Social classes Books

Book SynopsisThis important book provides the first substantial analysis of white working class perspectives on multiculturalism and change in the UK, improving our understanding of this under-researched group and suggesting a new and progressive agenda for white working class communities.Trade Review"A very timely addition in the contemporary debate relating to the intersectionality of social class." - Journal of Social Policy“Unafraid of complicating the story rather than cutting corners, Beider digs around in the untidy spaces between the personal and the collective, and between antipathy and solidarity in this engaging and revealing exploration of white working-class responses to, and investments in multicultural Britain” Steve Garner, Open University“While racial conflict remains a very real problem, with significant effects on politics and policy, this book reminds us that racism transcends traditional class boundaries and focuses on the best source for understanding working-class culture – the lived experiences and the voices of working-class people.” Sherry Linkon, Georgetown University, USA"Harris Beider prioritises the voices of people in white, working-class communities – providing a rich and provocative analysis of ethnicity, class, power and representation. This book is a vital – and timely - resource for policy-makers." Julia Unwin, Chief Executive of the Joseph Rowntree FoundationTable of ContentsFrom hero to zero: the decline of the white working class; The birth of chav culture: stereotypes and exclusion; White working class and racist? An exploration; A reactionary voice: nuanced views on multiculturalism; Integrated and equal: similar challenges and opportunities; Reshaping white working class identities: inclusive and progressive; An agenda for change.

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Book SynopsisThis book, the second title in the Rethinking Community Development series, argues for the centrality of class analysis and its associated divisions of power to any discussion of the potential benefits of community development.Trade Review"quite simply a wonderful book about the challenge of rethinking what community development can become in the twenty-first Century...deserves to be read widely" Community Development Journal"although community work/development is no longer in the repertoire of most social workers, this book reminds us what the possibilities once were and perhaps could be again." Professional Social Work"This coherent and timely collection makes the convincing case for social class to be moved from the sidelines back to the centre of theory and practice in contemporary community development." Mick Carpenter, Emeritus Professor, University of Warwick"This wonderful new book is a welcomed contribution to the literature which relates community development to social class and public policy --- with special emphasis on inequalities in society." Barry Checkoway, University of Michigan, USATable of ContentsSeries editors’ preface; PART 1: Contested concepts of class, past and present; Class, inequality and community development: editorial introduction ~ Mae Shaw and Marjorie Mayo; Competing concepts of class: implications and applications for community development ~ Lorraine C. Minnite and Frances Fox Piven; Community development in the UK: whatever happened to class? A historical analysis ~ Gary Craig PART 2: Class, inequality and community development in context; Working-class communities and ecology: reframing environmental justice around the Ilva steel plant in Taranto (Apulia, Italy) ~ Stefania Barca and Emanuele Leonardi; Race, class and green jobs in low-income communities in the US: challenges for community development ~ Sekou Franklin; Community development practice in India: Interrogating caste and common sense ~ Mohd. Shahid and Manish K. Jha; The impact of gender, race and class on women’s political participation in post-apartheid South Africa: challenges for community development ~ Janine Hicks and Sithembiso Myeni; What happens when community organisers move into government? Recent experience in Bolivia ~ Mike Geddes; Community development: (un)fulfilled hopes for social equality in Poland ~ Anna Bilon, Ewa Kurantowicz and Monika Noworolnik-Mastalska; Rural–urban alliances for community development through land reform from below ~ María Elena Martínez-Torres and Frederico Daia Firmiano; PART 3: Reconnecting class and inequality through community development; Reconciling participation and power in international development: a case study ~ Kate Newman; Transformative education and community development: sharing learning to challenge inequality ~ Anindita Adhikari and Peter Taylor; Community development and class in the context of an East Asian productivist welfare regime ~ Kwok-kin Fung; Community organising for social change: the scope for class politics ~ Marilyn Taylor and Mandy Wilson; Concluding chapter: Community unionism: looking backwards, looking forwards ~ Marjorie Mayo and Pilgrim Tucker, with Mat Danaher.

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Book SynopsisThis book, the second title in the Rethinking Community Development series, argues for the centrality of class analysis and its associated divisions of power to any discussion of the potential benefits of community development.Trade Review"quite simply a wonderful book about the challenge of rethinking what community development can become in the twenty-first Century...deserves to be read widely" Community Development Journal"although community work/development is no longer in the repertoire of most social workers, this book reminds us what the possibilities once were and perhaps could be again." Professional Social Work"This coherent and timely collection makes the convincing case for social class to be moved from the sidelines back to the centre of theory and practice in contemporary community development." Mick Carpenter, Emeritus Professor, University of Warwick"This wonderful new book is a welcomed contribution to the literature which relates community development to social class and public policy --- with special emphasis on inequalities in society." Barry Checkoway, University of Michigan, USATable of ContentsSeries editors’ preface; PART 1: Contested concepts of class, past and present; Class, inequality and community development: editorial introduction ~ Mae Shaw and Marjorie Mayo; Competing concepts of class: implications and applications for community development ~ Lorraine C. Minnite and Frances Fox Piven; Community development in the UK: whatever happened to class? A historical analysis ~ Gary Craig PART 2: Class, inequality and community development in context; Working-class communities and ecology: reframing environmental justice around the Ilva steel plant in Taranto (Apulia, Italy) ~ Stefania Barca and Emanuele Leonardi; Race, class and green jobs in low-income communities in the US: challenges for community development ~ Sekou Franklin; Community development practice in India: Interrogating caste and common sense ~ Mohd. Shahid and Manish K. Jha; The impact of gender, race and class on women’s political participation in post-apartheid South Africa: challenges for community development ~ Janine Hicks and Sithembiso Myeni; What happens when community organisers move into government? Recent experience in Bolivia ~ Mike Geddes; Community development: (un)fulfilled hopes for social equality in Poland ~ Anna Bilon, Ewa Kurantowicz and Monika Noworolnik-Mastalska; Rural–urban alliances for community development through land reform from below ~ María Elena Martínez-Torres and Frederico Daia Firmiano; PART 3: Reconnecting class and inequality through community development; Reconciling participation and power in international development: a case study ~ Kate Newman; Transformative education and community development: sharing learning to challenge inequality ~ Anindita Adhikari and Peter Taylor; Community development and class in the context of an East Asian productivist welfare regime ~ Kwok-kin Fung; Community organising for social change: the scope for class politics ~ Marilyn Taylor and Mandy Wilson; Concluding chapter: Community unionism: looking backwards, looking forwards ~ Marjorie Mayo and Pilgrim Tucker, with Mat Danaher.

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Book SynopsisAs the population ages, this book reveals how divides that are apparent through childhood and working life change and are added to in later life.Trade Review“How do social divisions and differences determine the experience of ageing? Higgs and Gilleard’s unique perspective and intellectual rigour challenge preconceptions of how the social location of later life is constituted.” Kevin McKee, Dalarna University“Health and economic disparities among older adults are a critically important concern. This rich, multidisciplinary analysis provides an excellent overview of late-life inequalities and policy solutions for mitigating these inequities.” Deborah Carr, Boston UniversityTable of ContentsPreface; Social divisions and social differences; Social class and inequality in later life; Ageing and gender; Ethnicity, race and migration in later life; Disability and later life; Identity and intersectionality; Division, difference and division in later life

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Book SynopsisAs the population ages, this book reveals how divides that are apparent through childhood and working life change and are added to in later life.Trade Review“How do social divisions and differences determine the experience of ageing? Higgs and Gilleard’s unique perspective and intellectual rigour challenge preconceptions of how the social location of later life is constituted.” Kevin McKee, Dalarna University“Health and economic disparities among older adults are a critically important concern. This rich, multidisciplinary analysis provides an excellent overview of late-life inequalities and policy solutions for mitigating these inequities.” Deborah Carr, Boston UniversityTable of ContentsPreface; Social divisions and social differences; Social class and inequality in later life; Ageing and gender; Ethnicity, race and migration in later life; Disability and later life; Identity and intersectionality; Division, difference and division in later life

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Book SynopsisThis Separated Isle explores how concepts of Britishness' reveal an inclusive range of understandings about our national character. Featuring a diverse range of photographic portraits and narrative stories from across the UK, this landmark book examines the relationship between identity and nationhood, revealing the ties that bind us together.Table of ContentsForeword ~ Kit de Waal; Introduction; 1-40 Portraits of a Diverse Britain.

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Book SynopsisThis landmark book charts the rollercoaster history of both rich and poor, and the mechanisms that link them. Stewart Lansley examines the ideological rifts that have driven society back to the divisions of the past and asks why rich and poor citizens are still judged by very different standards.Trade Review“A resource that can help us make up our own minds about extremes of wealth and poverty, privilege and want, instead of being encouraged to ‘other’ welfare claimants and kid ourselves we share the interests of the profiteering one per cent. We should arm ourselves with it in all our anti-poverty struggles.” Cost of Living“The key takeaway of this excellent history is that poverty cannot be fought effectively, unless we also tackle the social and economic inequality that creates it.” Labour Hub“Crucially, the book extends our understanding of inequality by showing the clear, dependent relationship, between poverty and wealth creation. The book forces readers to confront, not just the reliance of the rich on the poor to make money, but also the long-standing and stubborn nature of this relationship in Britain”. Brave New Europe ”A vivid description of the fall and rise of poverty and inequality... impressive survey and analysis of 200 years of inequality." Journal of Social Policy “Important....passionate and thoroughly researched.” Political QuarterlyTable of ContentsIntroduction: Knighthoods for the rich, penalties for the poor Part 1: 1800-1939 1. Hierarchical discipline 2. Britain’s gilded age 3. Public penury and private ostentation 4. A roller-coaster ride Part 2: 1940-59 5. The future belongs to us 6. Britain’s ‘New Deal' 7. Brave new world 8. A shallow consensus Part 3: 1960-79 9. The rediscovery of poverty 10. Poorer under Labour 11. Consolidation or advance? 12. Peak equality Part 4: 1980-96 13. Don’t mention the 'p' word 14. Zapping Labour 15. The dark shadow of the Poor Law 16. The great widening 17. Money worship Part 5: 1997-2010 18. The elephant in the room 19. Still born to rule 20. I'm not Mother Teresa 21. The house of cards 22. The good, the bad and the ugly Part 6: 2011-20 23. Divide and rule: playing politics with poverty 24. A leaner state 25. Burning injustice 26. Growing rich in their sleep 27. The high-inequality, high-poverty cycle Afterword: COVID-19 and 'the polo season'

