Stratification and Power

Il "decreto Salvini" (o "decreto sicurezza") ha portato in primo piano, nel dibattito politico e nel discorso pubblico, il tema della residenza. Fortemente voluto dall'attuale Ministro dell'interno, il d.l. ha, tra i suoi diversi scopi, quello di impedire l'iscrizione anagrafica alle persone richiedenti protezione internazionale. L'iniziativa governativa, che solleva forti dubbi di illegittimità costituzionale, ha da subito suscitato diverse reazioni, intellettuali e politiche, ed è stato contestato a livello giurisdizionale. Il contributo, partendo dall'attuale dibattito sul diritto alla residenza, intende affrontare argomenti che hanno a che fare con i significati e le funzioni di questo istituto. Muovendo da una prospettiva socio-giuridica e socio-politica, mira a indagare il tema del riconoscimento dell'appartenenza comunale «tra forma e sostanza»: analizzando cioè, da un lato, i contenuti, gli obiettivi e le poste in gioco della registrazione anagrafica e delle posizioni giuridiche che ne costituiscono il presupposto e mettendo in luce, dall'altro, gli ostacoli, legali e amministrativi, che governi centrali e autorità locali pongono al diritto alla residenza.

The issuing of the "Salvini decree" (or "Security decree) has made residency a political and public issue. Strongly wanted by the current Ministry of the Interior, the decree among its various purposes, aims to prevent asylum seekers from the enrolment to municipal registry offices. The initiative of the government, which raises huge doubts about its constitutional legitimacy, has immediately caused several intellectual and political reactions, and has been criticised at a jurisdictional level. The article, starting from the current debate on the right to residency, aspires to deal with the meanings and functions of this legal institution. Moving from a socio-legal and socio-political perspective, it aims to investigate the topic of the recognition of municipal membership "between form and substance", by analysing, on the one hand, the contents, purposes, and stakes of municipal registration and legal positions that are prerequisites for it and bringing to light, on the other hand, the legal and administrative obstacles that central governments and local authorities are putting against the right to residency.

The author argues that first-generation college students (FGS) have compounded challenges when they pursue graduate education. As a first-generation college student, he was not able to gather advice from family or his job supervisor, who had no experience with graduate school. Drawing from his experience and the existing FGS-related research, the author details practical advice for making a successful transition from college to graduate school. He concludes with a list of essential questions that prospective graduate students should ask themselves and their mentors when considering graduate study.

Although scholars of Somali Studies have engaged themselves in examining the Somali society from several perspectives, colonial and early Somali writers mainly observed the Somali people as homogenous, egalitarian and nomadic pastoral. Themes on multi-ethnicity, multiculturalism, and linguistic diversity were ignored as topics that sully the myth of the selfsame ideology colorfully embroidered in the official historiography. The notion also deluded pioneering Somali scholars from critically studying their people and analyzing colonial writing; at least not beyond the western scholars' knowledge boundary. Accordingly, the Horn of Africa was exemplified as a unique African nation where citizens enjoy equality and share an all-in-one identity: culturally, ethnically, historically, and linguistically. Contrary to that notion, though, the everyday social situation makes the primordial ideology of selfsameness unsustainable. To establish the evidence, this essay discusses about how the Bantu Jareer agrarian community, a section among the different groups of subalterns in the country, views its environment and social space within the boundary of deeply offensive segregation by an extremely suppressive Somali society.

Traducción al castellano de una entrevista a Pierre Bourdieu sobre su libro -no traducido al castellano- La Noblesse d'État (1989), realizada por su discípulo Loïc Wacquant. En ella aborda el problema de las clases dominantes y propone para su estudio el concepto de "campo del poder".

Edited version of published paper presented at 'Is Black and Red Dead?' Conference, Centre for the Study of Social and Global and Justice (CSSGJ) University of Nottingham, 7-8 September, 2009

https://socialhistoryportal.org/news/articles/110943

This paper investigates the role and characterics of first-functional specialists (i.e. priests, wizards, seers, augurs etc.) and their position in the „archaic“, that means pre-christian medieval Slavic society. The main goal here is to specify and sort out our data based on various medieval sources – and to do so in a perspective of dumézilian comparative mythology. Using Dumézil's trifunctional (or tripartite) hypothesis about archaic Indo-European idelogical classification of structures of various universes of meaning, this paper tries to specify emplacement of first-functional specialists in the grid of this reconstructed ideological system: In first place their assumed position in society of Western and Eastern Slavs respectively. One of the main goals of this article will be the implicit statement that Dumézilian perspective should not be taken as self-supporting explanation of religious phenomena, but primarily as a heuristic method of careful source reading.

