Addressing Social Class and Classism in Vocational Theory and Practice

The emancipatory communitarian approach to vocational development is congruent with previous calls to counseling psychologists to be oriented to social justice in their research and practice. However, even in the current emancipatory communitarian approach, an implicit upward mobility bias favors some vocations. To help understand how to better apply the emancipatory communitarian approach, a social class and classism framework is incorporated to explore how upward mobility bias distorts and ignores negative aspects of higher status and higher prestige jobs and does not recognize potential positive aspects of lower status and working-class jobs.

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Advancing Social Justice in Vocational Theory, Research, and Practice

The Counseling Psychologist ◽

10.1177/0011000004272722 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 33 (2) ◽

pp. 197-206 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Fred H. Borgen

Keyword(s):

Social Justice ◽

Counseling Psychology ◽

Vocational Psychology ◽

Development Theory ◽

Vocational Development ◽

Research And Practice ◽

Working Lives ◽

Vocational Theory ◽

Theory Research

David Blustein, Ellen Hawley McWhirter, and Justin Perry present a social justice agenda for action in vocational psychology in their article “An Emancipatory Communitarian Approach to Vocational Development Theory, Research, and Practice.” They build on robust work in counseling psychology over recent decades by using the critical work of Isaac Prilleltensky as a fulcrum for advancing this agenda. Much of their case effectively argues that we should move beyond tradition to improve the working lives of our clients. While their arguments are powerful, I suggest several ways to expand their discourse.

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Positioning Classism Within Counseling Psychology's Social Justice Agenda

The Counseling Psychologist ◽

10.1177/0011000007309861 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 36 (6) ◽

pp. 895-924 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Laura Smith

Keyword(s):

Social Justice ◽

Counseling Psychology ◽

Research And Practice ◽

Theory Research ◽

Deliberate Effort ◽

Counseling Psychologists

Counseling psychologists have been instrumental in advancing a social justice agenda within the larger field of psychology. What is still missing within this agenda, however, is a fully developed consideration of classism within the spectrum of oppressions more commonly addressed in discussions of social justice and multiculturalism. The operations of classism can be difficult to see in a society that has long considered itself to be classless, and for counseling psychologists to undertake this work, they must initiate a deliberate effort to develop their awareness of classism as it affects their theory, research, and practice. In support of this end, the author presents a social justice conceptualization of classism, provides examples of classism at work, and outlines the resulting implications for counseling psychology practice.

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Sex Positivity and Counseling Psychology: An Introduction to the Major Contribution

The Counseling Psychologist ◽

10.1177/0011000017710216 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 45 (4) ◽

pp. 470-486 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Theodore R. Burnes ◽

Anneliese A. Singh ◽

Ryan G. Witherspoon

Keyword(s):

Social Justice ◽

Clinical Practice ◽

Counseling Psychology ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

Psychology Programs ◽

Introductory Article ◽

Training And Supervision ◽

History Of ◽

And Training ◽

Counseling Psychologists

In this introduction article to the Major Contribution on sex positivity in counseling psychology, we define sex positivity and its intersections with counseling psychology’s framework of social justice, wellness, and resilience. We describe related foundational aspects of sex positivity that counseling psychologists may integrate into their research and training, theory, and practice. Following this introductory article, the authors of four subsequent manuscripts in this Major Contribution focus on (a) the history of sex positivity in counseling and psychology, (b) training and supervision related to sex positivity in counseling psychology programs, (c) research on sex positivity within counseling psychology, and (d) clinical practice implications of sex positivity in counseling psychology.

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An Emancipatory Communitarian Approach to Vocational Development Theory, Research, and Practice

The Counseling Psychologist ◽

10.1177/0011000004272268 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 33 (2) ◽

pp. 141-179 ◽

Cited By ~ 119

Author(s):

David L. Blustein ◽

Ellen Hawley McWhirter ◽

Justin C. Perry

Keyword(s):

Vocational Psychology ◽

Development Theory ◽

Future Research ◽

Vocational Development ◽

Psychological Practice ◽

Research And Practice ◽

The People ◽

Vocational Theory ◽

Psychology Theory ◽

Theory Research

Building on recent calls for a more explicit and intentional endorsement of social justice goals within counseling psychology and vocational psychology, this article proposes Prilleltensky’s (1997) emancipatory communitarian approach to psychological practice as a useful framework for vocational theory, practice, and research. Such a framework emphasizes the distinction between the concepts of work and career and illuminates the extent to which traditional vocational psychology has attended to the needs of the people who experience little, if any, volition in their choices of career or line of work. We present a rationale for integrating an emancipatory communitarian approach into vocational psychology theory and the implications of this approach for future research and practice.

