“Oh! Iben's Here Now, So We Better Behave Properly”:The Production of Class as Morality in Research Encounters

This article is a study of how class is produced in research encounters as matters of morality. I engage various class perspectives, arguing that class today occurs in subtle ways, being lived as judgments and struggles around moral authorization. I draw on my experiences during six months of ethnographic fieldwork among ethnic Danish middle- and working-class parents when involved in their six-year-old children's start in the final preschool class. In light of my methodological problems with establishing trustful relations with the participants, I argue that I was being interpreted as a judge with a mandate to pass moral judgments on the parents. While this interpretation was common among the participants, they positioned themselves in three radically different ways towards the researcher and "judge": "eager to get a positive judgment," "in the same boat" and "refusing to get judged." This, I argue, reflects contours of class relations in contemporary, neoliberal societies. I also call for acknowledgment of how the power relations embedded in social, qualitative research are often matters of class. Further, I argue that in a broader methodological perspective, we also need to recognize and investigate the classed dimensions of social research to enhance our understanding of the processes involved in qualitative studies

Inequity in palliative care:class and active ageing when dying

The purpose of this article is to explore social inequity in palliative care in Denmark, a country that is seen as a stronghold of universal health care. Using data stemming from 2 years of research, we have selected two cases for analysis. They consist of palliative conversations with two quite different patients. Drawing on sociocultural class theory, we find that the conversations involve social exclusion processes due to discourses of active ageing. We find that one privileged patient performs in line with an entrepreneurial self and is supported by the nurse. The other, disadvantaged patient performs in a passive way, and the conversation mainly alleviates the disrespect he has experienced in healthcare encounters. We conclude that palliative care reinforces classifying practices and distinctions between “good” and “bad” patients, when active ageing becomes a dominant factor. We suggest improving the quality and sensitivity of medical training and call for increased reflexivity among professionals on the unequal situation of patients in order to reduce inequity in access to health care when close to death.</p

Class, Mothering and the Values of Food

Class, Mothering and the Values of Food:The data analysed in this empirical paper stems from ethnographic fieldwork among new school parents at three Danish primary schools. I draw on empirically grounded theories on the cultural and subjective dimensions of class, inspired by the ‘English School’ of poststructuralist informed, feminist scholars, to explore how class matters. Using the values ascribed to food at social arrangements as a lens, I explore different ways of doing class and mothering: through the exchange values of the food, through its use value and through its healthiness. I conclude by arguingthat food studies hold a huge potential for the development of empirically grounded theories on class in Scandinavian society, where class hitherto has been ascribed as a thing of the past

Marginalized citizens experiences of middle class moral judgements in communication with their GPs

The purpose of this article is to explore how two different versions of participatory theatre givemarginalized citizens living in disadvantaged areas an opposite basis for sharing experiences of being judged in communication with their GPs.The data were produced as part of a dialogic evaluation of two health communication interventions initiated by Region Zealand, Denmark. The purpose of both interventions was to invite citizens to participate in a dialogue on their experiences with their GPs, initiated through two versions of participatory theatre. The interventions were held in a range of disadvantaged areas. We used a variety of qualitative approaches such as participant observations, focus interviews and individual interviews in order to shed light on a) how the two versions of participatory theatre were developed and b) how the invitation to have a dialogue was experienced by the citizens.The analysis was conducted abductively, moving between the data production, existing research on  inequality in access to health care services and theories on social inequality and its moral implications.Theoretically, we employ Bernstein´s concept of framing, Skeggs´ points about class as a relation between moral judges and judged, and perspectives on healthism, risk and responsibilization.The analysis finds that the first version of participatory theatre frames the judge-judged relation as the problem, enabling the participating citizens to share experiences of being judged as morally inferior. The framing of the second version of participatory theatre however implies the judge-judged relation, whereby the participants feel that they are being judged. As a consequence, the participants dis-identify with the role of the patient in the second version and express resentment towards health institutions.We conclude by suggesting that framing is a central perspective when researchers and health professionals wish to initiate dialogue with marginalized citizens and that the class perspective presented here is fruitful in exploring experiences of social inequality in access to health care