiotics.

An introductory account of the concept of class stratification, of contemporary approaches to the study of class, and of current debates about its role in the study of society. Definitions and an analysis of different theoretical approaches to class are accompanied by empirical material which compares the class structures of a range of countries and examines social mobility in cross-national perspective.

This book traces the development of the samurai, in the way they regarded themselves and their role in society. From their origins as provincial men-at-arms they gradually evolved into a very powerful group who had an almost mythical status. Their concept of chilvarous behaviour and strict code based on the central principle of loyality to death and beyond, hitherto largely ignored by scholars, has since earned them a worldwide appeal. The warrior ethic is examined in relation to the three traditional religious influences - Buddhism, Shinto and Confucianism. As warriors the "bushi" contravened the most important tenets of the main religions, that of taking life, which was strictly forbidden in both Buddhism and Shinto. Therefore ways had to be found to justify their actions to harmonize with these religions. The book analyses the attitudes of the samurai themselves towards such characteristic features of their life as the sword and sword-fighting techniques, the taking of heads of fallen enemies on the battlefield, honourable suicide ("seppuku") and human sacrifice ("junshi" and hito-bashira") the cult of the god of war, hachiman, and of Buddhist deities of warlike aspect, as well

This title was first published in 2003. A fascinating insight into the economic, social and political processes that shaped the lives of white workers in Johannesburg between the beginning of deep level mining (c. 1890) and the 1922 Rand Revolt miners' strike. The book examines four related topics: the formation of working class families, working class accommodation, the constitution of social networks in the working class neighbourhoods and the political and ideological aspects of white workers' unemployment. The main argument presented here is that the class experience of white workers in Johannesburg had a very important role in fostering a sense of community between English and Afrikaner workers and their families. It is this sense of community that plays an important part in understanding the solidarity that emerged between English and Afrikaner workers during the 1922 Rand Revolt.

Is class analysis obsolete or misguided? In "Divisions and Solidarities", Alison MacEwen Scott defends the concept of class by expanding it to encompass power, status, mobility and consumption. She does this through a critique of theories of urban employment and class structure, using case study material from Peru to examine and test theories of interest to social scientists. The book stresses the importance of class and gender in analyzing the situation of the urban poor in Latin America. The author argues that gender is deeply embedded in the "labouring class", not only via gender segregation at work but through the role of the family in forging solidarity across internal class division. She believes that in the past class analysis has placed too much emphasis on labour market divisions and not enough on broader solidarities created by mobility, consumption patterns and kinship. In fact, Scott shows that gender is an important dimension of inequality, strongly linked to class, and that class cannot be understood without reference to gender and the family.

Is class analysis obsolete or misguided? In "Divisions and Solidarities", Alison MacEwen Scott defends the concept of class by expanding it to encompass power, status, mobility and consumption. She does this through a critique of theories of urban employment and class structure, using case study material from Peru to examine and test theories of interest to social scientists. The book stresses the importance of class and gender in analyzing the situation of the urban poor in Latin America. The author argues that gender is deeply embedded in the "labouring class", not only via gender segregation at work but through the role of the family in forging solidarity across internal class division. She believes that in the past class analysis has placed too much emphasis on labour market divisions and not enough on broader solidarities created by mobility, consumption patterns and kinship. In fact, Scott shows that gender is an important dimension of inequality, strongly linked to class, and that class cannot be understood without reference to gender and the family.

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.

In this companion volume to "Useful Toil", John Burnett has drawn extensively on over 800 previously unpublished manuscripts. The result is a record of childhood that reveals in intimate detail the trials and hard-won triumphs of 19-century working-class life. Besides offering rare insights into the developing child's world of dreams, hopes and fears, they reflect a crucial period in the evolution of a family tradition; a time when, to counteract the brutalizing pressures of urbanization and industrialization, ordinary people turned to each other for support. Children have seldom had a voice in history: individual to the last, these writers and their experiences take their place as part of the essential fabric of our past. Burnett has also plublished "Plenty and Want: A Social History of Diet in England From 1815 to the Present" (Routledge); "A History of the Cost of Living (1969); "The Challenge of the Nineteenth Century" (1970); "Useful Toil" (1974); "Destiny Obscure" (1982); and "Idle Hands: The Experience of Unemployment, 1790-1990" (Routledge).

