This major new contribution to the study of consumption examines how dominant groups express and display their sense of superiority through material and aesthetic attributes, demonstrating that differences from one society to another, and across historical periods, challenge current understandings of elite distinction.
This major new contribution to the study of consumption examines how dominant groups express and display their sense of superiority through material and aesthetic attributes, demonstrating that differences from one society to another, and across historical periods, challenge current understandings of elite distinction.
Offering insightful anthropological-historical contributions to the understanding of elites worldwide, this book helps us grasp their ways of life and role in times of contested global inequalities. Case studies include the Polish gentry, the white former colonial elite of Mauritius, professional elites, and transnational (financial) elites.
Examines differences in taste between modern French classes, discusses the relationship between culture and politics, and outlines the strategies of pretension.
This book offers unique insights into elite Nigerian parents’ engagement with, and use of, the international secondary education market as they attempt to retain their social standing - via their children - under today’s shifting global conditions. Throughout, the book tackles two important, albeit uncomfortable questions: Why does whiteness hold the highest possible value in postcolonial societies such as Nigeria? And, more importantly, why do black people accept the hegemonic discourse that West/white is best? Combining the theoretical frameworks of Pierre Bourdieu and Frantz Fanon, the book reveals ‘Whiteness’ as a highly valuable form of cultural and symbolic capital that plays a crucial role in the formation of, and struggle for, elite status and distinction in modern-day Nigeria. Drawing on rare qualitative data sets along with postcolonial literatures, the book reveals how British whiteness is used by those working at and for British private schools in Nigeria (BPS-NIG) as an informal but powerful mechanism of ‘quality’ control, and in constructing the image of ‘world-class’ educational establishments.
Elites come in many forms and express themselves in an extraordinary variety of ways. This collection reflects just that diversity. From an overview of elites for the relatively uninitiated to comparative studies of elites in individual, national, social and political contexts, this work is both historical and contemporary, and encompasses a variety of case studies of elite individuals as well as elites in a broad range of national and political environments. All this is intended to assist those interested in the study of elites from historical and contemporary theoretical and empirical perspectives. Ultimately, this volume suggests many opportunities for further study and research.
In view of the drastically growing divide between rich and poor, people in many industrialized countries are asking about the responsibility of elites for society. Are the activities of elites determined primarily by their responsibility for the common good of the population or by their interest in enlarging their own power and wealth? This book pursues two aims in attempting to come up with an answer to this question. Its first aim is to present a well-founded overview of the most important sociological elite theories, ranging from the classics in the field, Mosca, Michels, and Pareto, to Dahrendorf, Keller, and Bourdieu. Its second is to use the examples of the world’s five largest industrialized nations (France, Germany, the UK, Japan, and the US) to empirically demonstrate how the elites of a given country, above all the political and economic elites, are recruited and how they cooperate with one another.
Drawing on the first systematic study of cultural capital in contemporary Britain, Culture, Class, Distinction examines the role played by culture in the relationships between class, gender and ethnicity. Its findings promise a major revaluation of the legacy of Pierre Bourdieu’s account of the relationships between class and culture.
This handbook presents a comprehensive view of the current theory and research surrounding political elites, which is now a pivotal subject for academic study and public discourse. In 40 chapters by leading scholars, it displays the field’s richness and diversity. The handbook is organized in six sections, each introduced by a co-editor, focusing on theories about political elites, methods for studying them, their main structural and behavioral patterns worldwide, the differentiation and integration of political elite sectors, elite attributes and resources, and the dilemmas of political elites in this century. Forty years since Robert Putnam’s landmark Comparative Study of Political Elites, this handbook is an indispensable resource for scholars and students engaged in the study of this vibrant field.
Analyzes scandals in high-profile institutions, from Wall Street and the Catholic Church to corporate America and Major League Baseball, while evaluating how an elite American meritocracy rose throughout the past half-century before succumbing to unprecedented levels of corruption and failure. 75,000 first printing.