Conclusion

2019 ◽  
pp. 174-194
Author(s):  
Anna Bull
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Gender Identities ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
The Aesthetic

The conclusion lays out four ways in which the tradition and practices of classical music form an ‘articulation’ with the middle classes: the formal modes of social organization that it requires; its modes of embodiment; its imaginative dimension; and the aesthetic of detail, precision, and ‘getting it right’. It argues that the aesthetic of classical music does the boundary-drawing work of retaining this as a middle-class space and practice, and within these spaces, classical music cultivates a form of selfhood characterized by emotional depth that is recognized as valuable. It draws out two ways in which this book contributes to a wider understanding of the middle classes: the ways in which gender identities structure classed reproduction, and the continuing role of classical music as legitimate culture conferring institutionalized cultural capital. Finally, it lays out ways forward for classical music in policy and practice.

scholarly journals ‘Below English Line’: An ethnographic exploration of class and the English language in post-liberalization India

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 576-608 ◽  
Author(s):  
SAZANA JAYADEVA
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
English Language ◽  
Critical Element ◽  
Class Identity ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
And Performance ◽  
English Training

AbstractAnthropological studies of India's post-liberalization middle classes have tended to focus mainly on the role of consumption behaviour in the constitution of this class group. Building on these studies, and taking class as an object of ethnographic enquiry, I argue that, over the last 20 years, class dynamics in the country have been significantly altered by the unprecedentedly important and complex role that the English language has come to play in the production and reproduction of class. Based on 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork—conducted at commercial spoken-English training centres, schools, and corporate organizations in Bangalore—I analyse the processes by which this change in class dynamics has occurred, and how it is experienced on the ground. I demonstrate how, apart from being a valuable type of class cultural capital in its own right, proficiency in English has come to play a key role in the acquisition and performance of other important forms of capital associated with middle-class identity. As a result, being able to demonstrate proficiency in English has come to be experienced as a critical element in claiming and maintaining a space in the middle class, regardless of the other types of class cultural capital a person possesses.

Class, Control, and Classical Music

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Bull
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
Class Culture ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
Music Ensembles ◽  
The Aesthetic

Through an ethnographic study of young people playing and singing in classical music ensembles in the south of England, this book analyses why classical music in England is predominantly practiced by white middle-class people. It describes four ‘articulations’ or associations between the middle classes and classical music. Firstly, its repertoire requires formal modes of social organization that can be contrasted with the anti-pretentious, informal, dialogic modes of participation found in many forms of working-class culture. Secondly, its modes of embodiment reproduce classed values such as female respectability. Thirdly, an imaginative dimension of bourgeois selfhood can be read from classical music’s practices. Finally, its aesthetic of detail, precision, and ‘getting it right’ requires a long-term investment that is more possible, and makes more sense, for middle- and upper-class families. Through these arguments, the book reframes existing debates on gender and classical music participation in light of the classed gender identities that the study revealed. Overall, the book suggests that inequalities in cultural production can be understood through examining the practices that are used to create a particular aesthetic. It argues that the ideology of the ‘autonomy’ of classical music from social concerns needs to be examined in historical context as part of the classed legacy of classical music’s past. It describes how the aesthetic of classical music is a mechanism through which the middle classes carry out boundary-drawing around their protected spaces, and within these spaces, young people’s participation in classical music education cultivates a socially valued form of self-hood.

Modernity and cultural citizenship in the Netherlands Indies: An illustrated hypothesis

2011 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henk Schulte Nordholt
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Cultural Citizenship ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
Netherlands Indies

Conventional historiography presumes a linear development from urbanisation, the rise of indigenous middle classes and the spread of modernity towards nationalism as the logical outcome of this process. This article aims to disconnect modernity from nationalism by focusing on the role of cultural citizens in the late colonial period for whom modernity was a desirable lifestyle. The extent to which their desires and the interests of the colonial regime coincided is illustrated by a variety of advertisements and school posters, which invited members of the indigenous urban middle class to become cultural citizens of the colony.