Useful Toil engages freshly and directly with the `ordinary' people of the nineteenth century. John Burnett has assembled twenty seven telling extracts from the diaries and autobiographies of working people - wheelwrights and stone-masons, miners and munition workers, butlers and kitchen maids, navvies, carpenters, potters and ship assistants to list only a few. The men and women who speak in these pages concentrate on their working experiences, though they also write about their homes and their fears. They thus reveal, often unconsciously, the essence of their attitudes, values and beliefs.
Burnett's broad and sympathetic introductions focus and contextualise the wealth of material. These stories provide the antithesis of `great name' history, yet they constantly touch on human experiences that are timeless and universal.

Part dialogue, part debate between Howard Schneiderman and a small number of social theorists, Engagement and Disengagement represents the culmination of a life's work in social theory. On the one hand, it is about cohesive social, cultural, and intellectual forces, such as authority, community, status, and the sacred, that tie us together, and on the other hand, about forces such as alienation, politics, and economic warfare that pull us apart. With a blend of humanism and social science, Engagement and Disengagement highlight this two-culture solution to understanding social and cultural history.

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.

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.

"Dangerous Classes" provides a critical review of British and American debates about the underclass, set in the context of historical material and policy developments. The idea of an underclass is based on a notion of social exclusion, be it cultural or structural in nature. It strikes a contrast with the idea of social citizenship. In accepted definitions of the underclass state, dependence had come to be seen as a badge of exclusion rather than a guarantee of inclusion. There has been a gradual shift of emphasis in recent commentary, from concern with social rights to anxiety about social obligations, much of which relates to the enforcement of the work ethic. Implicit in much of the literature is an inconclusive examination of gender roles, and particularly the failure of single mother to fulfil their social duties. This text aims to uncover the ambiguities and contradictions of this position. So too is the neglected issue of migrant labour and its use as a source of labour on terms not acceptable to the native population.

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.

"Working Class Cultures in Britain" uniquely approaches the social history of the working class from the standpoint of the workers themselves. Integrating a variety of of historical methods, the book examines the construction of class within the intimate contexts of the body, the home, the marketplace, the locality and nation. Using these locations, Joanna Bourke assesses how the subjective identity of the "working class"in Britain has been maintained through seventy years of radical social, cultural and economic change.
The book uses gender and ethnicity as a crucial reference point in making the argument for class identity as an social and cultural phenomenon, rather than a political or institutional product. "Working Class Cultures in Britain" provides an excellent introduction to the history and analysis of the working class in this period.

Contemporary Japanese society is often regarded as an enigma in the West because of its miraculous economic growth and the unparalleled stability of its socio-political structure. Yet until now, there have been very few works available in English which are concerned with stratification and class perceptions in contemporary Japan. This study is both empirical and theoretical, with the sociological perspective serving as the underlying framework. A succinct historical overview is provided for those unfamiliar with modern Japanese history.

"Working Class Cultures in Britain" uniquely approaches the social history of the working class from the standpoint of the workers themselves. Integrating a variety of of historical methods, the book examines the construction of class within the intimate contexts of the body, the home, the marketplace, the locality and nation. Using these locations, Joanna Bourke assesses how the subjective identity of the "working class"in Britain has been maintained through seventy years of radical social, cultural and economic change.
The book uses gender and ethnicity as a crucial reference point in making the argument for class identity as an social and cultural phenomenon, rather than a political or institutional product. "Working Class Cultures in Britain" provides an excellent introduction to the history and analysis of the working class in this period.

The only reader currently available on criminality in Latin America, Reconstructing Criminality in Latin America reconstructs the way in which different Latin American societies have viewed, described, defined, and reacted to criminal behavior. Crime in Latin America is explored in terms of gender, race, class, and criminological theory. The highly readable essays in this book explore how Catholic notions of sin, natural law, the "divine" rights of absolutist monarchs, liberal rights of "man," positivism, and social Darwinism received a sympathetic, even enthusiastic, endorsement from policy makers throughout Latin America. Reconstructing Criminality in Latin America also shows how new methodologies have given scholars deeper insight into the significance of crime in Latin American societies. The selections testify that the insights of scholars like Eric Hobsbawm and Michel Foucault are the foundations of modern histories of crime in Latin America. This book is ideal for criminal justice, sociology, and Latin American social history courses.

