About the Book
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.
Table of Contents:
Contents: Introduction: classed intersections: spaces, selves, knowledges, Yvette Taylor; Part I Class, the Self and the Space In-Between: Working capital: ownership and (some) means of production, Sue Parker; Is there such a thing as a working-class academic?, Paul Wakeling; Becoming 'somebody': examining class and gender through higher education, Sarah Evans; The significance of bonding capital: class, ethnicity, faith and British Muslim women's routes to university, Jody Mellor. Part II Mapping Class: Location, Distinction and Belonging: Asdatown: the intersections of classed places and identities, Ben Gidley and Alison Rooke; Betwixt and between: managing marginalised, classed identities, Emma Clavering; Making working-class neighbourhoods posh? Exploring the effects of gentrification strategies on working-class communities, Kirsteen Paton; Privileged locations? Sexuality, class and geography, Yvette Taylor. Part III Transformations and Intersections: Even poor gays travel: excluding low income gay men from understandings of gay tourism, Mark Casey; 'I wanted to be totally true to myself': class and the making of the sexual self, Elizabeth McDermott; Class and sexual intimacy: an everyday life perspective, Dana Wilson-Kovacs; Class and gender at the intersection: working-class women's dispositions towards employment and motherhood, Jo Armstrong; Index
About the Author :
Yvette Taylor is a Professor, Head of the Weeks Centre for Social and Policy Research at the London South Bank University, UK Yvette Taylor, Sue Parker, Paul Wakeling, Sarah Evans, Jody Mellor, Ben Gidley, Alison Rooke, Emma Clavering, Kirsteen Paton, Mark Casey, Elizabeth McDermott, Dana Wilson-Kovacs, Jo Armstrong.
Review :
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