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Book SynopsisIn Makers of Democracy A. Ricardo López-Pedreros traces the ways in which a thriving middle class was understood to be a foundational marker of democracy in Colombia during the second half of the twentieth century. Drawing on a wide array of sources ranging from training manuals and oral histories to school and business archives, López-Pedreros shows how the Colombian middle class created a model of democracy based on free-market ideologies, private property rights, material inequality, and an emphasis on a masculine work culture. This model, which naturalized class and gender hierarchies, provided the groundwork for Colombia''s later adoption of neoliberalism and inspired the emergence of alternate models of democracy and social hierarchies in the 1960s and 1970s that helped foment political radicalization. By highlighting the contested relationships between class, gender, economics, and politics, López-Pedreros theorizes democracy as a historically unTrade Review"This historicization of the relationship between middle classness and democracy enables the author to deliver a potent critique of prevailing narratives of Latin America as undemocratic, while reimagining the way we think about democracy itself." -- B. A. Lucero * Choice *"[Makers of Democracy] is [a] must-read book for those who want to understand how power relations were configured in the third quarter of the 20th century in Colombia. It makes us question something that is sacred to most of us: democracy. After its thorough historization, [this book] exposes the contradictions of democracy… it finishes with a rather dark and challenging vision of what democracy means." (Translated from Spanish) -- Catalina Muñoz Rojas * Historia Critica *"On the one hand, this books rescues from historical oblivion not only the existence of the middle classes but also their importance. It discusses the middle classes and their connection —for better or for worse— with democracy and development… On the other, it highlights the active role in which the middle classes…radicalized themselves against the [developmentalist] imperatives coming from a Global capitalist north. In this way, we find a new reading of the 'invention of development' … during the 1960s and 1970s. At the core of this historiographical originality, [this book] also proposes a methodological approach that highlights the discourses and practices that shaped certain men and women and their efforts to be part of a middle class in Bogotá. We hope this book will soon be translated into Spanish, so that more readers can get familiarized with these transnational stories, uncommon methodological approaches in [Colombian] historiography." (Translated from Spanish) -- Mauricio Archila Neira * Anuario Colombiano de Historia Social y de la Cultura *“In Makers of Democracy, A. Ricardo López-Pedreros offers a multidimensional approach to the disputed processes through which particular social actors came to represent the middle classes and the promises of democracy…. This book is a key contribution to the contemporary history of the middle classes, democracy, and processes of political polarization.” -- Ingrid Bolivar * Hispanic American Historical Review *“Makers of Democracy is an important contribution to twentieth-century Colombian and Latin American history. For specialists of Colombia, it offers a novel interpretation of the conflicts of the 1960s and 1970s, including the role of gender in class formation and political struggle. It will also appeal to a broader audience interested in histories of democracy, class, gender, and US empire in Latin America and the global South.” -- Laura Correa Ochoa * H-Nationalism, H-Net Reviews *Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction. "There Is No Other Class in Democracy" 1 Part I. Conscripts of Democracy: The Alliance for Progress, Development, and the (Re)Formation of a Gendered Middle Class, 1958–1965 1. A Bastard Middle Class 21 2. An Irresistible Democracy 42 3. The Productive Wealth of This Country 62 4. Beyond Capital and Labor 86 Part II. Contested Democracies: Classed Subjectivities, Social Movements, and Gendered Petit Bourgeois Radicalization, 1960s–1970s 5. In the Middle of the Mess 109 6. A Revolution for a Democratic Middle-Class Society 139 7. A Real Revolution, a Real Democracy 172 8. Democracy: The Most Important Gift to the World 225 Epilogue. A Class that Does (Not) Matter: Democracy beyond Democracy 255 Appendix 263 Notes 271 Bibliography 303 Index 333

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Book SynopsisA. Ricardo López-Pedreros traces the ways in which a thriving middle class was understood to be a foundational marker of democracy in Colombia in the second half of the twentieth century, showing democracy to be a historically unstable and contentious practice.Trade Review"This historicization of the relationship between middle classness and democracy enables the author to deliver a potent critique of prevailing narratives of Latin America as undemocratic, while reimagining the way we think about democracy itself." -- B. A. Lucero * Choice *"[Makers of Democracy] is [a] must-read book for those who want to understand how power relations were configured in the third quarter of the 20th century in Colombia. It makes us question something that is sacred to most of us: democracy. After its thorough historization, [this book] exposes the contradictions of democracy… it finishes with a rather dark and challenging vision of what democracy means." (Translated from Spanish) -- Catalina Muñoz Rojas * Historia Critica *"On the one hand, this books rescues from historical oblivion not only the existence of the middle classes but also their importance. It discusses the middle classes and their connection —for better or for worse— with democracy and development… On the other, it highlights the active role in which the middle classes…radicalized themselves against the [developmentalist] imperatives coming from a Global capitalist north. In this way, we find a new reading of the 'invention of development' … during the 1960s and 1970s. At the core of this historiographical originality, [this book] also proposes a methodological approach that highlights the discourses and practices that shaped certain men and women and their efforts to be part of a middle class in Bogotá. We hope this book will soon be translated into Spanish, so that more readers can get familiarized with these transnational stories, uncommon methodological approaches in [Colombian] historiography." (Translated from Spanish) -- Mauricio Archila Neira * Anuario Colombiano de Historia Social y de la Cultura *“In Makers of Democracy, A. Ricardo López-Pedreros offers a multidimensional approach to the disputed processes through which particular social actors came to represent the middle classes and the promises of democracy…. This book is a key contribution to the contemporary history of the middle classes, democracy, and processes of political polarization.” -- Ingrid Bolivar * Hispanic American Historical Review *“Makers of Democracy is an important contribution to twentieth-century Colombian and Latin American history. For specialists of Colombia, it offers a novel interpretation of the conflicts of the 1960s and 1970s, including the role of gender in class formation and political struggle. It will also appeal to a broader audience interested in histories of democracy, class, gender, and US empire in Latin America and the global South.” -- Laura Correa Ochoa * H-Nationalism, H-Net Reviews *Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction. "There Is No Other Class in Democracy" 1 Part I. Conscripts of Democracy: The Alliance for Progress, Development, and the (Re)Formation of a Gendered Middle Class, 1958–1965 1. A Bastard Middle Class 21 2. An Irresistible Democracy 42 3. The Productive Wealth of This Country 62 4. Beyond Capital and Labor 86 Part II. Contested Democracies: Classed Subjectivities, Social Movements, and Gendered Petit Bourgeois Radicalization, 1960s–1970s 5. In the Middle of the Mess 109 6. A Revolution for a Democratic Middle-Class Society 139 7. A Real Revolution, a Real Democracy 172 8. Democracy: The Most Important Gift to the World 225 Epilogue. A Class that Does (Not) Matter: Democracy beyond Democracy 255 Appendix 263 Notes 271 Bibliography 303 Index 333

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Book SynopsisMatt Brim shifts queer studies away from sites of elite education toward poor and working-class students and locations, showing how the field is driven by those flagship institutions that perpetuate class and race inequity in higher education.Trade Review“Through his ethnographic accounts of the lives of his students, Matt Brim charts out in startling detail how queer studies produces class inequity. Having all the makings of a classic in queer studies and pedagogy studies, his book should be required reading in every intro to queer studies course at the undergraduate and graduate level. The field has needed Poor Queer Studies for a long time.” -- E. Patrick Johnson, author of * Honeypot: Black Southern Women Who Love Women *“Matt Brim's stunning Poor Queer Studies forces us to look at higher education through the lens of inequality to consider the ramifications of what he calls the ‘overrepresentation of affluence’ within academe. He assesses the ways faculty in programs dedicated to race, gender, and sexuality are marginalized, overworked, and undercompensated, then flips the equation to examine inequalities within and across these fields. Whether amassing demographic data or offering beautiful and challenging readings of key texts, Brim is relentlessly on target. His sweep and depth are breathtaking.” -- Cathy N. Davidson, author of * The New Education: How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux *"A damning critique of the impact of academic elitism on poor and working-class students. . . . Poor Queer Studies lays bare the structural and disciplinary mechanism of inequality, from overcrowded classrooms and inadequate educational resources to more basic deficiencies of the underprivileged such as homelessness, lack of access to food, healthcare, and childcare, and more." -- Donald Padgett * The Advocate *"Provocative and timely. . . . Poor Queer Studies will be valuable reading if you work at any institution of higher education—poor or rich; public or private; urban or rural; elitist or not—because it offers indispensable tools for navigating the crises of the academy. Brim challenges readers to imagine what a queer-class analysis might yield not just for their own scholarship and teaching, but for the lives of their students and the worlds they inhabit." -- Nino Testa * Women's Review of Books *"This is a huge theoretical, methodological and political contribution to Queer Studies and in particular, Queer Pedagogies. Finishing this book leaves an uncomfortable doubt about how much and for whom are we allegedly queering academy and universities." -- Luan C. B. Cassal * Ethnic and Racial Studies *"Any professional concerned with equity in higher education would do well to read this analysis of the stultifying inattention to the lives of poor and working-class LGBTQ individuals within the field of queer studies. . . . This is not a guide for instruction (i.e., there is no recommended curriculum or a listing of suggested texts), but rather a powerful examination of the field of queer studies and, more broadly, of its place within the context of efforts to make higher education more inclusive and welcoming to all seeking its benefits. Highly recommended. Faculty and professionals." -- H. M. Miller * Choice *"Ostensibly a book about the discipline of queer studies, it actually provides a searing, astute indictment of what's wrong with the academy writ large. If you read only one book about the state of the academy, it ought to be Poor Queer Studies." -- Rhea Rollmann * Popmatters *“Brim provides thorough, detailed, researched explanations of the arguments regarding just what Poor Queer Studies is and what it aims to do…. Poor Queer Studies is a much-needed resource to challenge us all to think about how we engage in Queer Studies, Queer Theory, and Queer Pedagogy across class and race. It is especially timely given where we find ourselves as a country with respect to issues and discussions of race and class as well as discussions regarding the importance of higher education.” -- R. Bradley Johnson, et al * Teachers College Record *“This is a compassionate book, a book written by someone who possesses enough humility to learn from his poor and working-class students, particularly those of color, and to put that learning at the center of a book that is ironically—as he points out himself—published by a high-end university press.” -- Renny Christopher * Journal of Working-Class Studies *"Poor Queer Studies offers nothing short of a proposal for a radically inclusive queer pedagogy." -- Velina Manolova * Public Books *“Where Poor Queer Studies offers field-upending provocations, its author comes across as modest and pragmatic, evincing an admirable solidarity in his insistence on the significance of his students’ experiences and his colleagues’ contributions.... It should be assigned in every proseminar on college teaching.” -- Kim Emery * GLQ *"[Brim's] reflections on the frustrations and joys of teaching queer studies classes to poor and working-class students at the chronically underfunded CSI are heartfelt and enraging. . . . The book is at its best when chronicling the many obstacles facing CSI’s students, many of whom live at home with parents and siblings, have children of their own, and more-likely-than-not hold down full-time jobs while enrolled." -- Eleanor J. Bader * The Indypendent *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Queer Dinners 1 1. The College of Staten Island: A Poor Queer Studies Case Study 29 2. "You Can Write Your Way Out of Anywhere": The Upward Mobility Myth of Rich Queer Studies 64 3. The Queer Career: Vocational Queer Studies 99 4. Poor Queer Studies Mothers 135 5. Counternarratives: A Black Queer Reader 159 Epilogue. Queer Ferrying 194 Notes 203 Bibliography 225 Index 241

