Constructions of the ideal elite employee: A content analysis of job advertisements for positions in the Norwegian upper class

Previous research has shown that the upper class has a high degree of self-recruitment. Simultaneously, research on job recruitment suggests that there has been an increase in the importance of ‘soft skills’. This article investigates the connection between these two phenomena by looking at elite employers’ constructions of ‘the ideal employee’ and how this may contribute to class reproduction. By analysing 150 advertisement texts linked to positions in the upper class and fractions within it (the cultural, professional and economic upper classes), it explores which qualifications and characteristics are required. The analysis indicates that ‘soft skills’ play a substantial role in recruitment in all upper-class fractions, suggesting that ‘hard skills’ do not suffice to achieve an upper-class position. Indeed, the fact that many of the personal characteristics are linked to modes of being typical of an upper-class habitus makes it harder for people from lower in the class structure to match the description of the ‘ideal candidate’. Furthermore, this article finds the following three distinct employee types: the authoritative leader is idealized in the economic fraction, the dedicated worker in the professional fraction and the coaching leader in the cultural fraction. This article also points to examples of gender stereotyping that may function as contributing factors in reproducing occupational segregation.

‘Restoring friendship and confidence as far as possible between the inimical nations’: Post-World War I Berlin through English eyes

Three British women writers and their memoirs or letters serve as the key witnesses to rapid change from war-torn Berlin to a highly desired tourist destination. The war-induced transition of Berlin was matched by the social changes for women whose traces can be found in the three texts: the writer’s position changes from that of the voyeuse to the flâneuse. While the old aristocratic cosmopolitanism in Evelyn Blücher’s and Helen D’Abernon’s circles was on the wane, a more middle-class cosmopolitanism, as exemplified by the Bloomsbury psychoanalyst and translator Alix Strachey, became more important in the aftermath of World War I. The three writers share an interest in social observation, but all three are tied by their particular upper-middle- or upper-class habitus. An image of Berlin emerges which predates Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin myth by at least a decade.

Social Habitus in Childhood

The concept of habitus is central to the work of Pierre Bourdieu (b. 1930–d. 2002) the French sociologist, anthropologist, and philosopher. As with all of his work, it is a concept that operates interchangeably with others (especially capital and field), to raise questions about the impact of social structures on the practices and dispositions of individuals across diverse cultural and social contexts. Habitus is central to Bourdieu’s theory of practice—how patterns of power and inequality are reproduced through the practices that are embedded in everyday life. It is the habitus—the dispositions, ways of “doing” and “being,” thinking, talking, dressing, walking—the full compendium of our preferences, tastes, and desires that reflects our orientation in the world. Habitus is not explicitly “taught”; however, it is deeply embodied—a form of “knowing” that derives from the totality of immersion within a given cultural and social context. It is this ‘knowing’ that filters expectations, setting unarticulated boundaries or possibilities for future actions depending on the habitus in play. This is the power and impact of the habitus, and, with respect to social class (middle-class habitus/working-class habitus), clear patterns of advantage accrue to those whose habitus is most valued and recognized, that of the elites and middle class in society. This is especially evident, for example, in the field of education, which Bourdieu argued, embodies the middle-class habitus to the detriment of those from the working classes, who inevitably exit the system with lower rates of success. While Bourdieu was especially focused on dynamics related to social class stratification, the concept of habitus has been used widely in sociological studies. As a concept it is very applicable to childhood studies, providing an important frame of reference to analyze how diverse social structures influence the dispositions of children across different contexts. Further, as an action-oriented concept it aligns with the emphasis within childhood studies on children’s agency, providing a mechanism to explore how such agency is both enabled and /or constrained by the contexts within which children find themselves. As early childhood education and care takes increasing precedence, the concept has also been extended for use in relation to early childhood education and care settings. Typically, the concept of habitus focuses on issues related to language, literacy, and social class dynamics that influence children’s capacities to engage with their learning and education. However its flexibility as a concept—exactly as Bourdieu intended—ensures that it has been drawn on to explore the realities of children’s lives in their families, communities, and schools, including studies of children’s ethnic, gendered, and class relations; academic achievement; parenting practices; and leisure activities.

Symbolic Violence in Children’s Stories: Content Analysis in Bobo Magazine

The upper-class dominates various social spaces in society, including children’s stories. Children’s stories as a means of socializing values also participate in socializing upper-class habitus in the storyline. This study aims to describe the children’s habitus as narrated in short stories published in Bobo magazine. The method used in this study is the quantitative content analysis method and critical discourse analysis. This study’s object is about 174 short stories published in Bobo magazine from January 2019 to August 2020, of which 110 stories were taken randomly as samples. The results show that most of the children’s habitus narrated in the stories were upper-class children’s habitus, reaching out to 87 or 79.1% of all stories. Meanwhile, lower-class children’s habitus was found in 30.9% of all stories. The habitus of upper-class children featured in the story consisting of go on an excursion, luxury living, own electronic goods, own expensive good, wearing nightgowns, reading, and writing. On the other side, the habitus of lower-class children habitus featured in the story consisting of playing traditional games, living in poverty, and doing lower-class work. In conclusion, the upper-class children’s habitus appears more dominantly within short stories in Bobo magazine. This study’s results are expected as recommend to parties related to children’s stories publication to present more balanced stories.

Kekerasan Simbolik Dalam Pendidikan Islam Jenjang Ibtidaiyah Di Indonesia

Some textbooks still contain forms of violence. There is a type of violence that is latently perpetuated or reproduced as a habit of social and cultural structures which is called symbolic violence. In textbooks, how are forms of symbolic violence perpetuated or reproduced through language, namely in sentences and images. As a descriptive-analytic research library, the researcher tries to analyze the integrated thematic textbook 2013 curriculum for SD/MI which contains gender class distinctions between male and female classes. The distinction of gender classes in textbooks is then described and described by researchers and then analyzing sentences and images that contain symbolic violence. In the sentences in the textbook, there is a male class dominance, namely there are 62 sentences or 61.8% sentences while the female class is only 40 sentences or 39.2% sentences. In the picture, the male class dominates, namely there are 78 pictures or 65%, while the female class as the dominant class has 42 sentences or 35% pictures. The results showed that the male class dominates the female class in sentences and pictures. Male class domination is a form of socialization of the dominant class habitus to the dominated class. The socialization of the dominant class habitus is carried out in order so that the habits of social and cultural structures can be perpetuated or reproduced so that they are accepted as things that are justified and imitated. This in Pierre Bourdieu's language is said to be symbolic violence.

Analisis Kekerasan Simbolik dalam Buku Pelajaran Pendidikan Agama Islam di Sekolah Dasar

This research explains about symbolic violence in Islamic religious education books is rarely done. It also checks whether or not the books used so far contain symbolic violence, because there should be no difference in religious education between upper-class and lower-class. The formulation of the problems in this study are; how the mechanism of symbolic violence in Islamic religious education textbooks in elementary schools, and how the proportion of upper-class habitus and lower-class habitus in Islamic religious education textbooks in elementary schools. This research is a qualitative study with the type of literature study. The results showed that symbolic violence still occurred in elementary schools. The mechanism that runs is through an educational strategy by hiding the process of symbolic violence in the curriculum or what we know as the hidden curriculum. One of the media used to perpetrate violence is a textbook. In Islamic Religious Education textbooks for elementary school level), there is an element of upper-class domination over the lower class. The dominance of the upper-class over the lower-classes can be seen from the proportion of habitus presented in the textbook, the number of upper-class habitus presented through sentences and pictures illustrated is far greater than the lower-class habitus.