In recent years historians and other social scientists have widely questioned the continued relevance of social class - as historical relationship, as sociological category, as philosophical concept, and in terms of its enduring political significance. The success of the British Conservative Party since 1979, combined with the weaknesses and failures of the Labour movement, have led historians and social scientists to reconsider the general nature of connections between the 'social' and the 'political' and the specific relations between the working class and socialist and Labour politics. This collection of essays is a multi-disciplinary critique of the new revisionism, which demonstrates the continued vitality and promise of non-reductionist and non-determinist modes of class analysis.

Professionalism is currently undergoing a process of radical change. Changes in the welfare state and in the market place have impacted upon professional organizations forcing them to change the ways in which they perform their jobs. This book analyzes these changes in relation to the legal industry and other professions such as doctors and accountants. It argues that the shift is being driven by the powerful and informed corporate client whilst it downgrades consideration for the weaker uninformed client with many casualties as a result. It highlights how this shift has become an important political issue as the different camps seek support from political parties. It suggests that the resulting contest will be one of the key political struggles of the first decade of the next century.

Develops the debate on the professional and managerial service class, and their importance as a determining force in social structure and social change.

Museums and the Working Class is the first book to take an intersectional and international approach to the issues of economic diversity and class within the field of museum studies. Bringing together 16 contributors from eight countries, this book has emerged from the significant global dialogue concerning museums' obligation to be inclusive, participate in meaningful engagement and advocate for social change. As part of the push for museums to be more accessible and inclusive, museums have been challenged to critically examine their power relationships and how these are played out in what they collect, whose stories they exhibit and who is made to feel welcome in their halls. This volume will further this professional and academic debate through the discussion of class. Contributions to the book will also reinforce the importance of the working class - not only in collection and exhibition policy, but also for the organisational psychology of institutions. Museums and the Working Class is essential reading for scholars and students of museum, gallery and heritage studies, cultural studies, sociology, labour studies and history. It will also serve as a source of honest and research-led inspiration to practitioners working in museums, galleries, libraries, archives and at heritage sites around the world.

Whether it's working for free in exchange for 'experience', enduring poor treatment in the name of being 'part of the family', or clocking serious overtime for a good cause, more and more of us are pushed to make sacrifices for the privilege of being able to do work we enjoy. Work Won't Love You Back examines how we all bought into this 'labour of love' myth: the idea that certain work is not really work, and should be done for the sake of passion rather than pay. Through the lives and experiences of various workers-from the unpaid intern and the overworked teacher, to the nonprofit employee, the domestic worker and even the professional athlete-this compelling book reveals how we've all been tricked into a new tyranny of work. Sarah Jaffe argues that understanding the labour of love trap will empower us to work less and demand what our work is worth. Once freed, we can finally figure out what actually gives us joy, pleasure and satisfaction.

Flamboyant, cultured and refined, aristocracy is often seen as a national treasure. Lords of Misrule takes a different view and considers the role of an aristocracy behaving badly. This is a book about the political, social and moral failings of aristocracy and the ways in which they have featured in political rhetoric. Drawing on the views of critics of aristocracy, it explores the dark side of power without responsibility. Less 'patrician paragons' than dissolute and debauched debtors, the aristocrats featured here undermined, rather than augmented, the fabric of national life. For the first time, Lords of Misrule recaptures the views of those radicals and reformers who were prepared to contemplate a Britain without aristocrats.

This companion brings together scholars working at the intersection of media and class, with a focus on how understandings of class are changing in contemporary global media contexts. From the memes of and about working-class supporters of billionaire "populists", to well-publicized and critiqued philanthropic efforts to bring communication technologies into developing country contexts, to the behind-the-scenes work of migrant tech workers, class is undergoing change both in and through media. Diverse and thoughtfully curated contributions unpack how media industries, digital technologies, everyday media practices-and media studies itself-feed into and comment upon broader, interdisciplinary discussions. They cover a wide range of topics, such as economic inequality, workplace stratification, the sharing economy, democracy and journalism, globalization, and mobility/migration. Outward-looking, intersectional, and highly contemporary, The Routledge Companion to Media and Class is a must-read for students and researchers interested in the intersections between media, class, sociology, technology, and a changing world.