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Counseling Psychologists and Social Justice

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e614692010-001 ◽

2010 ◽

Author(s):

Rebecca L. Toporek

Keyword(s):

Social Justice ◽

Counseling Psychologists

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Re-Imagining Social Mobility: The Role of Relationality, Social Class and Place in Qualitative Constructions of Mobility

Sociological Research Online ◽

10.1177/1360780420985127 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 136078042098512 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Louise Folkes

Keyword(s):

Social Class ◽

Working Class ◽

Social Mobility ◽

Educational Achievement ◽

Ethnographic Study ◽

Ontological Security ◽

Occupational Position ◽

Individual Level ◽

Key Techniques ◽

Class Community

Discussions around social mobility have increasingly gained traction in both political and academic circles in the last two decades. The current, established conceptualisation of social mobility reduces ‘success’ down to individual level of educational achievement, occupational position and income, focusing on the successful few who rise up and move out. For many in working-class communities, this discourse is undesirable or antithetical to everyday life. Drawing upon 13 interviews with 9 families collected as part of an ethnographic study, this article asks, ‘how were social (im)mobility narratives and notions of value constructed by residents of one working-class community?’ Its findings highlight how alternative narratives of social (im)mobility were constructed; emphasising the value of fixity, anchorage, and relationality. Three key techniques were used by participants when constructing social (im)mobility narratives: the born and bred narrative; distancing from education as a route to mobility; and the construction of a distinct working-class discourse of fulfilment. Participants highlighted the value of anchorage to place and kinship, where fulfilment results from finding ontological security. The findings demonstrate that residents of a working-class community constructed alternative social mobility narratives using a relational selfhood model that held local value. This article makes important contributions to the theorisation of social mobility in which it might be understood as a collective rather than individual endeavour, improving entire communities that seek ontological security instead of social class movement and dislocation.

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Deflecting Privilege: Class Identity and the Intergenerational Self

Sociology ◽

10.1177/0038038520982225 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 003803852098222

Author(s):

Sam Friedman ◽

Dave O’Brien ◽

Ian McDonald

Keyword(s):

Middle Class ◽

Working Class ◽

Lived Experience ◽

Long Range ◽

Upward Mobility ◽

Extended Family ◽

Class Identity ◽

Origin Stories ◽

Class Privilege ◽

Privileged Class

Why do people from privileged class backgrounds often misidentify their origins as working class? We address this question by drawing on 175 interviews with those working in professional and managerial occupations, 36 of whom are from middle-class backgrounds but identify as working class or long-range upwardly mobile. Our findings indicate that this misidentification is rooted in a self-understanding built on particular ‘origin stories’ which act to downplay interviewees’ own, fairly privileged, upbringings and instead forge affinities to working-class extended family histories. Yet while this ‘intergenerational self’ partially reflects the lived experience of multigenerational upward mobility, it also acts – we argue – as a means of deflecting and obscuring class privilege. By positioning themselves as ascending from humble origins, we show how these interviewees are able to tell an upward story of career success ‘against the odds’ that simultaneously casts their progression as unusually meritocratically legitimate while erasing the structural privileges that have shaped key moments in their trajectory.

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White Supremacy and Counseling Psychology: A Critical–Conceptual Framework

The Counseling Psychologist ◽

10.1177/0011000019880843 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 47 (4) ◽

pp. 478-529 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Patrick R. Grzanka ◽

Kirsten A. Gonzalez ◽

Lisa B. Spanierman

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Social Justice ◽

Counseling Psychology ◽

White Supremacy ◽

Theoretical Perspective ◽

The United States ◽

Helping Professions ◽

White Clients ◽

Racial Progress ◽

Counseling Psychologists

The mainstreaming of White nationalism in the United States and worldwide suggests an urgent need for counseling psychologists to take stock of what tools they have (and do not have) to combat White supremacy. We review the rise of social justice issues in the field of counseling psychology and allied helping professions and point to the limits of existing paradigms to address the challenge of White supremacy. We introduce transnationalism as an important theoretical perspective with which to conceptualize global racisms, and identify White racial affect, intersectionality, and allyship as three key domains of antiracist action research. Finally, we suggest three steps for sharpening counseling psychologists’ approaches to social justice: rejecting racial progress narratives, engaging in social justice-oriented practice with White clients, and centering White supremacy as a key problem for the field of counseling psychology and allied helping professions.

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Social Class and Code Elaboration in Oral Communication

Journal of Speech and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/jshr.1402.421 ◽

1971 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 421-427 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Millicent E. Poole ◽

T. W. Field

Keyword(s):

Social Class ◽

Middle Class ◽

Working Class ◽

Oral Communication ◽

Class Groups ◽

Parental Occupation ◽

The Social ◽

Linguistic Coding

The Bernstein thesis of elaborated and restricted coding orientation in oral communication was explored at an Australian tertiary institute. A working-class/middle-class dichotomy was established on the basis of parental occupation and education, and differences in overall coding orientation were found to be associated with social class. This study differed from others in the area in that the social class groups were contrasted in the totality of their coding orientation on the elaborated/restricted continuum, rather than on discrete indices of linguistic coding.

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