1st Edition

Classed Intersections Spaces, Selves, Knowledges

Edited By Yvette Taylor Copyright 2010
    272 Pages
    by Routledge

    272 Pages
    by Routledge

    Classed Intersections examines the salience, transformation and tension of class analysis at a crucial juncture in its return to and reinvention of sociological agendas. The contributors, including both established and emerging academics, examine class as produced through combined social, cultural and economic practices but are clear not to reify class over and above other paradigms; instead a number of key intersections are fore grounded including gender, ethnicity and sexuality. The collection draws on a variety of methodological positions, including in-depth interviews, ethnographies, and auto-biographical approaches. It scrutinizes classed intersections across a wide range of social spheres and practices, including education, the workplace, everyday life, citizenship struggles, consumption, the family and sexuality. Taken together, this volume will enhance efforts to establish 'new' working class studies both in the UK and around the world.

    Introduction Classed Intersections: Spaces, Selves, Knowledges, Yvette Taylor; Part I Class, the Self and the Space In-Between; Chapter 1 Working Capital: Ownership and (Some) Means of Production, Sue Parker; Chapter 2 Is There Such a Thing as a Working-Class Academic? 1 One might equally ask ‘is there such thing as the working-class?’ and emphasise any of the last three words of that question…but that is for another book!, Paul Wakeling; Chapter 3 Becoming ‘Somebody’: Examining Class and Gender Through Higher Education, Sarah Evans; Chapter 4 The Significance of Bonding Capital: Class, Ethnicity, Faith and British Muslim Women’s Routes to University 1 I would like to thank the participants in this research who were willing to discuss their experiences and aspirations. I would also like to thank the participants at the EURODIV conference, ‘Diversity in Cities: Cultural Diversity in Europe’, Rome, in September 2008, for the very useful discussion of the paper, as well as to Haleh Afshar, Stevi Jackson, Lisa Parmiani and Yvette Taylor who provided very helpful comments., Jody Mellor; Part II Mapping Class: Location, Distinction and Belonging; Chapter 5 Asdatown: The Intersections of Classed Places and Identities, Ben Gidley, Alison Rooke; Chapter 6 Betwixt and Between: Managing Marginalised Classed Identities, Emma Clavering; Chapter 7 Making Working-Class Neighbourhoods Posh? Exploring the Effects of Gentrification Strategies on Working-Class Communities, Kirsteen Paton; Chapter 8 Privileged Locations? Sexuality, Class and Geography, Yvette Taylor; Part III Transformations and Intersections; Chapter 9 Even Poor Gays Travel: Excluding Low Income Gay Men from Understandings of Gay Tourism, Mark Casey; Chapter 10 ‘I Wanted to be Totally True to Myself’: Class and the Making of the Sexual Self, Elizabeth McDermott; Chapter 11 Class and Sexual Intimacy: An Everyday Life Perspective, Dana Wilson-Kovacs; Chapter 12 Class and Gender at the Intersection: Working-Class Women’s Dispositions Towards Employment and Motherhood, Jo Armstrong;

    Biography

    Yvette Taylor is a Professor, Head of the Weeks Centre for Social and Policy Research at the London South Bank University, UK

    Award: Nominated to be honoured at the Geographical Perspectives on Women (GPOW) Book Event at the 2010 Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting 'This book makes a significant contribution to the new class studies. With a nuanced analysis, it invites us to recognize the complexity of contemporary social intersections, but with clarity and focus. There is a range of excellent new empirical and critical material. Its fresh approach to knowledge, space and action creates a welcome counterpoint to the casual vilification of working class people.' Sally R. Munt, University of Sussex, UK 'While class is enjoying a revival in sociological and geographical analysis, the intersectional politics of class remains under-studied and under-theorized. Classed Intersections contains vibrant, insightful essays that interrogate the gender and sexual politics of class in a wide range of empirical and theoretical contexts. Taylor’s interdisciplinary collection is vital reading for anyone concerned with the intersectional politics of working-class lives.' Jon Binnie, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK