The elephant in the room? Class and creative careers in British advertising agencies

2009 ◽  
Vol 62 (7) ◽  
pp. 1011-1039 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte McLeod ◽  
Stephanie O'Donohoe ◽  
Barbara Townley
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Life History ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Cultural Barriers ◽  
Advertising Agencies ◽  
Career Trajectories ◽  
The Social ◽  
Class Background

Advertising in Britain has traditionally been the preserve of a middle-class, public school and Oxbridge-educated workforce. Although this narrow recruitment base is recognized as problematic, the influence of social class on advertising careers remains largely unexplored. This article explores the career trajectories of British advertising creatives from different social class backgrounds and the forms of capital at their disposal. Drawing on life history interviews with creatives, we explore how they got started, got in and got on in advertising careers. In particular, we highlight how the `working-class' creatives struggled to overcome the economic, social and cultural barriers they face in entering the industry. We suggest, however, that once `in', the influence of their social class background was more subtle and less detrimental, due to the social capital they accumulated en route and the value of their distinctive brand of cultural capital.

God’s Guardrails

2021 ◽  
pp. 88-124
Author(s):  
Ilana M. Horwitz
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Risky Behaviors ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Class Background ◽  
Professional Class

This chapter explains why religious restraint operates differently based on teens’ social class background. It argues that what religion offers isn’t equally helpful to everyone. Working- and middle-class teens benefit from religious restraint because religion gives these kids access to social capital, which middle- and especially working-class kids can’t access elsewhere. Since boys are especially prone to getting caught up in risky behaviors that derail them from academic success, the social capital of religious communities creates crucial “godly” guardrails that help them stay on the path to college. The benefits of godly guardrails are not distributed evenly, because not everyone’s road to college looks the same. Professional-class kids don’t benefit from godly guardrails as much because they already have access to social capital through other social institutions.

Paradise Lost? Patterns and Precarity in Working-Class Academic Narratives

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-44
Author(s):  
Deborah M. Warnock
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Student Debt ◽  
Survivor Guilt ◽  
Class Culture ◽  
Class Background ◽  
Impostor Syndrome

Through an analysis of eight collections of autoethnographic essays written by working-class academics and published over the span of thirty-two years, I identify stable themes and emergent patterns in lived experiences. Some broad and stable themes include a sense of alienation, lack of cultural capital, encountering stereotypes and microaggressions, experiencing survivor guilt and the impostor syndrome, and struggling to pass in a middle-class culture that values ego and networking. Two new and troubling patterns are crippling amounts of student debt and the increased exploitation of adjunct labor. I emphasize the importance of considering social class background as a form of diversity in academia and urge continued research on the experiences of working-class academics.

Socio-cultural Resource for Kazakhstan Modernization

2012 ◽  
pp. 74-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Stavinskaya ◽  
E. Nikishina
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Competitive Advantages ◽  
Institutional Reforms ◽  
Cultural Resource ◽  
Bonding Social Capital ◽  
Social And Cultural Capital ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social And Economic Development ◽  
Cultural Features

The opportunities of the competitive advantages use of the social and cultural capital for pro-modernization institutional reforms in Kazakhstan are considered in the article. Based on a number of sociological surveys national-specific features of the cultural capital are marked, which can encourage the country's social and economic development: bonding social capital, propensity for taking executive positions (not ordinary), mobility and adaptability (characteristic for nomad cultures), high value of education. The analysis shows the resources of the productive use of these socio-cultural features.

Social Class and Code Elaboration in Oral Communication

1971 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 421-427 ◽  
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.

scholarly journals Shifting power dynamics in interviews with children: a minority ethnic, working-class researcher’s reflections

2021 ◽  
pp. 146879412110347
Author(s):  
Imane Kostet
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Ethics Committees ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Class Background ◽  
Minority Ethnic

This article aims to contribute to the literature on power dynamics and researchers’ positionality in qualitative research, by shedding light on the experiences of a minority ethnic researcher with a working-class background. Drawing on Bourdieusian concepts, it discusses how middle-class children confronted the researcher with language stigma and how they, while drawing boundaries vis-à-vis those who ‘lack’ cultural capital, (unintentionally) drew boundaries against the researcher herself. In turn, it illustrates how during interviews with working-class children, manners had to be adopted with which the researcher is no longer familiar. This article calls on ethics committees to more strongly consider how researchers might become ‘vulnerable’ themselves during fieldwork and to acknowledge intersectional experiences that potentially cause power dynamics to shift, even in research involving groups that are socially believed to have little power, such as children.

Social-Class Bias in Clinical Judgment and Recommendation for Treatment Using the Biographical Vignette Technique

1975 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leon J. Schofield ◽  
James D. Oakes
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Clinical Judgment ◽  
Mental Hospital ◽  
Emotional Problems ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
Class Bias ◽  
The Social ◽  
Psychotic Behavior

An autobiographical vignette technique was used with 14 mental hospital attendants and 14 college students rating the severity of emotional problems and recommending various forms of treatment for fictitious individuals. A social-class bias was observed; the lower-class individuals were seen as having a greater need for help than the middle-class individuals, particularly when both were given descriptions of psychotic behavior. However, the recommendation of treatment was not affected by the social class of the individuals. The results are not consistent with those of a recent study by Routh and King which showed middle-class individuals were rated as having a greater need for help than lower-class individuals using a similar vignette technique.