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Book SynopsisWinner, 2024 Bourdieu Best Book Award, given by the Sociology of Education Section of the American Sociological AssociationHonorable Mention, Outstanding Scholarly Contribution Award, given by the Children and Youth Section of the American Sociological AssociationAn inside look at the racial and class divides between Head Start and private pre-K classrooms for children and their familiesThe benefits of preschool have been part of our national conversation since the 1960s, when Head Start, a publicly funded preschool program for low-income children, began. In the past two decades, forty-four states have expanded access to preschool, often citing preschool as an anti-poverty policy. Yet, as Casey Stockstill shows, two-thirds of American preschools are segregatedconcentrating primarily poor children of color or affluent white children in separate schools. Stockstill argues that, as a result, segregated preschools entrench ratheTrade Review"Casey Stockstill’s False Starts exposes how racial inequality in the US begins in preschool. This is a thorough account of the history... [and] an enlightening study of the promises and obstacles of US preschools." * Foreword Reviews *"This is a compelling study of two preschools in Madison, Wisconsin, one 95 percent white students and the other 95 percent students of color. Adeptly illustrating that the segregation of students reflects and reinforces structural inequalities of racial and class divides, sociologist Casey Stockstill provides antidotes to decrease these inequalities as we seek to expand access." * Ms. Magazine *"Crisp storytelling and keen analysis... The brilliance of Stockstill’s work is in how she brings readers down from the abstract to nitty-gritty reality. Whether you are a child care veteran or new to the issue, you’ll walk away from False Starts buzzing with thoughts." -- Elliot Haspel * Early Learning Nation *"False Starts is an absolutely fantastic book. Beautifully written. Exceptionally researched. Accessible to a broad audience. Casey Stockstill has made daycare a necessary part of the conversation for cultural sociologists and the sociology of education." * Shamus Rahman Khan, author of Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul’s School *"In this searing account, Stockstill shows how class and race inequalities are baked into children’s experience of preschool, shaping the lessons they learn about insecurity, property and privilege. False Starts documents that preschools are more than just places where individual kids get what they need, but instead complex sites of group socialization." * Allison J. Pugh, author of Longing and Belonging: Parents, Children and Consumer Culture *"When we think of segregated schooling, preschools are rarely top-of-mind; and yet, early childhood education is, for most children, the most racially and socioeconomically segregated schooling context they will encounter at any point in their lives. This is a must-read book for anyone who wants to understand both the necessity of universal, high-quality preschool and the challenges of getting it right. " * Jessica McCrory Calarco, author of Negotiating Opportunities: How the Middle Class Secures Advantages in School *"Stockstill convincingly and painfully illustrates how young children’s lives are structured in unequal ways from the very start. False Starts is a much-needed and excellent addition to existing research on racism and poverty in the lives of kids and is a must-read for anyone engaged in current debates about childhood socialization, social learning, child care, and universal preschool." * Margaret A. Hagerman, author of White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America *"Stockstill’s meticulous work reveals how concentrated poverty affects the distribution of time and resources in the classroom, limiting students’ opportunity to learn in important ways.” Highly recommended. " * Maia Cucchiara, author of Marketing Schools, Marketing Cities: Who Wins and Who Loses When Schools Become Urban Amenities *

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Book SynopsisIn a world that requires knowledge and wisdom to address developing crises around us, The Gatherings shows how Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples can come together to create meaningful and lasting relationships.Thirty years ago, in Wabanaki territory – a region encompassing the state of Maine and the Canadian Maritimes – a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals came together to explore some of the most pressing questions at the heart of Truth and Healing efforts in the United States and Canada. Meeting over several years in long-weekend gatherings, in a Wabanaki-led traditional Council format, assumptions were challenged, perspectives upended, and stereotypes shattered. Alliances and friendships were formed that endure to this day.The Gatherings tells the moving story of these meetings in the words of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants. Reuniting to reflect on how their lives were changed by their experiences Trade Review"The Gatherings is an unusual book in the powerful authenticity of feeling it expresses." -- Dana White * OFF RADAR, centralmaine.com *"The Gatherings: Reimaging Indigenous-Settler Relations offers eye-opening information that is beautifully tied together with thought-provoking and insightful stories from individuals who have initiated the work that needs to be done to end the fragile relationships between Indigenous peoples and settlers." -- Carly Smith * Cloud Lake Literary *"Calling themselves collectively 'Mawopiyane,' a Passamaquoddy word meaning 'let us sit together,' they spent several years piecing together this simply framed, but profoundly encouraging book." -- Dana Wilde, National Book Critics Circle * The Working Waterfront *"The Gatherings: Reimaging Indigenous-Settler Relations offers eye-opening information that is beautifully tied together with thought-provoking and insightful stories from individuals who have initiated the work that needs to be done to end the fragile relationships between Indigenous peoples and settlers." -- Carly Smith * Cloud Lake Literary *"The authors share the insights they have gained on how Natives and non-Natives can work well together by acknowledging First Peoples, honoring agreements, understanding their worldviews, and being in conversation with one another." -- David Etheridge * Friends Journal *Table of ContentsForeword With Gratitude Notes on Terminology Introduction Gathering The Talking Circle Miigam’agan Wayne Gwen Dana Alma Barb gkisedtanamoogk Shirley H. Debbie Shirley B. Wesley Marilyn Betty JoAnn The Last Gathering The Decision Hindsight The Gatherings: May 1987 to May 1993 Creating This Book The Giveaway Blanket The Circle and Ceremony The Circle and Decision Making Ceremony: Protect or Share It? Allies, Friends, Family Beginnings The Women Compare Notes The Relationship Evolves Mutuality How We Got Here The Doctrine of Discovery But What about the Treaties? The Personal Is Political Economic Self-Determination Beginning to Make Amends Some Progress ... and a Long Way to Go How It Could Be Different Being Here Legitimately Acknowledging First Peoples/Honoring the Treaties An Indigenous Worldview The Need for Gathering Spaces Creating a Gathering Space Working Together on a Cause Humility versus “White Guilt” Non-Natives Working with Our Own People Entering the Longhouse Being in the Relationship: An Afterword by Dr. Frances Hancock Appendix: How This Book Came to Be Notes Suggested Resources Contributors Map: Location of the Gatherings Reader’s Guide Index

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Book SynopsisExplores the impact of neoliberalism and welfare reform on depictions of poverty. Sarah Robertson examines representations of southern poor whites across various types of literature, including travel writing, photo-narratives, life-writing, and eco-literature, and reveals a common interest in communitarianism.

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Book SynopsisExplores the impact of neoliberalism and welfare reform on depictions of poverty. Sarah Robertson examines representations of southern poor whites across various types of literature, including travel writing, photo-narratives, life-writing, and eco-literature, and reveals a common interest in communitarianism.

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Book SynopsisTaiwan's working class has been shaped by Chinese tradition, by colonialism, and by rapid industrialization. This book defines that class, explores that history, and presents with sensitive honesty the life experiences of some of its women and men. Hill Gates first provides a solid and informative introduction to Taiwan's history, showing how mainland China, Japan, the convulsions of twentieth-century wars, and the East Asian economic expansion interacted in forming Taiwanese urban life. She introduces nine individuals from Taiwan's three major ethnic groups to tell the stories of their lives in their own words. The narrators include a fortuneteller, a woman laborer, and a retired air force mechanic. A former spirit medium and a janitor are among the others who speak.Trade ReviewWords and phrases that best describe this book are ‘absorbing,’ ‘insightful,’ ‘straightforward,’ and ‘it makes you wish you had done it yourself.’ Through effectively telling nine life histories of mostly middle-aged people, Hill Gates gives the reader a comprehensive picture of working-class life on Taiwan in the 1980s. Gates has sought to present a range of types in some depth—thus portraying very clearly the life and cultures of this class on this island. -- Mark C. Thelin * Contemporary Sociology *Gates’s life-history method gains strength as it places the individual in concentric circles, overlapping groups, networks, and fragments of relationship to society. The reader learns about the structure of society from the bottom up, as it is seen and experienced by its participants. This is rich material drawn from the experiences of ordinary people, and its strength is to be found in both its rarity and its reality. -- Janet W. Salaff * Journal of Asian Studies *

