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Created: March 7, 2002
Latest Update: March 8, 2002
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Class from the Perspective of Exclusion

Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individaul Authors, February 2002.
"Fair use" encouraged.

Date: Fri, 08 Mar 2002 13:04:21 +0100 From: Timothy Mason To: "Sue McPherson" Subject: Re: Class Rules Old Chap Cc: "Dr. Paul Stevenson" , "\"ROSENTHAL STEVEN\"" , , "\"Steve Winter\"" , "\"Stuart Shafer\"" , "\"CyberBrook\"" , , "\"Alan Spector\"" , "\"Lynda Fork\"" , "\"Levon Chorbajian\"" , "\"\"\"\"\"David Fasenfest\"\"\"\"\"" , "\"\"\"\"\"Richard Gibson\"\"\"\"\"" , , "\"\"\"\"\"Rebekah Ravenscroft-Scott\"\"\"\"\"" , , , "\"George Snedeker\"" , "\"Mark W. Weigand\"" , "\"David H. Kessel\"" , In-Reply-To: <007801c1c613$96912f20$9ef386d9@MYEMACHINE> References: <007801c1c613$96912f20$9ef386d9@MYEMACHINE> Message-Id: <20020308122835.F290.TMASON@club-internet.fr> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Becky! ver. 2.00.07 Precedence: bulk Sender: psn-owner@csf.colorado.edu If we look at Goldthorpe's classification, and the reasoning behind it, we get a firmer grasp on what Sue McPherson is saying. If we do so, we may consider taking it seriously rather than dismissing it out of hand. Goldthorpe puts university professors and company directors in the same overall category. He does so, he says, because : "... the shortcomings are more apparent than real. In the case of many of the occupational roles in question, employment status tends in fact to be rather ambiguous - as with company directors, 'working' proprietors, or managers with sizeable ownershop interests ... What Class I positions have in common is that they afford their incumbents incomes which are high, generally secure, and likely to rise steadily over their lifetimes, and that they are positions which typically invovle the exercise of authority, within a wide range of discretion, or at least ones which offer considerable autonomy and freedom from control by others." Now it is certainly true that this definition (which dates from 1980) overlooks vast and highly important differences in power and status. It nevertheless, it seems to me, points to some characteristics of relationships of class and authority, as they are lived, which cannot simply be dismissed as epiphenomenal : university professors do (or did) enjoy a high degree of autonomy, and have considerable leverage over the lives of others - wether it be of their students, of subordinate workers within the academy, or - through their earning-power and status - in their dealings with the world at large. Some of this is captured in Bourdieu's distinction between economic and cultural capital - and Sue McPherson might wish to have a look at his 'Homo Academicus', a work which others on this list might also profitably peruse. I do not think that Bourdieu succumbs to a form of idealism here, but that he recognizes the material nature of the production of knowledge. The power that the university professor does exercise - and there is a range here, just as there is a range of power and influence in the world of business, where the small entrepreneur or the shop-keeper or small-holder has to be compared with an international banker or Bill Gates - is real and real in its consequences. Sue McPherson implies - I'm not sure that she's come out and said it clearly - that many academics are incompetent, that they have achieved their position through nepotism or the old-school network. Whilst I think that this oversimplifies considerably - academics rise for any number of reasons, not all of them dishonorable, which may not, in themselves, fit them properly for the tasks overseeing research, or managing a department - it is the case that they use their power and influence in their own interests and that of their caste rather than for the general weal. But a full understanding of how and why this happens demands an analysis rooted in an understanding of how social class works. And - despite Sue McPherson's doubts, so does an understanding of *anyone's* sexuality. I suppose people who think of themselves as 'progressive' might argue over the relative weights of gender, ethnicity, class in the shaping of social behaviour - but I am truly puzzled at the idea that they might believe that they could do completely without the concept of social class. Best wishes Timothy Mason http://perso.club-internet.fr/tmason/

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