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Class, Race, and Postsecondary Destinations in New Global Circumstances

Lois Weis, Kristin Cipollone, and Heather Jenkins

in Class Warfare: Class, Race, and College Admissions in Top-Tier Secondary Schools

Here we take up three interrelated theoretical and empirical points, as follows: 1) Class formation in 21st century U.S., with specific focus on the power and complexities of race/ethnicity/national ... More

Here we take up three interrelated theoretical and empirical points, as follows: 1) Class formation in 21st century U.S., with specific focus on the power and complexities of race/ethnicity/national origin as linked to class, in what will arguably become a “new upper middle class” of the 21st century, one that is specifically linked to intensified struggle over particular kinds of postsecondary destinations; 2) The extent to which women's surge into highly valued postsecondary destinations within this class fraction portends altered roles and responsibilities for men and women of the new upper-middle class; and 3) The ways and extent to which this ties to the workings of the postsecondary sector of the future, particularly as linked to segmented pathways in a sector that itself is riddled by deepening stratification, linked inequalities, and division. We examine these points with specific focus on the extent to which student location at each stage in the structure of educational opportunities limits their possible locations at the next stage (Kerckhoff, 1995; 2001). We pay particular attention to the possible implications of this statement for both class structure, the fracturing of the middle class, and the workings of the postsecondary sector more broadly.Less

The Downwardly Mobile

Jessi Streib

in Privilege Lost: Who Leaves the Upper Middle Class and How They Fall

Downward mobility is common, but we know little about who falls from the upper-middle class, how, and why they don’t see it coming. This chapter provides an overview of how intergenerational downward ... More

Downward mobility is common, but we know little about who falls from the upper-middle class, how, and why they don’t see it coming. This chapter provides an overview of how intergenerational downward mobility occurs. It shows that both resources and identities are associated with downward mobility from the upper-middle class. Individuals who inherit relatively high levels of academic knowledge, institutional insights, and money tend to develop an identity that leads them to maintain high levels of these resources. They use these resources to reproduce their class position. Individuals who inherit relatively low levels of academic knowledge, institutional insights, or money tend to develop an identity that encourages them to maintain their resource weaknesses. Without the resources that schools, colleges, and professional workplaces reward, they tend to enter downwardly mobile trajectories. They do not necessarily anticipate their impending downward mobility as they observe times when they or their parents moved toward class reproduction while not having high levels of these resources.Less

The Fragmentation of the Middle Class in the Neoliberal Era

Andrés Solimano

in Economic Elites, Crises, and Democracy: Alternatives Beyond Neoliberal Capitalism

The chapter describes how the middle class has fragmented in half, with a striving successful segment consisting by professionals, financial experts, lawyers, and economists and a stagnating layer of ... More

The chapter describes how the middle class has fragmented in half, with a striving successful segment consisting by professionals, financial experts, lawyers, and economists and a stagnating layer of public-sector employees, entrepreneurs by necessity, and consumers. The chapter discusses income-based and occupation-based measures of the middle class and the extent to which the values of the middle class are similar (or different) from the rest of society. The chapter evaluates claims of the middle class as a source of consumer power, entrepreneurial traits, and social moderation showing that these claims have to be qualified; in particular, it is shown that the vision of the middle class as a staunch staleward of democracy is at odd with some historical episodes such as the rise of fascism in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s and the onset of authorian regimes in Latin America in the 1960s and 1970s all of which had a degree of middle class support. The chapter also examines the complex relationship between inequality, growth, and the middle class that defy simple associations common in the literature and note that a statistical rise of the middle class associated with economic growth may mask lack of social and political empowerment and indebtedness of the middle class segment trying to keep up with expensive education putlays and to emulate the more affluent life-styles of the rich induced by a consumer-oriented capitalist society.Less

The Rise of the Bombay Flat

Nikhil Rao

in House, but No Garden: Apartment Living in Bombay's Suburbs, 1898-1964

This chapter argues that apartment and flat living was pioneered in the suburbs of Dadar–Matunga. Contrary to the original vision of the Bombay City Improvement Trust, the Dadar–Matunga–Sion area ... More