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Book SynopsisUntil the recent political shift pushed workers back into the media spotlight, the mainstream media had largely ignored this significant part of American society in favor of the moneyed upscale consumer for more than four decades. Christopher R. Martin now reveals why and how the media lost sight of the American working class and the effects of it doing so. The damning indictment of the mainstream media that flows through No Longer Newsworthy is a wakeup call about the critical role of the media in telling news stories about labor unions, workers, and working-class readers. As Martin charts the decline of labor reporting from the late 1960s onwards, he reveals the shift in news coverage as the mainstream media abandoned labor in favor of consumer and business interests. When newspapers, especially, wrote off working-class readers as useless for their business model, the American worker became invisible. In No Longer Newsworthy, Martin covers this shift in focus,Trade ReviewInsightful.... At once an important work of Trump-era criticism and an urgently needed condemnation of a media culture that persistently erases and misrepresents the lives and concerns of America's diverse working-class majority. * Jacobin *This book about journalism is also an example of what journalism should be. * Choice *Even though Martin has written a history of newspaper journalism from a union perspective, his honesty as a commentator, great skills as a researcher, and deep, careful argumentation make this book worthy of considerable attention. * H-Net *Well-researched and equally well-written...Martin registers a major scholarly insight...Based on two deep content analyses of national outlets, he deftly identifies the early inclusion of labor in the news and its subsequent exclusion to demonstratethe long, downward trend he wants the reader to see. -- Frank Durham, University of Iowa * Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly *"A detailed argument about how the demise of labor reporting speaks to something systemically troubling with U.S. journalism, a disconnect between the newsroom and the working classthis book should be read by beat reporters and editors around the country as a cautionary tale of past media failures and an inspiration to do better with the next story. * Journalism History *A major accomplishment...Martin's powerful prescriptive story is very much part of the policy agenda for the broad community of labor scholars and activists. * ILR Review *No Longer Newsworthy is an engaging read that makes a convincing case for how and why the working class was neglected by the news media. The use of historical sources and content analysis data clearly strengthen this argument. * Communication Booknotes Quarterly *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Trump, Carrier, and the Invisible Worker 2. The Rise and Fall of Labor Reporting 3. The News Media's Shift to Upscale Audiences 4. The Changing News Narrative about Workers 5. Workers and Political Voice 6. "Job Killers" in the News 7. Rethinking News about US Workers Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisWhat makes a person liberal or conservative? Why does the Democratic Party scare off so many possible supporters? When does our injustice trigger get pulled, and how can fairness overcome our human need to look for a zero-sum outcome to our political battles?Tapping into a pop culture zeitgeist linking Bugs Bunny, Taylor Swift, and John Belushi; through popular science and the human brain; to our political predilections, arguments, and distrusts, Daniel Meegan suggests that fairness and equality are key elements missing in today''s society. Having crossed the border to take up residency in Canada, Meegan, an American citizen, has seen first-hand how people enjoy as rights what Americans view as privileges. Fascinated with this tension, he suggests in America the Fair that American liberals are just missing the point. If progressives want to win the vote, they need to change strategy completely and champion government benefits for everyone, not just those of lower incomTrade Review[Meegan] writes a far more coherent narrative of contemporary American politics than a political scientist could likely write about psychology.... Meegan uses engaging examples from psychological studies, evolutionary biology, and popular culture. * Choice *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: From Carnage to Canada 1. That's Not Fair! 2. Blind Spots 3. Oh, the Inequity! 4. Double Down 5. Getting to Know You 6. Declaration of Interdependence Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisRough Draft draws the curtain on the race and class inequities of the Selective Service during the Vietnam War. Amy J. Rutenberg argues that policy makers'' idealized conceptions of Cold War middle-class masculinity directly affected whom they targeted for conscription and also for deferment. Federal officials believed that college educated men could protect the nation from the threat of communism more effectively as civilians than as soldiers. The availability of deferments for this group mushroomed between 1945 and 1965, making it less and less likely that middle-class white men would serve in the Cold War army. Meanwhile, officials used the War on Poverty to target poorer and racialized men for conscription in the hopes that military service would offer them skills they could use in civilian life.As Rutenberg shows, manpower policies between World War II and the Vietnam War had unintended consequences. While some men resisted military service in Vietnam for reasons Trade ReviewThis outstanding work by Amy Rutenberg surveys the Selective Service before the Vietnam War. * Choice *Rutenberg has provided an exceptionally clear, interesting, and readable account of Vietnam-era draft avoidance and how it was actually abetted by the very governmental officials charged with bringing men into uniform. * The Journal of Military History *Rutenberg's report that men's military participation rates in the 1940s were due more to the draft than patriotism will surprise many students; her use of that conclusion to debunk the myth of 'the greatest generation' unsettles the conventional wisdom that sixties-generation men were self-interested shirkers. * Peace and Change *Throughout this well-written work, Rutenberg weaves issues of class, race, masculinity, citizenship, and state authority... She convincingly argues that draft avoidance during the Vietnam era emerged from deliberate post-World War II government policies. * AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW *Rough Draft offers an invaluable model for how scholars might think about the subtle ways in which militarization has affected American society. In telling this story, Rutenberg confidently sketches over thirty years of policy in crisp and lucid prose. * History *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Selective Service Classification Chart (1951-1973) Introduction 1. "Digging for Deferments": World War II, 1940-1945 2. "To Rub Smooth the Sharp Edges": Universal Military Training, 1943-1951 3. "Really First-Class Men": The Early Cold War, 1948-1953 4. "A Draft-Dodging Business": Manpower Channeling, 1955-1965 5. "The Most Important Human Salvage Operation in the History of our Country": The War on Poverty, 1961-1969 6. "Choice or Chance": The Vietname War, 1965-1973 Conclusion List of Abbreviations Notes Index

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Book SynopsisRough Draft draws the curtain on the race and class inequities of the Selective Service during the Vietnam War. Amy J. Rutenberg argues that policy makers'' idealized conceptions of Cold War middle-class masculinity directly affected whom they targeted for conscription and also for deferment. Federal officials believed that college educated men could protect the nation from the threat of communism more effectively as civilians than as soldiers. The availability of deferments for this group mushroomed between 1945 and 1965, making it less and less likely that middle-class white men would serve in the Cold War army. Meanwhile, officials used the War on Poverty to target poorer and racialized men for conscription in the hopes that military service would offer them skills they could use in civilian life.As Rutenberg shows, manpower policies between World War II and the Vietnam War had unintended consequences. While some men resisted military service in Vietnam for reasons Trade ReviewThis outstanding work by Amy Rutenberg surveys the Selective Service before the Vietnam War. * Choice *Rutenberg has provided an exceptionally clear, interesting, and readable account of Vietnam-era draft avoidance and how it was actually abetted by the very governmental officials charged with bringing men into uniform. * The Journal of Military History *Rutenberg's report that men's military participation rates in the 1940s were due more to the draft than patriotism will surprise many students; her use of that conclusion to debunk the myth of 'the greatest generation' unsettles the conventional wisdom that sixties-generation men were self-interested shirkers. * Peace and Change *Throughout this well-written work, Rutenberg weaves issues of class, race, masculinity, citizenship, and state authority... She convincingly argues that draft avoidance during the Vietnam era emerged from deliberate post-World War II government policies. * AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW *Rough Draft offers an invaluable model for how scholars might think about the subtle ways in which militarization has affected American society. In telling this story, Rutenberg confidently sketches over thirty years of policy in crisp and lucid prose. * History *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Selective Service Classification Chart (1951-1973) Introduction 1. "Digging for Deferments": World War II, 1940-1945 2. "To Rub Smooth the Sharp Edges": Universal Military Training, 1943-1951 3. "Really First-Class Men": The Early Cold War, 1948-1953 4. "A Draft-Dodging Business": Manpower Channeling, 1955-1965 5. "The Most Important Human Salvage Operation in the History of our Country": The War on Poverty, 1961-1969 6. "Choice or Chance": The Vietname War, 1965-1973 Conclusion List of Abbreviations Notes Index

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Book SynopsisDoron Taussig invites us to question the American Dream. Did you earn what you have? Did everyone else?The American Dream is built on the idea that Americans end up roughly where we deserve to be in our working lives based on our efforts and abilities; in other words, the United States is supposed to be a meritocracy. When Americans think and talk about our lives, we grapple with this idea, asking how a person got to where he or she is and whether he or she earned it. In What We Mean by the American Dream, Taussig tries to find out how we answer those questions.Weaving together interviews with Americans from many walks of lifeas well as stories told in the US media about prominent figures from politics, sports, and businessWhat We Mean by the American Dream investigates how we think about whether an individual deserves an opportunity, job, termination, paycheck, or fortune. Taussig looks into the fabric of American life to explore how various people, inclTrade ReviewIn this exceptionally well-written study, these stories demonstrate that "we already know we don't live in a meritocracy, and we don't especially care." * Choice *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. American Idols 2. Head Starts and Handicaps 3. Me, Myself, and I 4. Merit without the -ocracy 5. What's Deserve Got to Do with It?

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Book SynopsisThe Education Myth questions the idea that education represents the best, if not the only, way for Americans to access economic opportunity. As Jon Shelton shows, linking education to economic well-being was not politically inevitable. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, for instance, public education was championed as a way to help citizens learn how to participate in a democracy. By the 1930s, public education, along with union rights and social security, formed an important component of a broad-based fight for social democracy.Shelton demonstrates that beginning in the 1960s, the political power of the education myth choked off powerful social democratic alternatives like A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin''s Freedom Budget. The nation''s political center was bereft of any realistic ideas to guarantee economic security and social dignity for the majority of Americans, particularly those without college degrees. Embraced first by Democrats likTrade ReviewGiven the current intense political divisions, Shelton's analysis is especially timely and, despite appearance, not doctrinaire. The analysis will challenge readers, no matter their political affiliation, to think differently about education and its relationship to "economic security and social respect" (p. ix). Shelton's style is accessible and honest, laying bare his commitments such that readers can determine for themselves how they influence his analysis. * Choice *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. From Independence to Security: Education and Democracy from the Nation's Founding 2. To Secure These Rights: Education and the Unfinished Project of American Social Democracy 3. Education's War on Poverty in the 1960s 4. New Politics: Democrats and Opportunity in a Postindustrial Society 5. "At Risk": The Acceleration of the Education Myth 6. "What You Earn Depends on What You Learn": Education Presidents, Education Governors, and Human Capital Rising 7. Putting Some People First: The Total Ascendance of the Education Myth 8. Left Behind: The Politics of Education Reform and Rise of the Creative Class 9. Things Fall Apart: The Education Myth under Attack Epilogue: A Social Democratic Future?

