Changing Social Class Identities in Post-War Britain: Perspectives from Mass-Observation

The idea that class identities have waned in importance over recent decades is a staple feature of much contemporary social theory yet has not been systematically investigated using primary historical data. This paper re-uses qualitative data collected by Mass-Observation which asks about the social class identities of correspondents of its directives in two different points in time, 1948 and 1990. I show that there were significant changes in the way that class was narrated in these two periods. There is not simple decline of class identities, but rather a subtle reworking of the means by which class is articulated. In the earlier period Mass-Observers are ambivalent about class in ways which indicate the power of class as a form of ascriptive inscription. By 1990, Mass-Observers do not see class identities as the ascribed product of their birth and upbringing, but rather they elaborate a reflexive and individualised account of their mobility between class positions in ways which emphasise the continued importance of class identities. As well as being a contribution to debates on changing class identities, the paper highlights the value of the re-use of qualitative data as a means of examining patterns and processes of historical changeQualitative Data, Social Class, Identities

‘Educative leisure’ and the art museum

This paper argues that although museums have increasingly changed their mission to embrace ‘spectacular’ and ‘commercial’ goals in recent decades, their audiences resist this redefinition of the museum’s role. Based on a structural equation model derived from a survey of 1,900 visitors of the six main galleries of modern and contemporary art in Belgium, it shows that different kinds of visitors tend to share the same conceptualization of what museums signify, as a kind of ‘educative leisure’. They continue to differentiate museums from more commercial forms of leisure, and associate them with schooling and educational processes. We demonstrate that this appreciation of ‘educative leisure’ is shared by visitors from different socio-demographic backgrounds and is affected by other dimensions of the visitors’ profiles, such as the practice of creative activities or recent experiences of other art places (commercial galleries, fairs, contemporary art centers)

The fall and rise of class analysis in British sociology, 1950-2016

This paper considers the changing nature of class analysis in Britain, focusing on three generations, and with a particular interest in the reasons for the revival of class analysis in the past 15 years. I show how the ‘heroic’ approach to class in Britain, which was very strong between 1950 and 1975, depended on emphasising the role of the working class as agents of progressive social change. Whilst this was a powerful force during this period, it locked class analysis into a historical moment which was fast being eclipsed given the scale of de-industrialisation in Britain during this period. During 1975-2000 class analysis faded in Britain because the white, male, industrial working class seemed much less significant in shaping British society. The most recent period since 2000 has seen the remarkable revival of ‘cultural class analysis’, strongly associated with the influence of Pierre Bourdieu, and I sketch out its appeal, and its potential to enhance the study of class more broadly in the final part of this paper

The Great British Class Survey: calculating economic, social and cultural capital in order to analyse social class

The largest ever study of class in the UK, the Great British Class Survey, is set to release results next month. Mike Savage explains that the novel approach, which measures an individual’s resources in economic, social and cultural terms, provides a more accurate depiction of social class

The making of the Great British Class Survey and its essential capacity to communicate through digital modes

The Great British Class Survey was launched on 3 April 2013 and quickly became one of the most popular stories on the BBC website. Mike Savage gives his account of how the project was organised and reflects on whether this model has wider potential take up for social science research, or whether it is likely to be an idiosyncratic exception to normal patterns

Sociological dilemmas and the inequality agenda

The interdisciplinary study of inequality has exploded across the social sciences over the past five years. Indded inequality has become the defining issue of our times. Whether we are looking at the burgeoning fortunes of the super-rich and the rise of elite power, the inequities associated with migration flows, the growth of age divisions, the persistence of gender, the endemic worries about the decline of social mobility or the pervasiveness of racial divides, inequality is everywhere. Media representations on reality TV make this as clear as everyday social encounters or interaction on social media

LSE sociology at the forefront of the inequalities agenda

Personal Reflections by Mike Savage It hardly needs emphasis that rising inequality within and between nations is increasingly in the public eye. The success of protest movements such as Occupy has highlighted the distinctiveness of the top ‘one per cent’. The World Economic Forum recently identified income disparity as one of its principal risks to economic and political security in the twenty-first century. International nongovernmental organisations such as Oxfam have drawn attention to the cycles of advantage transmitted across generations through opportunity capture and unequal political representation that reinforce privilege. Think tanks such as the Young Foundation have championed an ‘inequalities agenda’ and ongoing concerns with entrenched social disadvantage and declining social mobility in the UK have all pushed this question to the forefront of public debate. This is an arena where the potential of academic research to cross-fertilise with such interests to produce a genuinely public social science is huge, as testified by the remarkable interest in the work of Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson, Thomas Piketty, Danny Dorling, Owen Jones, David Graeber and others

The old new politics of class

Mike Savage reflects on his inaugural lecture as Professor at the LSE, 20th November 2013 On November 20th I gave my inaugural lecture at the LSE and a podcast is now available here for anyone who is interested in my talk but wasn’t there. Thanks to all of you who came

Successful societies – “self, individualism and moral communities under neo-liberalism.”

Personal Reflections on Successful Societies meeting, London, January 30-31 2015 by Mike Savage. This blog reports on a fascinating seminar held at the end of January in London, part funded by my ESRC Professorial Fellowship. This seminar was an unusual opportunity to allow interchange between eminent European and North American social scientists to address the relationship between “Self, Individualism and Moral Communities under Neo-Liberalism.” The over-arching concern was to consider how profound neo-liberal restructuring has been associated with the remaking of personal identities and how we can thus better understand the links between change at the macro and micro level as they are occurring today

Are we seeing a new ‘inequality paradigm’ in social science?

Social scientists have long been concerned with inequality, yet the focus has often been on its theoretical and political aspects. This is now starting to change, writes Mike Savage. Thanks to research interventions by scholars, together with attempts to institutionalise cross-disciplinary work, the focus is shifting from normative debates and towards the more technical, empirical and historical problems of inequality