Class, Culture, and Participation in the Collegiate Extra-Curriculum

With larger percentages of high school students entering higher education, it becomes increasingly important to look at how processes occurring on college campuses contribute to social stratification. Using in‐depth interviews with 61 students, I ask: How does social class structure students’ participation in the collegiate extra‐curriculum? I argue that the collegiate extra‐curriculum is an important site for stratification because it is there that students gain access to social and cultural resources valued by the privileged classes. I find that upper‐middle‐class students arrive on campus with cultural resources that motivate their participation and social resources that facilitate their involvement. Among working‐class students, limited financial factors constrain their involvement, while social and cultural resources further curtail their interest in such activities. These findings contribute to theories of social and cultural reproduction by showing that those who have more valued social and cultural resources at the outset are in a better position to gain additional such resources throughout their college careers. Moreover, these analyses show that symbolic and cultural hierarchies are sustained by the interdependent relationship between social and cultural capital.     

Baghdadi Jews in Hong Kong: converting cultural,social and economic capital among three transregional networks

This article is an analysis of the attempts of Baghdadi Jewish traders in Hong Kong in the second half of the nineteenth century to construct and convert cultural, social and economic capital within and between the transregional networks of the Baghdadi diaspora, the Jewish diaspora and the British colonial elite. The analysis of the multiple and multi‐directional intersections between the cultural, social and economic characteristics of the three networks shows that Baghdadi social capital accounted for significant ruptures and disjunctures between the increasing cosmopolitanization, deterritorialization and hybridization of the Baghdadi traders' cultural identities and the definition of Baghdadi cultural capital. An understanding of the role of Baghdadi social capital in accounting for the construction and convertibility of cultural, social and economic capital among these three transregional networks helps to explain the reproduction of social inequalities under increasing conditions of globalization, that is, under conditions that potentially augmented the number of sources defining cultural capital.     

Financial Planning for College: Parental Preparation and Capital Conversion

This study explores the conversion of cultural capital into economic capital, and specifically financial capital in the form of parental financial planning for children’s college education, including reported financial preparations and savings. Using data from the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS:2002), logistic regression-based analyses of aspects of cultural capital indicated that parental involvement exhibited the most prevalent relationship with financial planning and the amount saved, and that parents’ expectations, but not their aspirations, corresponded to engagement in financial planning. Findings support the conclusion that some parents convert part of their cultural capital to financial capital in preparation for paying for their child’s college education, perhaps representing a typically hidden facet of social class reproduction.     

Class Origin and College Graduates' Parenting Beliefs

Previous studies have documented relationships between parenting beliefs and social class. Few studies, however, have examined how parenting beliefs vary among those who share a class position. Drawing upon interviews with 54 college graduates—27 parents with working‐class origins and their 27 spouses with middle‐class origins—I show that heterogeneity in college‐educated parents' beliefs cohered around class origin. Specifically, ideas of children's education and time use related to class origin, though ideas of how to talk with children did not. I discuss the implications of these findings in terms of cultural reproduction, cultural mobility, and intergenerational inequality.     

Boundaries of middle‐class identities in Turkey

The aim of this paper is to provide an analytical account of the diversity within middle‐class identities in Turkey by drawing on an inductive and interview‐based investigation of boundary‐making processes. Inspired by Lamont's framework, it explores the nature and content of drawn symbolic boundaries and relates the causes of the observed variations to the rapid changes in Turkey's socio‐economic structure. The research challenges the homogeneous and strictly hierarchical reading of class/cultural distinctions as it demonstrates the existence of horizontal tensions and culturally inclusive middle‐class repertoires. The analysis unpacks the material basis of differentiation and highlights the most significant factors in strengthening or weakening cultural boundaries in the Turkish case: mobility profiles into middle‐class positions, composition of overall capital and the sector of employment. The paper contributes both to the growing interest in divergent manifestations of class distinction in non‐Euro‐American national contexts and to our understanding of middle‐class cultures in Turkey.     