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Book SynopsisIn this era where dollar value signals moral worth, Daniel Fridman paints a vivid portrait of Americans and Argentinians seeking to transform themselves into people worthy of millions. Following groups who practice the advice from financial success bestsellers, Fridman illustrates how the neoliberal emphasis on responsibility, individualism, and entrepreneurship binds people together with the ropes of aspiration. Freedom from Work delves into a world of financial self-help in which books, seminars, and board games reject "get rich quick" formulas and instead suggest to participants that there is something fundamentally wrong with who they are, and that they must struggle to correct it. Fridman analyzes three groups who exercise principles from Rich Dad, Poor Dad by playing the board game Cashflow and investing in cash-generating assets with the goal of leaving the rat race of employment. Fridman shows that the global economic transformations of the last few decades have been accompanied by popular resources that transform the people trying to survive—and even thrive.Trade Review"A refreshing and rigorous analysis of financial self-help that gets to the heart of identity formation in neoliberalism. Fridman has a keen eye for the 'personal' dimension of financialization and its 'democratisation.' This is sociology at its best." -- Peter Miller * London School of Economics *"What explains the global appeal of financial self-help books? Freedom from Work provides crucial insights. A gifted observer, Fridman's ethnographic account uncovers a unique blend of morality and economics in self-help groups pursuing their dream of financial freedom. This book contributes to economic and cultural sociology but will also fascinate general readers." -- Viviana A. Zelizer, Lloyd Cotsen '50 Professor of Sociology * Princeton University *"A wonderful portrait of how financial technologies of the self work in modern culture. In observing players of a financial board game, Fridman effortlessly oscillates between rich ethnographic description and serious analytical depth to dissect the painful retooling that people perform in pursuit of an elusive 'freedom from work.' " -- Marion Fourcade, University of California * Berkeley *"For those of us who escape gladly to our offices on Monday morning, meanwhile, the promise of longer weekends isn't very compelling. But the idea of starting a conversation about how we distribute our time might be. The catch is that this conversation itself needs and takes time. That's what's so interesting about Freedom from Work's description of workers reading and playing board games on the job: even if they don't get rich, they've been reading and meeting to talk about books. " -- Christina Lupton * Public Books *"The book is a lively and well-written account of ongoing cultural transformations. Fridman is particularly clever in connecting empirical facts with theoretical claims, and the book presents several avenues for further reflection." -- Felipe Gonzlez * Economic Sociology - The European Electronic Newsletter *"Based on careful ethnographic research, this book provides a compelling account of how financial self-help followers aim to change their economic thinking, adopt new practices and thereby reach financial freedom...Any researcher interested in economic sociology, neoliberal governmentality and the materiality of the financial world should read [this book]. Further, this would be good place to start for a reader interested in the reflexive capacity of ethnographic research." -- Tomás Undurraga * Estudios de la Economía *"The greatest strength of Freedom from Work is its fascinating case setting...[Fridman] writes respectfully and carefully about his research subjects, even when their beliefs appear illogical or bizarre. Such careful ethnographic and interview work is admirable and makes for a crisp read...Fridman provides a well-written exploration into a fascinating community of persons whose enthusiastic support for neoliberalism adds important variation to our understanding of how individuals respond to shifting economic conditions. General readers curious about unique financial cultures will enjoy the rich ethnographic description and international case comparisons. And because the book documents theories of governmentality and performativity in interesting and unusual contexts, it will make a useful addition to undergraduate and graduate courses in economic or cultural sociology." -- Laura Doering * American Journal of Sociology *"Daniel Fridman's Freedom from Work: Embracing Financial Self-Help in the United States and Argentina is an outstanding comparative ethnography of the rise and spread of financial self-help groups in the United States and Argentina...I can't think of many books on the development of financial self-discipline, or finance for that matter, as enjoyable to read as this one. Fridman is both witty and compassionate. His portraits of the many characters a less careful analyst would not hesitate to dismiss as con artists are at once critical and respectful." -- Simone Polillo * Contemporary Sociology *"Freedom from Work is an insightful and well-researched book that shows one way in which neoliberal subjects are nowadays produced. Any researcher interested in economic sociology, neoliberal governmentality, the materiality of the financial world and ethnographic research, should definitely read it." -- Tomás Undurraga * Cultural Sociology *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction chapter abstractThe introduction opens with the story of Guillermo, a street book vendor from Buenos Aires who, after some reluctance, became interested in the world of financial self-help. By interpreting Guillermo's biography, this chapter sets up the main themes of the book and outlines its basic arguments and theories. It argues that financial self-help is an instance of the production of capitalist economic subjects in contemporary post-industrial societies, and brings together the literatures on governmentality and performativity to argue that financial self-help is a neoliberal technology of the self. The introduction also describes the author's journey into the worlds of financial self-help of New York and Argentina, the main settings and characters that will appear in the book, and the methods used to gather evidence. 1Contemporary Financial Self-Help and the Rise of Neoliberalism chapter abstractChapter 1 defines contemporary financial self-help and distinguishes it from two of its closest relatives: general self-help and "get rich quick" schemes. It then turns to the diagnosis provided by Robert Kiyosaki regarding the end of corporate capitalism and of job security. His main premise is that, as a result of inertia, people fail to understand that the mainstream mobility path anchored in institutions such as higher education and employment does not make sense in this day and age. Kiyosaki also provides a theory of the class structure of capitalist societies (called the Cashflow Quadrant) that associates certain objective positions (employee, self-employed, business owner, and investor) with distinct forms of subjectivity. He suggests that individuals should understand what their position is and plan to leave positions in which they work for their money and move to those in which they receive money from the work of others. 2It's Not About Money, It's About Freedom chapter abstractChapter 2 dissects the widely used concept of financial freedom. In a discourse with roots in libertarianism, readers are urged to combat their conformist dispositions engendered in the welfare era and resist the temptation of security in favor of a quest for freedom. They are exhorted to fight external dependence on institutions as well as their internal dependence on conformity and fear, and to essentially control their selves, in a discourse that echoes that used in the addiction recovery movement. The chapter provides four examples that illustrate the notion of financial freedom: first, the rejection of family education; second, the rejection of the school system; third, the rejection of gurus who advocate frugality as a means of social mobility; finally, financial self-help's discourse on gender, which ties financial self-help to a long tradition of technologies of the self that combat dependency in women. 3From Rats to Riches chapter abstractThis chapter looks at the Cashflow board game and its players. First, through the practice of Cashflow, players acquire definitions of what being rich means in the context of financial capitalism and establish financial freedom as a specific goal. Second, they develop calculative tools adjusted to the idea of financial freedom and incoming rent (called "passive income"). Third, players work on the self by playing the game. They see themselves "in action," and identify what must be modified in their selves in order to produce the subjectivity that will lead them to financial success. The chapter also scrutinizes the translation that participants perform in practice in order to fit what happens in the game with what they call "real life." Through this translation, players alter a game that is often misaligned with reality in order to make it usable, frequently modifying the rules and even creating new game cards. 4Creating a World of Abundance chapter abstractThis chapter engages with the moral order of the world of financial self-help. Although the ethics of financial self-help appear to be about pure self-interest, there is space for generosity and disinterest in economic gains. While pure economic self-interest is not acceptable, pure generosity is deemed suspicious. This conflation of interest and disinterest rests on the notion that pure disinterest is a sign of a yet unchanged "poor" self. The rich, in contrast, live in a world of abundance in which there is enough for everyone, and therefore, the dual aims of interest and generosity are not contradictory. Two topics that illustrate this non-contradictory character of interest and disinterest are examined. First is what users make of the fact that financial gurus live off their fans. Second, the chapter looks at an economic activity closely related to financial self-help: multilevel marketing (MLM) companies. 5American Dreams in Argentina chapter abstractThis chapter addresses the transnational circulation of financial self-help. Financial self-help is a global phenomenon with its epicenter in the United States. But a great deal of local work is needed to make idiosyncratic American products work in the starkly different contexts of developing countries. Users in Argentina actively try to adapt the theories and advice to their more vulnerable (and less wealthy) economy and financial system. For many people, a scenario of financial instability only makes financial intelligence more important. In the face of difficult conditions, Argentines make use of American resources by disentangling the theories from the concrete applications. Financial self-help groups assist users in this quest to apply American ideas to the Argentine context. These social networks are as important as the products themselves, because by trying to solve the problem of adaptability, they make the products exportable. Conclusion: Financial Self-Help and Beyond chapter abstractThe conclusion returns to some of the theoretical and political issues discussed throughout the book and suggests connections between the world of financial self-help examined in this book and the growing attention to financial literacy and entrepreneurship in policies by governments, NGOs, financial institutions, and international agencies. Methodological Appendix chapter abstractThe methodological appendix presents a reflection about the author's experience as an ethnographer in a world significantly different from his own. For a researcher, it is impossible not to go through some of the same anxieties and reflections that practices and discourses of financial self-help produce in genuine practitioners. Participants were people who shared ideas, performed practices, and constituted groups devoted to something that we all are somewhat forced to think about: our personal finances, our money, our jobs, and our retirements.