Costruire per il ceto medio a Milano. Note sulla filiera imprenditoriale

TERRITORIO ◽  
2013 ◽  
pp. 88-94
Author(s):  
Luca Gaeta
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Property Market ◽  
High Concentration ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
Construction Companies ◽  
Land Owners ◽  
The Social ◽  
City Construction ◽  
The City

The precise boundaries of the supply chain for the production of housing for the middle classes in Milan during the boom years are not clearly defined. And yet its activity is of crucial importance to an understanding of the social and tangible forms of the middle class city. Construction companies constituted the key link in relations between land owners, clients, architects and end users of the asset that is a home. This paper offers a provisional picture which documents the firms most active in the sector, the prevailing operating practices and two businessmen who were interviewed. The conclusions identify two lines for further research into the middle class city: the role of non-professional mediators in the property market and the high concentration of up-market new housing construction within the ‘cerchia dei bastioni' (inner part of the city).

Die Rekrutierung von Topmanagern in Europa

1997 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Hartmann
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
The World ◽  
Ruling Elites ◽  
The Common ◽  
Class Habitus ◽  
Opening Up

Seventy-five to eighty per cent of the ruling elites of the three main European nations (France, Great Britain and Germany) are drawn from the middle classes, and their social recruitment has hardly changed over the last 2j years. According to the author, Bourdieu's theory of class habitus and the role of cultural capital is thus strongly confirmed, refuting the common argument that the world of elites is opening up.

scholarly journals ΑΣΤΙΚΕΣ ΤΑΞΕΙΣ ΚΑΙ ΑΣΤΙΚΟΤΗΤΑ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΥΡΩΠΗ, 1789-1914: ΠΡΟΣΑΝΑΤΟΛΙΣΜΟΙ ΤΗΣ ΣΥΓΧΡΟΝΗΣ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΟΓΡΑΦΙΑΣ

Μνήμων ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 211
Author(s):  
ΚΩΣΤΑΣ ΡΑΠΤΗΣ
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
French Literature ◽  
English Language ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
Class Culture ◽  
Bourgeois Society ◽  
French And English ◽  
History Of ◽  
Specific Culture

<p>Kostas Raptis, Middle classes and middle class culture in Europe, 1789-1914: approaches in modern historiography</p><p>The history of the european middle classes from the late 18th to theearly 20th century is a very wide topic and relates to economic, social,political, gender and culture history. This essay gives a brief overviewof the main subjects regarding it. It draws mainly on (pioneer) germanspeaking,but also on english and french literature. Following the currentdebate, it points to the different social and economic groups making upthe so called ((Bürgertum», to their common characteristics, as well astheir specific culture, the ((Bürgerlichkeit)).More specifically this paper is concerned with the followin subjects:— the composition of the «Bürgertum» and the features of its maingroups (professionals, bourgeois of money and bourgeois of knowledge)— the relevant terminology in german, french and english language— the comparison between upper middle class and nobility— the social position and role of the lowermiddle classes— the relation of the bourgeoisie to liberalism and nationalism— the study of the history of the middle classes in the specific contextof a town or a city (as an urban phenomenon)— the position and role of middle class women in a bourgeois society— the middle class family— the bourgeois way of life and culture in general</p>

The Origins of the Protest Movement Against Ethnic Hierarchy

2018 ◽  
pp. 111-128
Author(s):  
Gilles Riaux
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Political System ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Resource Mobilization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
Revolutionary Period

This chapter looks at the central role of entrepreneurs of mobilization. The study of different routes taken by entrepreneurs of the Azerbaijani cause has proven helpful when attempting to understand the genesis of the cause. These actors play a crucial role in the initiation and development of the movement, restructuring it throughout the revolutionary period and working toward the subversion of ethnic ranking. Indeed, resource mobilization highlights the decisive role played by intellectual figures from the educated middle classes. Based on their cultural and social capital, these entrepreneurs have specific resources that give them the ability to carry out a redefinition and enhancement of “turkishness” in its Azerbaijani specificity. The chapter then points out that Azeri elites with significant cultural capital tend to be integrated in the political system, whereas those with more “local” capital have been involved in setting up the Azeri rights movement.

