"A gem of a book. Its topics are timely and provocative for cultural studies, sociology, English, literary theory, and education classes. The authors are brilliant thinkers and clear, penetrating writers." -Peter McLaren, UCLA, author of Capitalists and Conquerors: A Critical Pedagogy Against Empire Class in Culture demonstrates the power of moving beyond cultural politics to a deeper class critique of contemporary life. Making a persuasive case for class as the material logic of culture, the book is written in a double register of short critiques of life practices-from food and education to race, stem-cell research, and abortion-as well as sustained critiques of such theoretical discourses as ideology, consumption, globalization, and 9/11. Surpassing the orthodoxies of cultural studies, Class in Culture makes surprising connections among seemingly unrelated cultural events and practices and offers a groundbreaking and complex understanding of the contemporary world.

Drawing on the first systematic study of cultural capital in contemporary Britain, Culture, Class, Distinction examines the role played by culture in the relationships between class, gender and ethnicity. Its findings promise a major revaluation of the legacy of Pierre Bourdieu’s account of the relationships between class and culture.

Discussions of class make many Americans uncomfortable. This accessible book makes class visible in everyday life. Solely identifying political and economic inequalities between classes offers an incomplete picture of class dynamics in America, and may not connect with people's lived experiences. In Reading Classes, Barbara Jensen explores the anguish caused by class in our society, identifying classism—or anti–working class prejudice—as a central factor in the reproduction of inequality in America. Giving voice to the experiences and inner lives of working-class people, Jensen—a community and counseling psychologist—provides an in-depth, psychologically informed examination of how class in America is created and re-created through culture, with an emphasis on how working- and middle-class cultures differ and conflict. This book is unique in its claim that working-class cultures have positive qualities that serve to keep members within them, and that can haunt those who leave them behind. Through both autobiographical reflections on her dual citizenship in the working class and middle class and the life stories of students, clients, and relatives, Jensen brings into focus the clash between the realities of working-class life and middle-class expectations for working-class people. Focusing on education, she finds that at every point in their personal development and educational history, working-class children are misunderstood, ignored, or disrespected by middle-class teachers and administrators. Education, while often hailed as a way to "cross classes," brings with it its own set of conflicts and internal struggles. These problems can lead to a divided self, resulting in alienation and suffering for the upwardly mobile student. Jensen suggests how to increase awareness of the value of working-class cultures to a truly inclusive American society at personal, professional, and societal levels.

This book examines the concepts of equality, class, culture, work and leisure and explores their interrelationship through the discussion of some current problems, especially the problems posed for schools for the ‘culturally deprived.’ The debate about differential provision of schooling for different social groups is taken up through examination of the assumption that schools are middle-class institutions, and the claims and counter claims about the possibility of there being a common culture as the basis for a common curriculum in comprehensive schools. The concept of culture and, especially the meaning of working-class culture receives examination in this context as well as the thesis that any sub-culture constitutes an adequate or valid way of life.

This volume focuses on developing a theory of culture that reveals how ideas create and legitimize social inequality, using empirical case studies ranging from automobile design to architecture to compare and critique two of the most influential theories of culture in contemporary sociology. It questions to what extent our culture reflects class inequality, and to what extent our culture masks those inequalities through the sameness of unified mass culture.

First published in 1983 Which Way is Up presents a selection of Bob Connell’s writings on three key issues of modern social analysis- sex and gender, class and power, and culture. The essays range from psychoanalysis and contemporary feminism to the role theory, from the analysis of class and culture to the debate about intellectuals and the ‘new class’. In critically reviewing contemporary thought on these issues, the author has developed a perspective centred on the analysis of social practice. Easy to read, often witty, the essays represent an attempt to shift social theory into the real world of the late twentieth century, to go beyond the limits of orthodox sociology and radical dogmas, to think through theoretical questions without losing touch with practical politics. This is a must read for students and scholars of sociology.