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Book SynopsisThe Kanwar is India's largest annual religious pilgrimage. Millions of participants gather sacred water from the Ganga and carry it across hundreds of miles to dispense as offerings in Śiva shrines. These devotees—called bhola, gullible or fools, and seen as miscreants by many Indians—are mostly young, destitute men, who have been left behind in the globalizing economy. But for these young men, the ordeal of the pilgrimage is no foolish pursuit, but a means to master their anxieties and attest their good faith in unfavorable social conditions. Vikash Singh walked with the pilgrims of the Kanwar procession, and with this book, he highlights how the procession offers a social space where participants can prove their talents, resolve, and moral worth. Working across social theory, phenomenology, Indian metaphysics, and psychoanalysis, Singh shows that the pilgrimage provides a place in which participants can simultaneously recreate and prepare for the poor, informal economy and inevitable social uncertainties. In identifying with Śiva, who is both Master of the World and yet a pathetic drunkard, participants demonstrate their own sovereignty and desirability despite their stigmatized status. Uprising of the Fools shows how religion today is not a retreat into tradition, but an alternative forum for recognition and resistance within a rampant global neoliberalism.Trade Review"Reading through Uprising of the Fools is its own pilgrimage through parallel universes. There is Vikash Singh's ethnographic narrative of the North Indian Hindu pilgrimage, and, along the way, are Singh's own explorations of the meaning of the process. The book invites a double-vision: looking from inside and outside at the ways of knowing that, for all the apparent differences, link the pilgrim and the reader together. A remarkably original and subtle intellectual adventure." -- Paul Courtright * Emory University *"Uprising of the Fools is wonderfully—and disturbingly—rich with insights drawn from impressive ethnographic research. For anyone interested in theories of religious practice, performance, and pilgrimage, this is a must-read." -- Robert Wuthnow * Princeton University *"In this theoretically sophisticated, beautifully descriptive, and emotionally moving book, Vikash Singh gives us a compelling analysis of a contemporary religious pilgrimage. Uprising of the Fools is essential reading for ethnographers, cultural sociologists, scholars of religion, globalization theorists, and psychoanalytic thinkers alike." -- Thomas DeGloma * Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York *"In this perceptive and enlightening study of Haridwar's annual kanvariya festival, Vikash Singh conveys the struggles of north India's anonymous laboring men, and ultimately their strength and resilience. Readers with interests in religion, sociology, or politics will find it thought-provoking and valuable." -- James G. Lochtefeld * Carthage College *"Vikash Singh has written a richly detailed ethnography of a little-studied North Indian pilgrimage that draws from across Hindu sects. He offers a provocative argument about the forces driving the growth of popular Hindu rituals, to show how they are an increasingly important site of self-making and religious reform in India today." -- Arvind Rajagopal * New York University *"Vikash Singh's Uprising of the Fools is bound to become a classic in the contemporary study of religion and sociology, bringing this area to the forefront of modern theory again. Brilliantly pushing back against the presumption that religion has become secularized under neoliberalism, Singh provides vivid and extraordinarily well-written ethnographic evidence of how a difficult religious ritual in India—the pilgrimage—is enmeshed and inextricable from late capitalism's efforts to justify and sustain itself. This is a must read for anyone interested in social movements, religion, and social theory in or outside the academy." -- Lynn S. Chancer * Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York *"A provocative attempt to highlight and theorize popular religious practice for social scientists interested in the psyche, the state, and the economy....[T]his insightful book is an important contribution to an emerging critical project within the sociology of religion and would be useful for graduate seminars on theory, religion, culture, and even stratification." -- Gary J. Adler * Jr., American Journal of Sociology *"In this thematically poignant and evocative work, Vikash Singh provides an ethnography of the Kanwar, India's largest annual pilgrimage rite, alongside a running meditation on the place of religion in modern social theory and (continental) philosophy....The book is sure to prove engrossing." -- Faisal Chaudhry * H-Socialisms, H-Net Reviews *"One of the skilled techniques of the author is to render the examination of this ritual pilgrimage in layers. This sense of "unpeeling an onion" is a common theme in qualitative research. This, interestingly enough, is also one of the experiential modes of religious pilgrimage itself. In this way, the ethnography is like a pilgrimage into the reality and landscape of a group's religious experience, or the "sacred"....Uprising of the Fools will prove to be an important volume in the discussion of how ritual engages the body, the margins of sexuality, pain, ecstasy, and so forth....[It] offers a theoretically rigorous and experientially enchanting (Weberian allusion intended) study of ritual pilgrimage." -- Sarah L. MacMillen * <>Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews> *"Singh bounces back and forth between vivid descriptions of the pilgrimage and empathic accounts of the Kanwarias' everyday life struggles in a neoliberal economy. Challenging theories of secularism, modernisation, and religious fundamentalism, he thereby skilfully situates the pilgrims, the 'fools' as the term bholā and the resentment against the Kanwar suggests, in post-colonial capitalism....Uprising of the Fools is a rich ethnography of the Kanwar pilgrimage and offers a timely critical engagement with epistemologies surrounding religion." -- Eva Ambos * Asian Journal of Social Science *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: Illegitimate Religion chapter abstractThis chapter introduces the pilgrimage and the dominant scholarly perception of most contemporary religious actors as people unable to face the freedom and choices offered by modernity. Instead, the chapter argues that these young religious subjects are trying to master through practice and performance the norms, scarcity, and unpredictable outcomes of precarious, informal economic conditions at a critical point of transition into adulthood. It argues that representations of religion are often premised on an epistemology of domination that treats human beings as things, and in a teleological frame that knows no death. This chapter instead presents an orientation drawing on the finitude of being-in-the-world, and a psychoanalytically informed perception of human subjectivity and ethics, which operates as the analytical undercurrent of the book. 1Mastering Uncertainty: Performance and Recognition in Religion chapter abstractThis is an ethnography of desperate household finances, participants' fears about the safety and health of their loved ones, affirmations of their moral sincerity and resolve, their desire to prove themselves, as well as tales of everyday humiliation and despondency. Weaving the empirical data with Weber's insights on the intersections between religion and economy, phenomenological theory, performance studies, and Indian metaphysical texts, it demonstrates how religious practice is a means of performing and preparing for an informal economy. The narrative places participants' performances, art works, ritual expressions, and the excessive labor of the journey in the context of their ordinary works (or lack thereof). Unlike exclusive formal institutions, which are increasingly governed by neoliberal rationalities, the religious event provides an open, freely accessible yet challenging stage for participants to practice and prove their resolve, gifts, and sincerity. 2"Everything is a Gift, Bhole": Custom and the Ethics of Care chapter abstractScholars have often pictured religious participation as a kind of market exchange. But in the Kanwar, participants' express fears and anxieties regarding obligations for the life, health, well-being, and expectations of loved ones, expressly denying their interest in material gain. Analyzing such wishes, and the speech acts of the religious vow in the context of highly precarious living conditions and widespread suffering, this chapter looks at the role that ego deferral plays. Participants feel justified to ask for a divine gift only insofar as it can be seen as an obligation or gift to someone else. Engaging these concerns in reference to a customary ethic of care, and through conversations with Kant, Heidegger, Lacan, and Vedic texts, the chapter interrogates the dominant utilitarian notion of the "individual" to demonstrate a subjectivity that is from the outset relational and morally embedded. 3Ominous Signs: Of Dread, Desires, and Determination chapter abstractThis chapter analyzes the repetitive, obsessive, and mortifying character of the religious practices, showing how they manifest the dread of everyday life. I argue that there is a lack of representation of some of the most overwhelming experiences, fears, and desires of social and psychic life in dominant discourses of the nation, economy, celebrities, or individual merit. These forms of understanding suppress the concrete realities of life in the social margins, which instead are deferred, displaced to, and play out in religious practice. This analysis of participants' narratives focuses on personal historicity, and the profound lived time of the subject, as opposed to historical time with its focus on abstract collectivities, demonstrating the importance of an analytical approach which is alert to the continuities of religious, moral, and economic practices. 4Damning Corpses: Violence, Religious or Secular? chapter abstractThe chapter continues with ethnographic description of the author's journey, and corpses floating in the Ganga Canal while police officers turn a blind eye. Evoking the ubiquity of violence and apathy interspersed with moments from the exceptionally violent history of the region, it documents the tense moments where this "Hindu" procession passed through Muslim neighborhoods. Analyzing such episodes in relation to recent Hindu-Muslim conflicts, along with imaginaries of religious violence from India's medieval history, it shows that conflict over religion is usually provoked by interests of power and politics. Differences in faith take the form of actual violence only when stoked by statist actors seeking power. In a state where a politics of religion and identity has been systematically engineered through extensive organization, and where every political party tries to outwit the others in the diligent capitalization of differences, "religious conflicts" are inevitably the product of secular politics. 5Caste and the Informal Economy: Subversive Aesthetics of Popular Religion chapter abstractWhile the Kanwar obviously has a wide following, it is also frowned upon, and indeed reviled by a large sections of society. To mainstream ideals, these indiscriminate, carnivalesque performances, the low- brow culture of the Kanwar, present a poor, botched, illegitimate version of religion which lacks the composure of adult religiosity. In the context of a nationalist project, it comes across as offensive and uncanny, provoking disgust. While such aversion is partly an effect of postcolonial anxieties, national self-consciousness is itself driven by the uncertainties of a highly unequal and poor society. This aesthetic chasm is aggravated by India's caste heritage—a differentiation between the subtle and the gross, the pure and the abject, which is simultaneously aesthetic and metaphysical. The Kanwar thus enacts a conflict over habitus where sedimented hierarchies are overturned, and the stigmatized occupy the highways for several days, publicly performing its religious and sublime character. 6Wishful Nightmares: Triumphant Neoliberalism and the Resistances of Religion chapter abstractDespite the complex social conflicts apparent here, religious practices such as the Kanwar are rarely treated in sociological scholarship as forms of "resistance." They are usually seen as substitutions for other, explicit social and political causes and interests. Anchored in an exegesis of rituals and enunciations in the Kanwar, this chapter advances an alternate understanding of resistance. I conceptualize resistance in hermeneutic terms, focusing on the temporality of being-in-the-world instead of an abstract teleological universal Good. Bringing the lessons of psychoanalytic practice with critical ethnography, this chapter argues that such re-articulation is indispensable for a radical epistemology that can make sense of new, global infrastructures of power and violence. 7War, Nation, and the Human as a Thing chapter abstractThis chapter argues that an idiom of war dominates modern political consciousness. This leads into the characterization of religious subjects as calling for war, which in turn makes them legitimate targets of political warfare. There are fundamental misrecognitions—say in the vicissitudes of market fundamentalism, state terrorism, Cartesian Individualism— involved in such construction of the other as uncompromising bigots. Epistemologically, this is because of the apathetic treatment of the individual as just another entity, a thing, a commodity; a system of thought based on the cognitive, at the cost of material conditions. This chapter analyzes the discourse of Hindu nationalism and revisits the performative and moral significations of religion in reference to the realities of global neo-liberalism. Religion, its cries, ethic and order, are being called on here for existential meaning and predictability, the possibility of trust, community, and hope in circumstances otherwise bolstering a state of paranoia.