scholarly journals Social Class and Changes in Australian Women's Affect and Alcohol Consumption During COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Belinda Lunnay ◽  
Barbara Toson ◽  
Carlene Wilson ◽  
Emma R. Miller ◽  
Samantha Beth Meyer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Latent Class ◽  
Economic Capital ◽  
Consumption Patterns ◽  
Social Classes ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Time Points

Introduction: Before the pandemic, mid-life women in Australia were among the “heaviest” female alcohol consumers, giving rise to myriad preventable health risks. This paper uses an innovative model of social class within a sample of Australian women to describe changes in affective states and alcohol consumption patterns across two time points during COVID-19.Methods: Survey data were collected from Australian mid-life women (45–64 years) at two time points during COVID-19—May 2020 (N = 1,218) and July 2020 (N = 799). We used a multi-dimensional model for measuring social class across three domains—economic capital (income, property and assets), social capital (social contacts and occupational prestige of those known socially), and cultural capital (level of participation in various cultural activities). Latent class analysis allowed comparisons across social classes to changes in affective states and alcohol consumption patterns reported at the two time points using alcohol consumption patterns as measured by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test—Consumption (AUDIT-C) and its component items.Results: Seven social classes were constructed, characterized by variations in access to capital. Affective states during COVID-19 differed according to social class. Comparing between the survey time points, feeling fearful/anxious was higher in those with high economic and cultural capital and moderate social capital (“emerging affluent”). Increased depression was most prominent in the class characterized by the highest volumes of all forms of capital (“established affluent”). The social class characterized by the least capital (“working class”) reported increased prevalence of uncertainty, but less so for feeling fearful or anxious, or depressed. Women's alcohol consumption patterns changed across time during the pandemic. The “new middle” class—a group characterized by high social capital (but contacts with low prestige) and minimal economic capital—had increased AUDIT-C scores.Conclusion: Our data shows the pandemic impacted women's negative affective states, but not in uniform ways according to class. It may explain increases in alcohol consumption among women in the emerging affluent group who experienced increased feelings or fear and anxiety during the pandemic. This nuanced understanding of the vulnerabilities of sub-groups of women, in respect to negative affect and alcohol consumption can inform future pandemic policy responses designed to improve mental health and reduce the problematic use of alcohol. Designing pandemic responses segmented for specific audiences is also aided by our multi-dimensional analysis of social class, which uncovers intricate differences in affective states amongst sub-groups of mid-life women.

scholarly journals Brazilian new middle class stratagem: dialectics of consumption and renewal of the overexploitation of labor

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (88) ◽  
pp. 72-95
Author(s):  
Paulo Ricardo Zilio Abdala ◽  
Maria Ceci Misoczky
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Social Classes ◽  
Social Consensus ◽  
Class Theory ◽  
Stratification Theory ◽  
Theoretical Support ◽  
New Middle Class ◽  
The Social

Abstract The argument of this essay is that the ideia of emergence of a new Brazilian middle class was a stratagem adopted to create a positive agenda with transitory social consensus. In order to develop it, we return to the social class theory to discuss the stratification theory, which is the methodological and theoretical support of the so called new middle class. In addition to that, another possibility of analysis is presented, based on the theoretical propositions by Alvaro Vieira Pinto and Ruy Mauro Marini, two authors from the Brazilian social thought, articulating consumption, social classes, work and production as inseparable relationships, part of dependent capitalism contradictions. From these authors´ perspective, it was possible to understand that the expansion of consumption, basis for the new middle class stratagem, temporarily improved the living conditions of people at the expense of deepening the overexploitation of labor, reproducing the development of dependency.

Young Indonesian Musicians, Strategic Social Capital, Reflexivity, and Timing

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 186-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oki Rahadianto Sutopo ◽  
Steven Threadgold ◽  
Pam Nilan
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
The Social ◽  
Transition Experiences ◽  
Creative Career ◽  
Critical Moments

In this article, we draw on a study of the transition experiences of young Indonesian musicians to argue that the social capital of creative youth may be productively understood in relation to reflexivity and temporality. This is particularly important if they move to other locations to further their careers. In brief, we offer three key contributions to social capital debates. First, social capital—as defined by Bourdieu—is most important as a valuable form of capital to deal with both actual and anticipated Beckian risk. Second, in fields of creative struggle, the development of social capital is closely related to possession of strategy and reflexivity as a form of cultural capital. Third, social capital cannot be operationalized effectively by youth without the element of timing and the temporal capacity to reflexively recognize and seize opportunities as they arise at critical moments of a creative career.

“I Need Help!” Social Class and Children’s Help-Seeking in Elementary School

2011 ◽  
Vol 76 (6) ◽  
pp. 862-882 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica McCrory Calarco
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Social Reproduction ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Unequal Opportunities ◽  
Do So

What role do children play in education and stratification? Are they merely passive recipients of unequal opportunities that schools and parents create for them? Or do they actively shape their own opportunities? Through a longitudinal, ethnographic study of one socioeconomically diverse, public elementary school, I show that children’s social-class backgrounds affect when and how they seek help in the classroom. Compared to their working-class peers, middle-class children request more help from teachers and do so using different strategies. Rather than wait for assistance, they call out or approach teachers directly, even interrupting to make requests. In doing so, middle-class children receive more help from teachers, spend less time waiting, and are better able to complete assignments. By demonstrating these skills and strategies, middle-class children create their own advantages and contribute to inequalities in the classroom. These findings have implications for theories of cultural capital, stratification, and social reproduction.

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