In search of the mechanisms conducive to class differentials in educational choice: a mixed method research

This paper inquires into the mechanisms conducive to social class differentials in educational choice in Flanders (the Northern, Dutch‐speaking part of Belgium) using both quantitative data gathered from parents (N = 1339) and qualitative data gathered during two focus groups with pupils (N = 16). Unlike most of the previous studies, this study takes into consideration all three theoretical perspectives that have driven research on class differentials in educational choice so far, namely cultural reproduction theory, rational action theory and the notion of social capital. Logistic regression analysis shows that self‐selection does also occur in Flanders and that the effect of parental SES cannot be explained by a specific measure of cultural capital centred on knowledge of the educational system, nor by measures of social capital. What emerges most clearly from this study is that pupils' perception of their choice process is powerfully framed by deep‐rooted conceptions about the educational alternatives available to them. Furthermore, children's choices seem to be delimited by parents' opinions of which educational alternatives were acceptable, and which ones not. Our study calls for future research to take the wider context of decision‐making processes more explicitly into account.     

Middle‐Class Parents and Urban Public Schools: Current Research and Future Directions

Middle‐class flight from urban public schools to suburban districts or private schools is a key source of educational inequality. Recently, however, a number of studies have focused on middle‐class and upper‐middle‐class families who have made a different choice, opting to remain in the city and send their children to neighborhood public schools. While the movement of advantaged families into urban public schools has received positive attention in the media, this growing body of research tells a more complicated story. Middle‐class families – with their economic, cultural, and social capital – can bring important resources to schools, resulting in widespread benefits. However, their engagement in urban public schools can also lead to marginalization and exclusion. We review the emergent literature on this topic, highlighting four themes: (i) parent preferences, identities, and values; (ii) the role of marketing campaigns and informal networks in attracting the middle class; (iii) the nature and consequences of middle‐class parent engagement in urban schooling; and (iv) the relationship between neighborhood change and school change. We conclude by outlining a research agenda aimed at deepening our understanding of the mechanisms by which middle‐class parent engagement in urban schooling may serve to mitigate, reproduce, or exacerbate educational inequalities.     

Contextualizing Father Involvement and Paternal Influence

SUMMARY

We clarify the basic features of a sociological perspective as it relates to the study of fathers' involvement with, and influence on, their children. Our analysis emphasizes the dynamic interplay between social structures and processes at the macro, meso, and micro levels while focusing on social psychological issues. We examine (a) the social, organizational, and cultural contexts for fathering, (b) fathers' social capital contributions, (c) the construction and maintenance of father identities, and (d) fathering as a co-constructed accomplishment. These foci draw attention to how father involvement is affected by race, gender, economic considerations and a father's relationships with his child's mother and others in the community. We also examine how reflected appraisals of others may affect how a man perceives himself as a father. Relying heavily on qualitative approaches such as in-depth interviews, discourse analysis, interpretive practice, narrative practice, and dramaturgy, we suggest a number of ways a sociological lens can inform our understanding of father involvement.     

Cultural capital or relative risk aversion? Two mechanisms for educational inequality compared1

In this paper we empirically examined two explanatory mechanisms for educational inequality: cultural reproduction and relative risk aversion, using survey data taken from secondary school pupils in Amsterdam. Cultural reproduction theory seeks to explain class variations in schooling by cultural differences between social classes. Relative risk aversion theory argues that educational inequalities can be understood by between-class variation in the necessity of pursuing education at branching points in order to avoid downward mobility. We showed that class variations in early demonstrated ability are for a substantial part cultural: cultural capital - measured by parental involvement in highbrow culture - affected school performance at the primary and secondary level. However, relative risk aversion - operationalized by being concerned with downward mobility - strongly affects schooling ambitions, whereas cultural capital had no effect. Thus, we conclude that 'primary effects' of social origin on schooling outcomes are manifested through cultural capital and not through relative risk aversion (in addition to other potential sources of class variations such as genetics). Relative risk aversion, and not cultural capital, affects schooling ambitions, which is relevant for our understanding of secondary effects.     

“You Always Remain Slightly an Outsider”: Workplace Experiences of Academics from Working‐Class or Impoverished Backgrounds

Debates surrounding class inequality and social mobility often highlight the role of higher education in reducing income inequality and promoting equity through upward social mobility. We explore the lived experience of social mobility through an analysis of 11 semistructured interviews with Canadian academics who self‐identified as having working‐class or impoverished family origins. While economic capital increased substantially, cultural capital and habitus left many feeling like cultural outsiders. Isolation—both chosen and imposed—reduced professional networks, diminishing social capital. Caught between social worlds, participants mobilized symbolic capital in moral boundary marking, aligning themselves strategically with either their current class status or their working‐class roots. While upward social mobility is a path toward reducing economic inequality, the lived experience of social mobility suggests it may exact a high emotional cost.     