Notes for Panel 16: Great Refusals: Refusing One Dimensionality Today

The Dialectics of Liberation in an Age of Neoliberal Capitalism
International Herbert Marcuse Society

Seventh Biennial Conference, 26-28 October 2017, York University

https://marcuseconference.wordpress.com/

This thesis is concerned with the social differentiation of class relationships. Changes in the structure of capitalism over the last century or so paved the way for larger corporations with complex bureaucratised divisions of labour. In addition, modern societies undergo continuing struggles over the «relative autonomy» of various fields – for instance, the extent to which cultural production – the arts, science, etc. – should be governed by political leads or subject to market forces, or be free to establish their specific «rules». All of these processes imply that class relationships become more complex and differentiated – in sharp opposition to expectations fostered by the writings of Marx.

The thesis addresses itself to the analysis of such differentiation of classes. Its principal approach lies in the application of the concepts of social space and forms of capital, drawn from the work of Pierre Bourdieu, to model and analyse the differentiation of the upper and middle class of Norway. In this, it operates in an intersection of the ideas of Bourdieu with the classical formulations of class in the Weberian and Marxian traditions – what I call European class theory

The thesis consists of three articles and an introduction. In two of the articles, I study classes defined with explicit reference to European class theory. The upper class refers to a category of broadly two types of class situations: those making their living off of some form of property ownership, and those making their living as high-level employees partaking in the control and management of corporations. By constructing what Bourdieu called a social space of these classes, internal differences in terms of their type and amount of capital are uncovered. The upper class is found to be principally differentiated by the volume of inherited capital – that is to say, resources pertaining to their social class background – and by the source of economic capital, opposing property-owners from employees.

The middle class is operationalised by using John H. Goldthorpe’s concept and categorisation of the service class – professional, administrative and managerial employees on higher and lower levels, distinguished from other employees by the amount of institutionalised trust placed on them by employers. The differentiation of the service class is investigated with reference to their political attitudes. The principal line of division in the service class is found to be by the form of capital they primarily possess – economic or cultural – and this correspond to some extent with their principal political division – socialist vs. laissez-faire
attitudes on economic issues. The secondary divide by the amount of capital the service class members have correspond to a division between liberal and anti-liberal attitudes.

These papers support a broadly Bourdieusian view of class differences, but connects it to the view that class divisions are based in the property and market relations of capitalist economies. In the third paper of the thesis, I shift attention to discuss recent contributions to «Bourdieusian class analysis». Several British authors have attempted to effect a serious reorientation of class analysis away from such an emphasis on production and markets and over to the distribution of capitals and the workings of fields. In the paper, I argue that, notwithstanding the power of the approaches these authors advocate, such a fundamental reorientation should be rejected. Instead, what is called for is a systematic connection of the «Bourdieusian» ideas with the fundamentals of class relationships.

The three papers are prefaced by a long introduction which presents the research question of the thesis; gives a thorough exposition of the theoretical perspectives informing the work; introduces the particular method and methodology applied in the quantitative papers; presents brief summaries of all three papers; and offers a concluding discussions which sums up the findings and also outlines the main theoretical implications and arguments raised by the work as a whole.

Abstract:

The aim of this article is to discuss changes observed in monumental architecture. As a point of departure we use our previous results and discussions on ceremonial temple structures (marae/ahu concept) in Polynesia. The visible variations of such structures recorded by archaeological research have generally been explained as temporal expressions. However, our research of marae/ahu structures suggests that this may not be the only or even chief explanation as to why these structures differ in appearance. Instead we suggest that changes and variability in the architecture can also be explained as resulting from the dynamics in social relations. We place importance on competition among “chiefs” on an individual level as well as collective decisions within the society concerning the variability of the importance placed on different gods. Our discussions of “place” are founded in reflections on traditional memory, which indicate that these structures through their constant changes are living places which played an active part in the society in which they existed.

Garland, C. (2014) ‘As Barriers Fall, Contingency Becomes Possibility: Protest Resisting and Escaping Containment and Categorization’, Part II Identity, Embodiment and Categorisation in Eds. Lamond, I. and Spracklen, K. 'Protests as Events: Politics, Activism and Leisure (London: Rowman & Littlefield International) Hardback ISBN/9781783480760 Paperback ISBN/978-1-78348-077-7 eBook ISBN/978-1-78348-078-4 