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Book SynopsisIn this age of globalization, many countries and U.S. states are worried about the tax flight of the rich. As income inequality grows and U.S. states consider raising taxes on their wealthiest residents, there is a palpable concern that these high rollers will board their private jets and fly away, taking their wealth with them. Many assume that the importance of location to a person's success is at an all-time low. Cristobal Young, however, makes the surprising argument that location is very important to the world's richest people. Frequently, he says, place has a great deal to do with how they make their millions. In The Myth of Millionaire Tax Flight, Young examines a trove of data on millionaires and billionaires—confidential tax returns, Forbes lists, and census records—and distills down surprising insights. While economic elites have the resources and capacity to flee high-tax places, their actual migration is surprisingly limited. For the rich, ongoing economic potential is tied to the place where they become successful—often where they are powerful insiders—and that success ultimately diminishes both the incentive and desire to migrate. This important book debunks a powerful idea that has driven fiscal policy for years, and in doing so it clears the way for a new era. Millionaire taxes, Young argues, could give states the funds to pay for infrastructure, education, and other social programs to attract a group of people who are much more mobile—the younger generation.Trade Review"Young debunks the widely-held myth that raising taxes on the wealthy inevitably prompts their out-migration and ultimately reduces tax revenue. His sophisticated analysis convincingly demonstrates the opposite. This is a tour-de-force that should be read by policymakers and taxpayers everywhere." -- Douglas S. Massey * Princeton University *"While the rich become richer, state governments strain to fund critical services. Young shows states can tap rich citizens' resources to bolster state government and enhance the common good. With grace, sophistication, and unprecedented data, this important book feeds public debates on inequality, public policy, and the health of American democracy." -- Martin Gilens * author of Affluence and Influence *"Whether taxing millionaires will cause them to flee is an important policy issue dominated by unsupported rhetoric. This clearly written and carefully researched book sheds new light on the question by looking soberly at the facts while exposing popular views as myths." -- Joel Slemrod * University of Michigan *"Young reveals the extent to which much political rhetoric around taxes and the rich rests on unfounded anecdotal assumptions. [The Myth of Millionaire Tax Flight] is an important book which contributes much to political and economic sociology, as well as the growing field of fiscal sociology. It is written in a non-technical prose, making it also accessible for policymakers and non-scholarly audiences alike. In a moment of increasing inequality and near permanent austerity, Young's analysis will hopefully inspire more research on the wealthy and taxes." -- Daniel R. Alvord, Social ForcesTable of ContentsContents and Abstracts1Millionaire Taxes in a World with Few Borders chapter abstractThis chapter introduces the central questions of the book. In the age of globalization, what is the connection between the rich and the places where they live? Is place a temporary convenience for the rich and powerful—readily switched out when the tides change? Or is place a deep foundation for their success? Are top income earners mobile millionaires searching for low-tax places to live, or are they embedded elites reluctant to move away from the places where they have become highly successful? This chapter also introduces the main empirical data for the book—big administrative data from the tax returns of U.S. millionaire income earners over more than a decade. Finally, the structure and organization of the book is summarized. 2Do the Rich Flee High Taxes? chapter abstractThis chapter explores the empirical evidence for the mobile millionaires versus embedded elites debate. Drawing on the tax returns of U.S. millionaires, this chapter focuses on these questions: To what extent do top income earners migrate away from places with high income taxes? Are millionaires especially concentrated in low-tax states? Do they tend to move from high-tax to low-tax states? What about along the narrow geographic borders of states? In border county regions, do the rich tend to cluster on the low-tax side of the border? This chapter also moves higher up the food chain to look at the location and migration of the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans. Finally, the chapter examines the social demography of the rich: considering how their family and business responsibilities, as well as their age and education levels, can help explain their overall migration patterns. 3Global Billionaires and International Tax Havens chapter abstractThis chapter looks at the global migration of the world's elites, as well as the use of tax havens that allow the rich to move their money abroad. First, the world's billionaires offer an international look at the mobile millionaire thesis. How often do billionaires move to low-tax countries? Are billionaires a transnational capitalist class? Or do they just live in the country where they were born? The analyses here give a clear view into the geographic mobility of the richest people in the world. The second half of the chapter continues the global focus by examining international tax havens. Rather than moving themselves, can the rich achieve tax savings by moving their money into offshore shell companies? The chapter examines how the offshore economy works and what shell companies and tax havens can and cannot do. It also explores which countries are more likely to use offshore accounts. 4Place as a Form of Capital chapter abstractThis chapter explores why place is still important for the rich. The income of the rich depends in part on where they live. Peak performance does not necessarily travel with the individual when the person moves away. Top incomes are sustained not simply through individual brilliance and hard work, but also through collaborative relationships and social networks that depend on being in a shared place. People at the top are deeply embedded insiders who earn economic rewards because their social networks place them close to the action. Top income earners have accumulated much home-field advantage that would be diluted by moving away. It is important to disentangle the idea of travel, which often signifies wealth and status, from the idea of migration, which is often less glamorous—reflecting hardship or entry-level status. The chapter concludes with case studies of open borders in Europe and the United States. 5Millionaires and the Future of Taxation chapter abstractThis chapter revisits the central findings of the book and develops the conceptual and policy implications. How should states set their tax policies? What are the benefits and costs for states that have high income taxes on the rich? The chapter emphasizes that states have little ability to attract the highest income earners, but they can attract a pipeline of future high income earners. These are young professionals—those not yet established in their careers; they are the most mobile individuals, they still have relatively low incomes, and they will not be paying top-bracket tax rates for many years. Progressive taxes are paid by people with late-career success. The revenues pay for education, infrastructure, and services that are most attractive to young, early-career individuals. In this sense, millionaire taxes are an intergenerational transfer.

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Book SynopsisThe Kanwar is India's largest annual religious pilgrimage. Millions of participants gather sacred water from the Ganga and carry it across hundreds of miles to dispense as offerings in Śiva shrines. These devotees—called bhola, gullible or fools, and seen as miscreants by many Indians—are mostly young, destitute men, who have been left behind in the globalizing economy. But for these young men, the ordeal of the pilgrimage is no foolish pursuit, but a means to master their anxieties and attest their good faith in unfavorable social conditions. Vikash Singh walked with the pilgrims of the Kanwar procession, and with this book, he highlights how the procession offers a social space where participants can prove their talents, resolve, and moral worth. Working across social theory, phenomenology, Indian metaphysics, and psychoanalysis, Singh shows that the pilgrimage provides a place in which participants can simultaneously recreate and prepare for the poor, informal economy and inevitable social uncertainties. In identifying with Śiva, who is both Master of the World and yet a pathetic drunkard, participants demonstrate their own sovereignty and desirability despite their stigmatized status. Uprising of the Fools shows how religion today is not a retreat into tradition, but an alternative forum for recognition and resistance within a rampant global neoliberalism.Trade Review"Reading through Uprising of the Fools is its own pilgrimage through parallel universes. There is Vikash Singh's ethnographic narrative of the North Indian Hindu pilgrimage, and, along the way, are Singh's own explorations of the meaning of the process. The book invites a double-vision: looking from inside and outside at the ways of knowing that, for all the apparent differences, link the pilgrim and the reader together. A remarkably original and subtle intellectual adventure." -- Paul Courtright * Emory University *"Uprising of the Fools is wonderfully—and disturbingly—rich with insights drawn from impressive ethnographic research. For anyone interested in theories of religious practice, performance, and pilgrimage, this is a must-read." -- Robert Wuthnow * Princeton University *"In this theoretically sophisticated, beautifully descriptive, and emotionally moving book, Vikash Singh gives us a compelling analysis of a contemporary religious pilgrimage. Uprising of the Fools is essential reading for ethnographers, cultural sociologists, scholars of religion, globalization theorists, and psychoanalytic thinkers alike." -- Thomas DeGloma * Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York *"In this perceptive and enlightening study of Haridwar's annual kanvariya festival, Vikash Singh conveys the struggles of north India's anonymous laboring men, and ultimately their strength and resilience. Readers with interests in religion, sociology, or politics will find it thought-provoking and valuable." -- James G. Lochtefeld * Carthage College *"Vikash Singh has written a richly detailed ethnography of a little-studied North Indian pilgrimage that draws from across Hindu sects. He offers a provocative argument about the forces driving the growth of popular Hindu rituals, to show how they are an increasingly important site of self-making and religious reform in India today." -- Arvind Rajagopal * New York University *"Vikash Singh's Uprising of the Fools is bound to become a classic in the contemporary study of religion and sociology, bringing this area to the forefront of modern theory again. Brilliantly pushing back against the presumption that religion has become secularized under neoliberalism, Singh provides vivid and extraordinarily well-written ethnographic evidence of how a difficult religious ritual in India—the pilgrimage—is enmeshed and inextricable from late capitalism's efforts to justify and sustain itself. This is a must read for anyone interested in social movements, religion, and social theory in or outside the academy." -- Lynn S. Chancer * Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York *"A provocative attempt to highlight and theorize popular religious practice for social scientists interested in the psyche, the state, and the economy....[T]his insightful book is an important contribution to an emerging critical project within the sociology of religion and would be useful for graduate seminars on theory, religion, culture, and even stratification." -- Gary J. Adler * Jr., American Journal of Sociology *"In this thematically poignant and evocative work, Vikash Singh provides an ethnography of the Kanwar, India's largest annual pilgrimage rite, alongside a running meditation on the place of religion in modern social theory and (continental) philosophy....The book is sure to prove engrossing." -- Faisal Chaudhry * H-Socialisms, H-Net Reviews *"One of the skilled techniques of the author is to render the examination of this ritual pilgrimage in layers. This sense of "unpeeling an onion" is a common theme in qualitative research. This, interestingly enough, is also one of the experiential modes of religious pilgrimage itself. In this way, the ethnography is like a pilgrimage into the reality and landscape of a group's religious experience, or the "sacred"....Uprising of the Fools will prove to be an important volume in the discussion of how ritual engages the body, the margins of sexuality, pain, ecstasy, and so forth....[It] offers a theoretically rigorous and experientially enchanting (Weberian allusion intended) study of ritual pilgrimage." -- Sarah L. MacMillen * <>Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews> *"Singh bounces back and forth between vivid descriptions of the pilgrimage and empathic accounts of the Kanwarias' everyday life struggles in a neoliberal economy. Challenging theories of secularism, modernisation, and religious fundamentalism, he thereby skilfully situates the pilgrims, the 'fools' as the term bholā and the resentment against the Kanwar suggests, in post-colonial capitalism....Uprising of the Fools is a rich ethnography of the Kanwar pilgrimage and offers a timely critical engagement with epistemologies surrounding religion." -- Eva Ambos * Asian Journal of Social Science *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: Illegitimate Religion chapter abstractThis chapter introduces the pilgrimage and the dominant scholarly perception of most contemporary religious actors as people unable to face the freedom and choices offered by modernity. Instead, the chapter argues that these young religious subjects are trying to master through practice and performance the norms, scarcity, and unpredictable outcomes of precarious, informal economic conditions at a critical point of transition into adulthood. It argues that representations of religion are often premised on an epistemology of domination that treats human beings as things, and in a teleological frame that knows no death. This chapter instead presents an orientation drawing on the finitude of being-in-the-world, and a psychoanalytically informed perception of human subjectivity and ethics, which operates as the analytical undercurrent of the book. 1Mastering Uncertainty: Performance and Recognition in Religion chapter abstractThis is an ethnography of desperate household finances, participants' fears about the safety and health of their loved ones, affirmations of their moral sincerity and resolve, their desire to prove themselves, as well as tales of everyday humiliation and despondency. Weaving the empirical data with Weber's insights on the intersections between religion and economy, phenomenological theory, performance studies, and Indian metaphysical texts, it demonstrates how religious practice is a means of performing and preparing for an informal economy. The narrative places participants' performances, art works, ritual expressions, and the excessive labor of the journey in the context of their ordinary works (or lack thereof). Unlike exclusive formal institutions, which are increasingly governed by neoliberal rationalities, the religious event provides an open, freely accessible yet challenging stage for participants to practice and prove their resolve, gifts, and sincerity. 2"Everything is a Gift, Bhole": Custom and the Ethics of Care chapter abstractScholars have often pictured religious participation as a kind of market exchange. But in the Kanwar, participants' express fears and anxieties regarding obligations for the life, health, well-being, and expectations of loved ones, expressly denying their interest in material gain. Analyzing such wishes, and the speech acts of the religious vow in the context of highly precarious living conditions and widespread suffering, this chapter looks at the role that ego deferral plays. Participants feel justified to ask for a divine gift only insofar as it can be seen as an obligation or gift to someone else. Engaging these concerns in reference to a customary ethic of care, and through conversations with Kant, Heidegger, Lacan, and Vedic texts, the chapter interrogates the dominant utilitarian notion of the "individual" to demonstrate a subjectivity that is from the outset relational and morally embedded. 3Ominous Signs: Of Dread, Desires, and Determination chapter abstractThis chapter analyzes the repetitive, obsessive, and mortifying character of the religious practices, showing how they manifest the dread of everyday life. I argue that there is a lack of representation of some of the most overwhelming experiences, fears, and desires of social and psychic life in dominant discourses of the nation, economy, celebrities, or individual merit. These forms of understanding suppress the concrete realities of life in the social margins, which instead are deferred, displaced to, and play out in religious practice. This analysis of participants' narratives focuses on personal historicity, and the profound lived time of the subject, as opposed to historical time with its focus on abstract collectivities, demonstrating the importance of an analytical approach which is alert to the continuities of religious, moral, and economic practices. 4Damning Corpses: Violence, Religious or Secular? chapter abstractThe chapter continues with ethnographic description of the author's journey, and corpses floating in the Ganga Canal while police officers turn a blind eye. Evoking the ubiquity of violence and apathy interspersed with moments from the exceptionally violent history of the region, it documents the tense moments where this "Hindu" procession passed through Muslim neighborhoods. Analyzing such episodes in relation to recent Hindu-Muslim conflicts, along with imaginaries of religious violence from India's medieval history, it shows that conflict over religion is usually provoked by interests of power and politics. Differences in faith take the form of actual violence only when stoked by statist actors seeking power. In a state where a politics of religion and identity has been systematically engineered through extensive organization, and where every political party tries to outwit the others in the diligent capitalization of differences, "religious conflicts" are inevitably the product of secular politics. 5Caste and the Informal Economy: Subversive Aesthetics of Popular Religion chapter abstractWhile the Kanwar obviously has a wide following, it is also frowned upon, and indeed reviled by a large sections of society. To mainstream ideals, these indiscriminate, carnivalesque performances, the low- brow culture of the Kanwar, present a poor, botched, illegitimate version of religion which lacks the composure of adult religiosity. In the context of a nationalist project, it comes across as offensive and uncanny, provoking disgust. While such aversion is partly an effect of postcolonial anxieties, national self-consciousness is itself driven by the uncertainties of a highly unequal and poor society. This aesthetic chasm is aggravated by India's caste heritage—a differentiation between the subtle and the gross, the pure and the abject, which is simultaneously aesthetic and metaphysical. The Kanwar thus enacts a conflict over habitus where sedimented hierarchies are overturned, and the stigmatized occupy the highways for several days, publicly performing its religious and sublime character. 6Wishful Nightmares: Triumphant Neoliberalism and the Resistances of Religion chapter abstractDespite the complex social conflicts apparent here, religious practices such as the Kanwar are rarely treated in sociological scholarship as forms of "resistance." They are usually seen as substitutions for other, explicit social and political causes and interests. Anchored in an exegesis of rituals and enunciations in the Kanwar, this chapter advances an alternate understanding of resistance. I conceptualize resistance in hermeneutic terms, focusing on the temporality of being-in-the-world instead of an abstract teleological universal Good. Bringing the lessons of psychoanalytic practice with critical ethnography, this chapter argues that such re-articulation is indispensable for a radical epistemology that can make sense of new, global infrastructures of power and violence. 7War, Nation, and the Human as a Thing chapter abstractThis chapter argues that an idiom of war dominates modern political consciousness. This leads into the characterization of religious subjects as calling for war, which in turn makes them legitimate targets of political warfare. There are fundamental misrecognitions—say in the vicissitudes of market fundamentalism, state terrorism, Cartesian Individualism— involved in such construction of the other as uncompromising bigots. Epistemologically, this is because of the apathetic treatment of the individual as just another entity, a thing, a commodity; a system of thought based on the cognitive, at the cost of material conditions. This chapter analyzes the discourse of Hindu nationalism and revisits the performative and moral significations of religion in reference to the realities of global neo-liberalism. Religion, its cries, ethic and order, are being called on here for existential meaning and predictability, the possibility of trust, community, and hope in circumstances otherwise bolstering a state of paranoia.