Persona‐based information shapes linguistic perception: Valley Girls and California vowels

This paper investigates the effect of persona‐based information on implicit linguistic perceptions of a sociolinguistic feature – the backed trap vowel. trap ‐backing is associated both with macro‐social region (California) and with a particular persona that inhabits this region (the Valley Girl). An eye‐tracking paradigm is used to examine these associations in early, automatic stages of perception. One group of listeners was told the speaker was from California, while another group was told that the speaker had been described as a Valley Girl. Findings demonstrate that both the California information and the Valley Girl information caused listeners to expect the speaker to exhibit trap ‐backing. While previous studies have highlighted the influence of macro‐sociological categories on linguistic perception, the present study suggests that persona‐based social meanings can also serve to influence perception, supporting theories that foreground personae as social constructs crucial to interaction.     

“Not Allowed to Inherit My Kingdom”: Amenity Development and Social Inequality in the Rural West

This article, based on 84 in‐depth interviews and 10 months of ethnography, focuses on the rural Washington community of “Paradise Valley,” whose economic bases in mining, ranching, and logging declined by the end of the twentieth century. Recently, economic development has focused on amenity‐based tourism and second‐home ownership, as well as attracting wealthy in‐migrants. Job growth has been concentrated in construction and service sectors, particularly low‐paid, part‐time, and seasonal jobs in hospitality, retail, and food services. The community has changed from a relatively homogenous population of working‐class residents to a more diverse and divided community. The article explores outcomes of these changes, including gentrification and housing shortages, unemployment and underemployment, and a social divide in which the community's longtime and working‐class residents are marginalized. I explore these social consequences of amenity‐based development, illustrating the ways in which the social divide is reproduced and the gradual disenfranchisement of those with roots in earlier social and economic systems in the valley, focusing on the changing meanings and uses of different types of symbolic capital.     

Educational ties,social capital and the translocal (re)production of MBA alumni networks

Research on elite, transnational networks has identified social and cultural capital associated with particular academic credentials as being an important element in network formation. How and why such networks are reproduced after graduation, however, has received less attention. In response, in this article I combine work on social capital and personal networks to explore the reproduction of MBA alumni networks in London's financial services district that were created in leading business schools in the USA and UK. My analysis documents the ways in which business schools and individual alumni combine forms of virtual and corporeal co‐presence to reproduce translocal educational ties. I then argue that the motivation for sustaining these educational ties lies in the potential to convert the social and cultural capital of MBA alumni networks into different types of value ranging from enhanced career progression to increased alumni donations. In doing so, I develop debates on the intersections between social capital, academic credentials and the reproduction of elite networks.     

Scale and periodicities of recorded music consumption: reconciling Bourdieu's theory of taste with facts

Recent data show that middle class consumers have an omnivorous pattern of consumption or tastes, contrary to Bourdieu's predictions of a snob pattern of consumption. To explore the implications of Bourdieu's framework for omnivorousness further, we make use of the anthropological view of consumption to analyse Spaniards' musical tastes and consumption. Results showed a variety of omnivorous patterns of musical consumption associated with upscale consumers: a higher position on the social ladder was linked to more omnivorous tastes and greater use of technologies that free the consumer from fixed periodicities in music consumption. We found that different types (economic, social and cultural) and levels of capital do configure subjects' structural constraints and hence, their tastes in musical genres and the technological media used to consume them. Consequently, the combination of all three types of capital helps to explain the omnivorous consumption (elitist but inclusive as well) of upscale consumers.     

Family Influences on the Social Participation of Youth: The Effects of Parental Social Involvement and Farming

Abstract Parents shape children's social choices through their social and economic actions. Parental social participation connects children to a civic culture and encourages involvement in civic groups. Parents' ties to farming in farm‐dependent communities further enhance children's civic orientations by providing added opportunities and incentives for social participation. Data from the Iowa Youth and Families Project confirm these hypotheses, showing that the children of farmers and of rural leaders are more likely to participate in civic groups. These results establish parental social involvement as a source of social capital and demonstrate the importance of farm influences for understanding the social involvement of youth in rural society.     

Consumer Citizenship and Cross‐Class Activism: The Case of the National Consumers' League, 1899–1918

Political consumerism is often criticized for its failure to cross class lines, a failure linked to the economic resources and cultural capital of affluent consumers. The early history of the National Consumers' League (NCL) illustrates how an alternative model of consumer citizenship can lead privileged shoppers to draw social boundaries in different ways. The NCL included lower‐class women and children as beneficiaries and occasional allies in consumer campaigns, but distanced itself from the organized labor movement. This alternative model of political consumerism is traced to the gender and class cultures of reformist women in the Progressive Era.     