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781783480760

It is widely accepted that support for government intervention is highest among people in lower socioeconomic positions, during economic recessions and in less prosperous countries. However, the relationship between income inequality and attitudes toward government intervention is less clear. We contribute new insights to both questions by exploring how subjective household income, economic prosperity, and income inequality interact to influence attitudes. Using mixed-effects and country fixed-effects models fitted to data from 66 countries, we demonstrate that income inequality has a strong positive impact on attitudes toward government intervention in rich countries but no discernable effect in poor countries. Concomitantly, the impact of economic prosperity differs by level of inequality. It has little effect when income inequality is relatively low, a weakening effect as inequality rises, and no apparent effect when inequality is high. Consistent with these findings, the effect of subjective household income on attitudes toward government intervention is strongest in countries that are simultaneously very prosperous and highly unequal. Taken together, these findings suggest that if inequality continues to rise, especially in rich countries, public demand for social spending will eventually increase as well.

Starting from the System Justification Theory, the aim of this paper is to explore levels of general system legitimation, inequality perception and meritocracy perception among Croatian citizens, as well as to determine whether there is a difference between social groups of lower and higher social standing in this regard. Survey research on a sample of the Croatian general population (N = 353) revealed that on balance the respondents do not perceive the Croatian social system as legitimate, equal and meritocratic. Regression analyses showed that retired persons express a substantially higher level of system legitimation and meritocracy perception when compared to employed persons, while higher religiosity was also a significant predictor in this regard. When it comes to the inequality perception, only female gender was a significant predictor. The results are discussed within the framework of the contemporary theories of meritocracy and system legitimation, as well as with reference to specific social and economic characteristics of the Croa-tian society, such as the Croatian War of Independence, transition to capitalism, welfare state development and labour market situation. Overall, the study results provide only a partial confirmation of the System Justification Theory.

It is argued in this post that, to tackle inequality and destitution going forward, Brazil needs to go beyond the state-sponsored, yet ultimately commodified forms of social provisioning the PT implemented. Although a series of key policies did raise income in the bottom of the distribution, they failed to tackle top incomes or transform power structures, whilst sizeable stimuli were offered for the private sector to lead the provision of key services such as health, education and housing.

This article examines Charles Wright Mills’ sociological works and political thought : it shows how they provide the basis of a reflection on the social conditions of democratic conflict. First Mills’ work questions the impact of social stratification on democratic conflict. Second Mills’ approach of the notion of « mass society » puts emphasis on the way the decline of the autonomy of social orders contributes to a weakening of democratic conflict. Finally, we compare the way Mills and Pierre Bourdieu defend a « politics of truth » : such an analysis emphazises that the autonomy of social orders or social fields is a condition and a stake at once pivotal and ambivalent of democratic struggles.


Dans cet article, nous développons une réflexion sur le conflit en démocratie en nous appuyant sur une étude du parcours et des travaux de Charles Wright Mills. Comme celle de Pierre Bourdieu qui lui fait écho sur de nombreux points et avec laquelle nous l’entrecroisons, la démarche de Mills fournit les bases d’une réflexion sur les conditions sociales d’une authentique conflictualité démocratique, orientée vers une déconstruction de certaines formes de domination. Tout d’abord, le travail de Mills intègre un questionnement sur l’impact des formes de stratification sociale sur le développement des luttes sociales. Mills contribue ainsi à mettre en relief, dans le contexte américain, une interaction permanente des luttes de classe et des luttes statutaires et une certaine neutralisation des premières par les secondes. La mise en relief par Bourdieu de la prégnance, au sein des divers champs sociaux, des luttes de classement va dans le même sens. Ensuite, un retour sur la notion de « société de masse » chez Mills permet de mettre en relief la façon dont ce dernier voit dans le déclin de l’autonomie des ordres institutionnels un facteur d’étouffement de la conflictualité démocratique. Enfin, nous comparons la façon dont Mills et Bourdieu défendent, chacun à sa manière, une « politique de vérité ». L’analyse de la portée et des limites d’une telle politique nous amène à souligner en quoi l’autonomie des ordres institutionnels ou des champs sociaux est une condition et un enjeu à la fois structurant et foncièrement ambivalent de la conflictualité démocratique.

This paper proposes a methodology for using survey data to understand the composition of elites, through analysing the pool of potential members. An occupational-based measure of ‘potential power elite’ (PPE) is created and compared with other measures of occupational advantage. It is argued that this measure can be utilised to explore if the processes causing certain social groups to be under-represented in elite positions are around selection or the population recruited from. We provide analysis of elite positions in the UK and Sweden, demonstrating differences in terms of the potential pool of elite members and the occupational histories of people of those employed in roles associated with elite recruitment. We argue that understanding the composition of the PPE provides a more nuanced analysis of the processes of meritocracy in accessing positions of power and social influence.