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

This book critiques and extends the analysis of power in the classic, Who Rules America?, on the fiftieth anniversary of its original publication in 1967-and through its subsequent editions. The chapters, written especially for this book by twelve sociologists and political scientists, provide fresh insights and new findings on many contemporary topics, among them the concerted attempt to privatize public schools; foreign policy and the growing role of the military-industrial component of the power elite; the successes and failures of union challenges to the power elite; the ongoing and increasingly global battles of a major sector of agribusiness; and the surprising details of how those who hold to the egalitarian values of social democracy were able to tip the scales in a bitter conflict within the power elite itself on a crucial banking reform in the aftermath of the Great Recession. These social scientists thereby point the way forward in the study of power, not just in the United States, but globally. A brief introductory chapter situates Who Rules America? within the context of the most visible theories of power over the past fifty years-pluralism, Marxism, Millsian elite theory, and historical institutionalism. Then, a chapter by G. William Domhoff, the author of Who Rules America?, takes us behind the scenes on how the original version was researched and written, tracing the evolution of the book in terms of new concepts and research discoveries by Domhoff himself, as well as many other power structure researchers, through the 2014 seventh edition. Readers will find differences of opinion and analysis from chapter to chapter. The authors were encouraged to express their views independently and frankly. They do so in an admirable and useful fashion that will stimulate everyone's thinking on these difficult and complex issues, setting the agenda for future studies of power.

This work sets forth the argument that in the age of (neoliberal) globalization, black people around the world are ever-so slowly becoming "African-Americanized". They are integrated and embourgeoised in the racial-class dialectic of black America by the material and ideological influences of the Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism as promulgated throughout the diaspora by two social class language games of the black American community: the black underclass (Hip-Hop culture), speaking for and representing black youth practical consciousness; and black American charismatic liberal/conservative bourgeois Protestant preachers like TD Jakes, Creflo Dollar, etc., speaking for and representing the black bourgeois (educated) professional and working classes. Although on the surface the practical consciousness and language of the two social class language games appear to diametrically oppose one another, the authors argue, given the two groups' material wealth within the Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism of corporate (neoliberal) America, they do not. Both groups have the same underlying practical consciousness, subjects/agents of the Protestant Ethic and the spirit of capitalism. The divergences, where they exist, are due to their interpellation, embourgeoisement, and differentiation via different ideological apparatuses of the society: church and education, i.e., schools, for the latter; and prisons, the streets, and athletic and entertainment industries for the former. Contemporarily, in the age of globalization and neoliberalism, both groups have become the bearers of ideological and linguistic domination in black neoliberal America, and are antagonistically, converging the practical consciousness of the black or African diaspora towards their respective social class language games. We are suggesting that the socialization of other black people in the diaspora ought to be examined against and within the dialectical backdrop of this class power dynamic and the cultural and religious heritages of the black American people responsible for this phenomenon or process of convergence we are referring to as the "African-Americanization" of the black diaspora.

Achille Loria was a well-known Italian political economist and this translation of his work presents his views and discussions on famous socialist Karl Marx, bringing his work to an English audience. Originally published in 1917, the translators have included a detailed foreword which attempts to put Loria's work in context of other views on Marxism. This title will be of interest to students of politics and sociology.

In this substantially revised and enlarged second edition of a classic text that has been used throughout the world in numerous translations, Tom Bottomore reconsiders elite theory in the light of more recent studies. He examines the role and significance of elites in relation to classes and class structure in both advanced industrial and developing countries, and expounds the criticism of elites and elitism that have been formulated by democratic and socialist thinkers and movements. In a new concluding chapter, Professor Bottomore considers the prospect, as humanity approaches the millenium, for a renewed advance towards more egalitarian forms of society, in which all citizens would be able to participate more fully and effectively in the shaping of their social world.
Tom Bottomore taught at the London School of Economics 1952-64, was Head of the Department of Political Science, Sociology and Anthropology at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver 1965-67, and Professor of Sociology at the University of Sussex 1968-85 where he is now Professor Emeritus. He is the author of numerous books, most recently: Theories of Modern Capitalism, Allen and Unwin (1985); Classes in Modern Society, Routledge (2nd edition, 1991) and Between Marginalism and Marxism: The Economic Sociology of J A Schumpter, Harvester Wheatsheaf (1992).

This is a survey of the author's work on the subject of international poverty, covering his contribution to the debate on the conceptualization and measurement of poverty. The theoretical sections of the book are illustrated with more empirical observations about trends in poverty in both Third and First World contexts. The book also defines the poverty line, looks at international concepts of poverty and examines cases in India, Kenya, Europe and the UK.