Response: Not so fast: a comment on Atkinson and Deeming's ‘Class and cuisine in contemporary Britain: the social space,the space of food and their homology’

In a recent paper in The Sociological Review, Atkinson and Deeming argue that tastes in food are homologous to the social space, exactly as it was in Bourdieu's Distinction. This would involve differences in food tastes not only along the class hierarchy, but also a clear‐cut divide by the relative weight of cultural and economic capital. However, Atkinson and Deeming base their claims on insufficient data analysis: They misinterpret their own correspondence analysis and the additional tables, which they in turn fail to subject to even the most basic statistical analysis. We show that the results they present are actually at odds with their own interpretations and main conclusions. It is not just that Atkinson and Deeming's arguments lack support; their proposition about a culinary division between cultural and economic class fractions is contradicted by their own data.     

Limits of Social Capital for Refugee Integration: The Case of Gay Iranian Male Refugees' Integration in Canada

Each year thousands of refugees, including racialized LGBT refugees, are resettled in Canada. Currently, economic independence is the foremost policy goal in integrating Canada's refugees. This policy often relies on social capital as a non-economic solution to integration. I draw on 35 multi-sequential interviews with 19 gay Iranian men to connect the empirical and theoretical debates around refugee integration and argue that over-reliance on refugees' deployment of social capital for integration has grave shortcomings for their senses of belonging. I suggest that examining racialized LGBT refugees' integration strategies best reveals communitarian social capital's flaws at the conjunction of sexuality, gender, race, and class. I draw on Bourdieu's writings on social capital to highlight internal group differences, social inequalities, and the vital convertibility between financial, social, and cultural capital in building transferrable resources for refugee integration. I conclude by urging policy-oriented studies of social capital.     

Inequality and 21-year-olds' negotiation of uncertain transitions to employment: a Bourdieusian approach

Faced with uncertainty, how do young people navigate the transition from school to work? Applying Bourdieu's concept of habitus to the ‘fields’ of education and employment, I argue that past experience, family background and unequal access to economic, social and symbolic forms of capital differentiate their transitions. Drawing on the tenth wave of the Australian longitudinal Life Chances Study, we found that all of the twenty-five 21-year-olds interviewed expressed uncertainty when discussing their futures. However, those from high-income backgrounds with access to strong social, economic and cultural resources were better able to manage the risks arising from uncertainty than their counterparts from low-income backgrounds. The following article seeks to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of young people's experiences at age 21 through the application of Bourdieu's conceptual framework. The interviewees’ habitus and cultivation of varying forms of capital tend towards social reproduction, yet also reveal opportunities for those considered ‘disadvantaged’ to mobilise their cultural resources. Bourdieu's model of the field, and its component conceptual tools, provide an explanatory frame to make sense of the seemingly incoherent paths that young people trace between education and employment.     

Who the Heck Is Don Bradman? Sport Culture and Social Class in British Columbia,Canada*

Les classes sociales et la culture sportive canadienne sont‐elles interreliées ? L'auteur, inspiré par les cadres conceptuels de classes sociales de Pierre Bourdieu et d'Erik Wright, dErit les résultats d'un travail exploratoire sur les classes sociales et le sport dans la province de Colombie‐Britannique. Son analyse utilise des données d'enquête originales afin de déterminer l'importance qu'ont les caractéristiques démographiques (sexe, âge et naissance), le capital (économique, culture1 et social) et les indicateurs néomarxistes des catégories sociales (comme la propriétééconomique, le contrôle sur le lieu de travail et les compétences professionnelles) sur l'étendue des connaissances sportives et sur la participation aux activités sportives. Cette analyse constitue donc un petit pas vers l'identification des classes sociales au Canada, soutenue ou délimitée par l'exercice des choix et des pratiques culturelles. Are social class and Canadian sports culture entwined? This article, inspired by the social class frameworks of Pierre Bourdieu and Erik Wright, describes results from an exploratory investigation of class and sport in the province of British Columbia. The analysis utilizes original survey data to determine the degree to which demographic characteristics (gender, age and nativity), capitals (economic, cultural and social) and neo‐Marxist indicators of class position (such as economic ownership, control in the workplace and job skill) predict breadth of sports knowledge and participation in sporting activities. The analysis therefore represents a small step towards identifying social classes in Canada that are sustained or delimited by the wielding of cultural tastes and practices.