This chapter argues that apartment and flat living was pioneered in the suburbs of Dadar–Matunga. Contrary to the original vision of the Bombay City Improvement Trust, the Dadar–Matunga–Sion area became an apartment-building suburb in response to pressures in the land market. Furthermore, these apartment buildings had not presented themselves as a ready-made option for suburban living. Rather, apartment buildings and single-family flats were produced in the Bombay setting as self-contained social spaces; and, of course, they were built around toilets, which were previously installed outside of dwellings. The toilet within the flat became the catalyst that linked the apartment form with the rise of a new upper-caste lower middle class. Such an arrangement afforded the residents an agreeable compromise between caste and class considerations.Less

“Ice-cream Sundays”: Food and the Liminal Spaces of Class in Pollyanna

Samantha Christensen

in Eleanor H. Porter's Pollyanna: A Children's Classic at 100

This chapter explores the link between food and class relations in Pollyanna to reveal the subtlety with which Eleanor Porter blurs the hierarchal divisions between rich and poor. It begins with the ... More

This chapter explores the link between food and class relations in Pollyanna to reveal the subtlety with which Eleanor Porter blurs the hierarchal divisions between rich and poor. It begins with the scene in which Nancy collects Pollyanna from the train. Intrigued by the impression that her aunt may be wealthy, Pollyanna asks, “Does Aunt Polly have ice-cream Sundays?” Pollyanna equates wealth with luxurious foods such as ice cream sundaes, and at this moment, food transcends its role as basic human sustenance and takes on a deeper social meaning. Pollyanna narrates the experiences of two classes—the upper middle class and the immigrant lower class—yet Pollyanna's ability to cross their boundaries by developing close relationships with both upper- and lower-class characters in the novel blurs the strict hierarchal divisions between rich and poor.Less

Introduction

Nikhil Rao

in House, but No Garden: Apartment Living in Bombay's Suburbs, 1898-1964

The introduction discusses the social implications of apartment living in Bombay from about 1918 to 1960. In a changing political and economic context, there came an increasing demand of housing and ... More

The introduction discusses the social implications of apartment living in Bombay from about 1918 to 1960. In a changing political and economic context, there came an increasing demand of housing and urban amenities, which led to the rise and proliferation of apartment buildings in Bombay—a feature that would shape the city in the years to come. This change also came in conjunction with the rise of the upper-caste lower middle class as well, as they assert themselves—not under the constraints of colonial rule, but as citizens with the power to demand services from the municipal state. Apartment living was indicative as well as symbolic of the changing social ethos that governed postcolonial Bombay—the expansion of an increasingly Indianized municipal power, the emergence of a new caste identity, and the general recalibration of caste that can accommodate institutions such as the cooperative society.Less

And the British?

Halidé Edib

in Inside India

The British represent the third element in the Indian melting-pot and have a greater say in India's destiny than the Muslims. What did England get in the way of a new spiritual outlook by their ... More

The British represent the third element in the Indian melting-pot and have a greater say in India's destiny than the Muslims. What did England get in the way of a new spiritual outlook by their contact with India's old civilizations? The British colonised India for purposes of economic expansion and have since shown more ability to use Hindu-Muslim differences to their advantage than the Muslims and Hindus themselves. However, the British do not rely solely on ‘divide and rule’. They have used every element which could be an asset, and those elements in their favour have profited from the British rule. These elements include the native rulers, who come first, followed by the upper middle-class and the big landowners. The last are vaguely called the liberals.Less

“Bandwagons Work Like Magic in Tourism.”

in We'll Always Have Paris: American Tourists in France since 1930

It was concluded that travel to Europe was especially popular among the college-educated because they were from a milieu where traveling to Europe gave them social status. Social scientists had been ... More

It was concluded that travel to Europe was especially popular among the college-educated because they were from a milieu where traveling to Europe gave them social status. Social scientists had been studying the links between consumption and class since 1890, when Thorstein Veblen came out with his acerbic analysis of the importance of “conspicuous consumption” in the lives of the very rich. In 1920, the sociologists Robert and Helen Lynd made much of it in their brilliant dissection of class differences in Muncie, Indiana. In 1950 and 1960, the number of these people with upper-middle-class incomes and lower-middle-brow tastes touring Europe increased exponentially. At first, they came by ship, taking advantage of the price competition induced by the steep rise in the number of steamships on the North Atlantic run.Less

