New wine in old bottles or old wine in new bottles?

• Authors: Tittenbrun Jacek
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The present paper offers a critical analysis of what its authors call a new approach to social class. The analytical framework concerned is based on a large BBC-sponsored Internet survey and co-coauthored by a team of researchers led by Mike Savage. In theoretical terms, the most relevant observation to be made regarding the appproach under examination is its total dependence upon Pierre Bourdieu's concepts and ideas. This concerns first of all his theory of multiple 'capitals', two of which, e.e. social and cultural have been singled out by the exponents of the framework analysed in the paper as the building blocks of their own class theory. In other publications of the present author it has been shown that the purported Bourdesian 'capitals' are not any capitals at all, that they constitute misnomers, or even oxymorons. The consequences of this theoretical misunderstanding, to say the least, are as devastating in the case of Savage et al. as in the case of French thinker. The typology of social classes built upon such shaky grounds is found wanting in many respects; inter alia, such concepts as the middle class and the precariat are being criticised in more detail. Overall, the authors' shameless self-adevertising campaign, their analytic framework contains scarcely any new insights or ideas and mirrors other people's errors and failings instead.

Keywords

EN

Bourdieu; social class; middle class; precariat; working class; ownership; labour power

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Opolski
• Journal: Studia Krytyczne/ Critical Studies
• Year: 2015
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 18-46

Dates

published

2016-03

Contributors

author

Tittenbrun Jacek

• Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu

References

• Beck U. (1992). Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London: Sage.
• Bradly H. (2014). Class Descriptors or Class Relations? Thoughts Towards a Critique of Savage et al. “Sociology”, June 2014, 48 (3), 1-8.
• Breen R. (2005). Foundations of neo-Weberian class analysis [in:] Wright E.O. (ed.). Approaches to Class Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Doogan K. (2009). New Capitalism? The Transformation of Work. Cambridge: Polity.
• Dorling D. (2014). Thinking about class. “Sociology” 48 (3), 452–462.
• Marx K. (2015). Grundrisse, https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1857/grundrisse/ch10.htm [10.10.2015].
• McGovern P., Hill S., Mills C., White M. (2007). Market, Class and Employment. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Mills C. (2013). The Great British Class Fiasco: A Comment on Savage et al. “Sociology” 47 (2), 219–250.
• Mythen G. (2005). Employment, individualization and insecurity: rethinking the risk society perspective. “Sociological Review” 53(1), 129-149.
• Savage M. et al. (2013). A new model of social class? Findings from the BBC’s Great British Class Survey experiment. “Sociology” 47 (2), 219–250.
• Scott J. (2000). Understanding Contemporary Society: Theories of the Present. New York: Sage Publications.
• Tittenbrun J. (2011a). Economy in Society. Economic Sociology Revisited. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
• Tittenbrun J. (2011b). Ownership and Social Differentiation. Understandings and Misunderstandings. Saarbrucken: Lambert Academic Publishing.
• Tittenbrun J. (2013a). Anti-Capital: Human, Social and Cultural. The Mesmerising Misnomers. Farnham: Ashgate.
• Tittenbrun J. (2013b). A critical Handbook of ‘Capitals’ Mushrooming Across the Social Sciences. Saarbrucken: Lambert Academic Publishing.