The bestselling The Millionaire Next Door identifies seven common traits that show up again and again among those who have accumulated wealth. Most of the truly wealthy in this country don't live in Beverly Hills or on Park Avenue-they live next door. This new edition, the first since 1998, includes a new foreword for the twenty-first century by Dr. Thomas J. Stanley.

Blood, Sweat, and Toil is the first scholarly history of the British working class in the Second World War. It integrates social, political, and labour history, and reflects the most recent scholarship and debates on social class, gender, and the forging of identities. Geoffrey G. Field examines the war's impact on workers in the varied contexts of the family, military service, the workplace, local communities, and the nation. Previous studies of the Home Front have analysed the lives of civilians, but they have neglected the importance of social class in defining popular experience and its centrality in public attitudes, official policy, and the politics of the war years. Contrary to accounts that view the war as eroding class divisions and creating a new sense of social unity in Britain, Field argues that the 1940s was a crucial decade in which the deeply fragmented working class of the interwar decades was "remade," achieving new collective status, power, and solidarity. He criticizes recent revisionist scholarship that has downplayed the significance of class in British society. Extensively researched, using official documents, diaries and letters, the records of trade unions, and numerous other institutions, Blood, Sweat, and Toil traces the rapid growth of trade unionism, joint consultation, and strike actions in the war years. It also analyses the mobilization of women into factories and the uniformed services and the lives of men conscripted into the army, showing how these experiences shaped their social attitudes and aspirations. Using opinion polls and other evidence, Field traces the evolution of popular political attitudes from the evacuation of 1939 and the desperate months of late 1940 to the election of 1945, opposing recent claims that the electorate was indifferent or apathetic at the war's end but also eschewing blanket assumptions about popular radicalization. Labour was an active agent in fashioning itself as both a national progressive party and the representative of working-class interests in 1945; far from a mere passive beneficiary of anti-Tory feeling, it gave organizational form to the idealism and the demand for significant change that the war had generated.

Why do Oscar winners live for an average of four years longer than other Hollywood actors? Who experiences the most stress - the decision-makers or those who carry out their orders? Why do the Japanese have better health than other rich populations, and Keralans in India have better health than other poor populations - and what do they have in common? In this eye-opening book, internationally renowned epidemiologist Michael Marmot sets out to answer these and many other fascinating questions in order to understand the relationship between where we stand in the social hierarchy and our health and longevity. It is based on more than thirty years of front-line research between health and social circumstances. Marmot's work has taken him round the world showing the similar patterns that could be affecting the length of your life - and how you can change it.

The authors of this timely book, Who Gets What?, harness the expertise from across the social sciences to show how skyrocketing inequality and social dislocation are fracturing the stable political identities and alliances of the postwar era across advanced democracies. Drawing on extensive evidence from the United States and Europe, with a focus especially on the United States, the authors examine how economics and politics are closely entwined. Chapters demonstrate how the new divisions that separate people and places-and fragment political parties-hinder a fairer distribution of resources and opportunities. They show how employment, education, sex and gender, and race and ethnicity affect the way people experience and interpret inequality and economic anxieties. Populist politics have addressed these emerging insecurities by deepening social and political divisions, rather than promoting broad and inclusive policies.

This book is the first ever collection of scholarly essays on the history of the Irish working class. It provides a comprehensive introduction to the involvement of Irish workers in political life and movements between 1830 and 1945. Fourteen leading Irish and international historians and political scientists trace the politicization of Irish workers during a period of considerable social and political turmoil. The contributions include both surveys covering the entire period and case studies that provide new perspectives on crucial historical movements and moments. This volume is a milestone in Irish labour and political historiography and an important contribution to the international literature on politics and the working class.

Archaeological discoveries have increasingly brought to light evidence of women's involvement in the royal houses of the ancient Near East, yet such evidence has not fundamentally altered the perception of monarchy as an exclusively male-gendered theological, political, and social institution. Solvang's study assembles the evidence in search of an integrated view of royal women's position and power in critical functions of monarchy, challenging customary assumptions about women's place in the royal harem. The historical information serves as a backdrop for a literary reading of biblical texts describing the royal house of Judah. Attention is given to three women representing different royal positions: Michal (daughter), Bathsheba (queen mother), and Athaliah (queen and monarch).