Chartism in 1848: Reflections on a Non-Revolution

1981 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Weisser
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Standard Interpretation ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
Social Scale ◽  
The Social ◽  
Great Confidence ◽  
Better Than

The standard interpretation of 1848 in Britain is that while Continental Europe reached a turning point and failed to turn, as the famous aphorism states, Britain reached its turning point in 1832, turned, and thus avoided revolution in that year of revolutions. The British middle classes, unlike their Continental counterparts, were loyal in 1848. They enjoyed a broader franchise, some reforming legislation already passed, and commitments to various welcome changes in the future made by diverse politicians. All of this gave the British middle classes great confidence in British institutions and their own future under them, as well as the belief that their country was fortunately different from all the other nations. Without the middle classes, the Chartists could have never succeeded with any kind of insurrection. So, while the capitals of Europe echoed with sounds of musketry and cannon, Britain was at peace because her Constitution was essentially better than anything that prevailed elsewhere.Modern historiography has done little to change this interpretation of 1848 that was first proclaimed by self-congratulatory and relieved Victorians. All the accounts stress the fortunate uniqueness of Britain and the key role of middle class loyalty. Priscilla Robertson wrote, “During the days of 1848, England stood apart, unshaken, apparently unshakable. Her reformers were already in power. …” In a recent study of the 1848 revolutions, Peter Stearns focuses on the ways the middle class abetted Continental revolutions at the same time that they were instrumental in preventing revolution in Britain. These are really restatements of Elie Halévy's classic explanation. While John Saville's treatment of 1848 differs from traditional accounts in several ways, particularly in stressing the vigor of the Chartist left's resistance after April 10, his explanation for the failure of revolution does not. He concludes that the British government could count on “whole-hearted support” much further down the social scale than could Continental governments. Moreover, despite all the newer research on political violence, crowds, and revolution, the standard interpretation of Britain's fate in 1848 remains: middle-class support for the regime was too strong while Chartist support for an insurrection was too weak.

Mommy Knows?

2020 ◽  
pp. 139-158
Author(s):  
Madhurima Das
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Economic Capital ◽  
Distinct Form ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Neoliberal India ◽  
Crisis Managers

Globalization and its imminent effect on education have received attention in recent years. Less widely acknowledged is the discussion of the role of middle-class mothers who are stuck amidst the changes in their children's education and future. With the aid of in-depth face-to-face interviews and extensive participant observation in Kolkata, this chapter examines how middle-class mothers resort to commercial solutions to help manage their crisis in a neoliberal India. The crisis managers in the form of “mom-schooling” agencies support and coach mothers to negotiate with the changing education system and parenting methods that have become highly Americanized. In this chapter, the author uses Bourdieu's theory of conversion of capital to argue that mothers in Kolkata are acting as “converters” of capital with the help of commercial mom-schools by converting economic capital to a distinct form of cultural capital that they transfer to their children for the latter's success in a global economy.

The Racial Politics of Cultural Capital: Perspectives from Black Middle-Class Pupils and Parents in a London Comprehensive

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derron Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Racial Politics ◽  
Black Middle Class ◽  
Black Parents ◽  
Focus Group Interviews ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
White Hegemony ◽  
Depth Interviews

Drawing on 13 in-depth interviews and three focus-group interviews with Black middle-class pupils, along with 14 in-depth interviews with their parents, this article highlights Black parents’ and pupils’ strategic use of Black cultural capital to contest White hegemony in the curricula at a large state comprehensive school in South London. The findings of this study underscore the racial politics of cultural capital as experienced by the Black middle classes. The results also spotlight the quiet alliances between Black middle-class pupils and parents to challenge the racial blindspots of state school curricula and negotiate changes throughout the school community. This article adds to scholarship in cultural sociology by highlighting the calculated intergenerational work among the Black middle classes – perspectives that are often missing in traditional class analyses.

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