The Art of Camping: Roughing It during the Decades before Automobiles

Terence Young

in Heading Out: A History of American Camping

This chapter explores the era of camping before the automobile came onto the scene. Camping persisted as a largely upper-middle-class and white activity during this time, but its popularity grew ... More

This chapter explores the era of camping before the automobile came onto the scene. Camping persisted as a largely upper-middle-class and white activity during this time, but its popularity grew rapidly as magazine accounts, how-to manuals, and guidebooks taught more urban people how and where to camp. The chapter features a few camping advocates, including Horace Kephart, a tortured soul who became America's best-known camping author during the twentieth century's first decades. It also follows two camping parties—historian Frederick Jackson Turner out with his family on a month-long canoe trip to Ontario's Lake Nipigon and the writer Mary Bradshaw Richards, who with her husband traveled from Massachusetts to the young but distant Yellowstone National Park.Less

Auden's Britten

Philip Brett

in Music and Sexuality in Britten: Selected Essays

This chapter inquires into the inspiration that propelled Britten to produce Peter Grimes, depicting the internalized oppression of an allegorical figure undoubtedly signifying “the homosexual,” at ... More

This chapter inquires into the inspiration that propelled Britten to produce Peter Grimes, depicting the internalized oppression of an allegorical figure undoubtedly signifying “the homosexual,” at least two decades prior to the commencement of liberation movements. The solution to the question lay in Britten's belonging to the upper-middle-class British Artists and intellectuals, dubbed the “Auden generation,” and his personal proximity to Auden himself. The twain met on the sets of John Grierson's documentary film unit. They first collaborated on the film Coal Face, but their most famous collaboration and most successful film was Night Mail. Earlier commentators on Britten who invested in the public/private binary were shy of reckoning the connection between the personal and political awakening of Britten, and their mutual synergy. Britten's collaboration with Auden proved to be the catalyst triggering this synergy.Less

Thomas Pollock: The Destroyer

David La Vere

in The Tuscarora War: Indians, Settlers, and the Fight for the Carolina Colonies

This chapter describes Thomas Pollock and William Brice as North Carolinians cut from the same bolt of cloth. Both were men on the make, always looking for opportunities to increase their wealth. ... More

This chapter describes Thomas Pollock and William Brice as North Carolinians cut from the same bolt of cloth. Both were men on the make, always looking for opportunities to increase their wealth. Only Pollock seemed much better at it than Brice. Thomas Pollock, named after his father, was born May 6, 1654, in Glasgow, Scotland, though the family was more associated with the little hamlet of Balgrey, a few miles northwest of Glasgow. Solidly upper middle class, the family had gained fame back around 1500 when a Pollock ancestor saved the Scottish king James IV from an attack by a wild boar. We know nothing of Pollock's mother, but he had an older brother, James, and two sisters, Margaret and Helen.Less

Introduction

Matthew P. Llewellyn and John Gleaves

in The Rise and Fall of Olympic Amateurism

This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to present a richly contextualized global history of the role of Olympic amateurism, from Coubertin's Olympic revival in 1894 through ... More

This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to present a richly contextualized global history of the role of Olympic amateurism, from Coubertin's Olympic revival in 1894 through the presidency of Juan Antonio Samaranch and the advent of open professionalism during the late 1980s and 1990s. The social origins of amateurism sprung to life not from ancient Greece, but from Victorian Britain, where an upper-middle-class desire to set themselves apart from the perceived morally corrupt working classes employed amateurism as a legitimating ideology for elitist sporting preserves. The participatory and universal growth of the Olympic Games in the ensuing decades precipitated the emergence of political and commercial forces within the Olympic arena. The encroachment of governments eager to exploit the games for propaganda rewards, as well as commercial interests seeking to peddle products stamped with Olympic insignia, sullied the avowed sanctity of Olympic amateurism.Less