Mike Savage and Social Class

Professor Mike Savage from London School of Economics and a former Sociology Department member of staff will give a talk about his new research on class on Monday 30 November 1.30-3.30pm in W/222.

Mikes talk entitled 'Social Class and the new cultural distinctions today' will draw on his latest book Social Class in the 21st Century and is being run by the European Centre for Cultural Exploration (ECCE) . 

Women talking about Class

On Wednesday 28th October between 3-5pm in W/243 Lena Sohl from Linköpings universitet will delivering a session for the Sociology Deparment Seminar Series.

Lena is presenting on her research where she has been interviewing middle and upper class women about class. See her abstract below: 

Dr Lena Sohl

”I don´t really like that question”. Interviewing middle class and upper class women about class

Studying elite groups is not a new phenomenon in sociology. However, there is a renewed interest in elite groups within sociology. For instance, Mike Savage (2015) want to “redress the neglect of elite studies within broader class analysis”. I use my interviews and participant observations of a group of middle- and upper class Swedish women to explore understandings of class in a Swedish context. Departing from the women’s understanding of themselves as “classless”, I argue that the women try to downplay their class privileges, in order not to have their class positions questioned. 

Any questions about the sociology department seminar series please contact: laurie.hanquinet@york.ac.uk

Dr Xiaodong Lin's New Book: Gender, Modernity and Male Migrant Workers in China: Becoming a 'Modern' Man

Examining Chinese male migrant workers’ identity formation, this book explores their experience of rural-urban migration and their status as an emerging sector of a dislocated urban working class. It seeks to understand issues of gender and class through the rural migrant men’s narratives within the context of China’s modernization, and provides an in-depth analysis of how these men make sense of their new lives in the rapidly modernizing, post-Mao China with its emphasis on progress and development. Further, this book uses the men’s own narratives to challenge the elite assumption that rural men’s low status is a result of their failure to adopt a modern urban identity and lifestyle. Drawing on interviews with 28 male rural migrants, Xiaodong Lin unpacks the gender politics of Chinese men and masculinities, and in turn contributes to a greater understanding of global masculinities in an international context.

Link to amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gender-Modernity-Migrant-Workers-China/dp/0415626579