"Racism is like a Cadillac, they bring out a new model every year." - Malcolm X (a former auto worker) Written in a lively, accessible fashion and drawing extensively on interviews with people who were formerly incarcerated, Cars and Jails examines how the costs of car ownership and use are deeply enmeshed with the U.S. prison system. American consumer lore has long held the automobile to be a "freedom machine," consecrating the mobility of a free people. Yet, paradoxically, the car also functions at the cross-roads of two great systems of entrapment and immobility- the American debt economy and the carceral state. Cars and Jails investigates this paradox, showing how auto debt, traffic fines, over-policing, and automated surveillance systems work in tandem to entrap and criminalize poor people. The authors describe how racialization and poverty take their toll on populations with no alternative, in a country poorly served by public transport, to taking out loans for cars and exposing themselves to predatory and often racist policing. Looking skeptically at the frothy promises of the "mobility revolution," Livingston and Ross close with thought-provoking ideas for a radical overhaul of transportation.

Home Schooling and Home Education provides an original account of home education and examines ways in which the discourses of home education are understood and contextualised in different countries, such as the UK and USA. By exploring home education in the global and local context of traditional schooling, the book bridges a much-needed gap in educational and social scientific research. The authors explore home education from two related perspectives: firstly how and why home education is accessed by different social groups; and secondly, how these groups are perceived as home educators. The book draws upon empirical case study research with those who use home education to address issues of inequality, difference and inclusion, before offering suggestions for viable policy shifts in this area, as well as broadening understandings of risk and marginality. It engages and initiates debates about alternatives to the standard schooling model within a critical sociological context. The scholarly emphasis and original nature of Home Schooling and Home Education makes this essential reading for academics and postgraduate researchers in the fields of education and sociology, as well as for educational policymakers.

What does consumption in the global south signify, and how are its complexities communicated in media discourses? Consumption, Media and the Global South presents original research examining key themes in the ways in which consumption in the global south - by elites, the middle classes, and the poor - is discursively constructed in media texts. With the global triumph of capitalist economies and neoliberal values, consumption is increasingly viewed by populations in the global south as both a right to which they are denied access, and once accessed as evidence of an improved life. The ways in which this debate plays out on the stage of the media is an important element of the picture. This book looks at the media representation of consumer culture in Africa, China, Brazil and India through case studies ranging from celebrity selfies, to travel websites, news reports and documentary film.

Young Homeless People takes a broad approach to the distressing phenomenon of youth homelessness. While politicians, researchers and the media focus on the more visibly homeless--those sleeping in city streets and shelters--this book also considers the young homeless hidden in local communities. It places young people's experiences of homelessness in the context of their biographies as a whole and makes policy and practice recommendations based on the views and preferences of young homeless people themselves.

Economic Restructuring and the Growing Uncertainty of the Middle Class focuses on a relatively new research area which is becoming increasingly more important: the growing uncertainty of the middle class. Until recently, members of the middle class were not only assured of a good social and economic position but also of the continuation of this position. Nowadays, economic and organisational changes are threatening this once secure position. The boundaries between the middle classes and the working class are becoming less and less visible. Making a career', which was in the past central for middle class people, is becoming ever more difficult. Moreover, organisational restructuring is threatening their employment. It seems that insecurity is becoming a central element in the lives of members of the middle class. In this book experts from several European countries discuss the question of to what extent the position of the middle class is really changing. They also discuss the mechanisms that are propelling these changes, and the effects these changes have on the attitudes of middle-class people. As the experts are from several parts of Europe (Great Britain, Germany, The Netherlands, Greece, Spain and Russia), the reader can compare the situation of the middle classes in these various countries. This book contains valuable information for anyone interested in this important topic: not only for those involved in the studies of economic and organisational change and social stratification and those interested in the similarities and differences between European countries, but (amongst others) for policy-makers, managers, and trade union representatives who will be dealing with problems induced by the changes that are discussed in the book.

In this collection of essays a number of distinguished scholars examine the proletarianization process and its relation to social protest and class formation. The authors consider how the social origins of the industrial work force and the migration patterns that brought workers to industrial areas shaped the workers' developing identity and led them to participate in mass protests. The essays provide an overview of proletarianization in industrializing regions and in several different countries. Although the authors of these articles employ a variety of disciplines--anthropology, history, and sociology--all the essays deal with historical aspects of the process of class formation and the forging of a modern working class. The essays span three continents and two centuries, and the volume includes a comprehensive annotated bibliography of relevant works drawn from the suggestions of the contributors.