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Book SynopsisIn Normalized Financial Wrongdoing, Harland Prechel examines how social structural arrangements that extended corporate property rights and increased managerial control opened the door for misconduct and, ultimately, the 2008 financial crisis. Beginning his analysis with the financialization of the home-mortgage market in the 1930s, Prechel shows how pervasive these arrangements had become by the end of the century, when the bank and energy sectors developed political strategies to participate in financial markets. His account adopts a multilevel approach that considers the political and legal landscapes in which corporations are embedded to answer two questions: how did banks and financial firms transition from being providers of capital to financial market actors? Second, how did new organizational structures cause market participants to engage in high-risk activities? After careful historical analysis, Prechel examines how organizational and political-legal arrangements contribute to current record-high income and wealth inequality, and considers societal preconditions for change.Trade Review"This book offers a theoretically sophisticated, empirically rich explanation of how financialization was politically created in the United States beginning in the 1980s, and how it has increased inequality. Prechel takes us inside corporations to see how financial capitalists leveraged control over organizations to enhance their power or government and thereby enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else including other fractions of capital." -- Richard Lachmann * University at Albany, State University of New York *"A must-read for anyone wishing to understand the foundations of contemporary capitalism. It draws on quantitative analysis, in-depth case studies, and trenchant historical analysis to uncover the class conflicts and structural dynamics that have given rise to the modern financial system, which to so many people's dismay has proven prone to periodic crisis." -- Donald Palmer * University of California, Davis *"This important study looks at changes in corporate–state relations and changes inside the corporation to find the origins of corporate malfeasance. As corporations layered up more complex ownership structures, opportunities opened for behavior that precipitated the Great Financial Crisis. Prechel grounds his analysis in larger changes in U.S. society that have contributed to disastrous social inequality." -- Terrence McDonough * National University of Ireland Galway *

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Book SynopsisWhat if we could imagine hierarchy not as a social ill, but as a source of social hope? Taking us into a "caste of thieves" in northern India, Nobody's People depicts hierarchy as a normative idiom through which people imagine better lives and pursue social ambitions. Failing to find a place inside hierarchic relations, the book's heroes are "nobody's people": perceived as worthless, disposable and so open to being murdered with no regret or remorse. Following their journey between death and hope, we learn to perceive vertical, non-equal relations as a social good, not only in rural Rajasthan, but also in much of the world—including settings stridently committed to equality. Challenging egalo-normative commitments, Anastasia Piliavsky asks scholars across the disciplines to recognize hierarchy as a major intellectual resource.Trade Review"It's difficult to overemphasize the effect of this narrative: the brio with which it is written, the verve of its characters, the author's intellectual panache. This scintillating re-reading of hierarchy, most poignant where it has supposedly been banished, picks apart one of anthropology's greatest conundrums and poses profound questions for evaluations based on social equivalence." -- Marilyn Strathern * University of Cambridge *"Moving away from the ideas of ineffability and stasis that attach to understandings of caste, Piliavsky puts forward a courageous, refreshingly original position on hierarchy." -- Dilip Menon * University of Witwatersrand *"An extraordinary work. A major rethinking of the social productivity of hierarchical relations, this is ethnographically grounded anthropological theorizing at its best. It should fundamentally transform contemporary conversations about the nature of social life." -- Joel Robbins * University of Cambridge *"By exploring the politics of everyday patronage, this compelling study of a 'caste of thieves' addresses one of the most important debates in the sociology of South Asia." -- Filippo Osella, Professor of Anthropology and South Asian Studies * Sussex University *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts0Prologue chapter abstractIn 1991 a hamlet in southern Rajasthan, where the author conducted her research, was nearly razed by a pogrom. Decades later, its perpetrators felt no regret or remorse for the violence. Their victims were Kanjars, a caste of professional thieves and the most marginal local community. Parsing out the moral logic of the pogrom, Piliavsky argues that Kanjars are untouchable among the untouchables not because they are ritually most polluted, but because they are socially least attached. Asymmetrical ties with patrons are essential to the local calculus of people's worth, making hierarchical norms central to the logic of social ambitions. Challenging the egalo-normative commitments of writings on social mobility and aspiration in South Asia, and engaging critically the work of Louis Dumont, the prologue introduces the book's central argument: that hierarchy—as opposed to inequality—can drive social ambition, recognition, and hope. 1Hierarchy as Hope chapter abstractMany in India look to hierarchy as a social good that helps them pursue better lives. Social scientists, conversely, tend to see in hierarchy a system of oppressive stasis. In a wide-ranging reflection on social theory, chapter 1 outlines how its egalo-normative bearings and the old Christian idea of hierarchy as a "pyramid" have produced a caricature of hierarchy as a motionless whole, making it impossible to see why people the world over value it. It argues that hierarchies of all kinds always involve a logic of mutual responsibility structured by difference. Expressed in the idiom of patronal or parent-child relations, these norms do not imply or produce stasis; rather, they are inherently asymmetric, unstable, and dynamic. Outlining how hierarchical norms play out in patronal relations in Rajasthan, Piliavsky challenges the hoary contrast between "holism" and individualism, and outlines a vision of hierarchical individuality. 2The Lords of Begun chapter abstractChapter 2 reveals Begun, a market town, whose layout and history reflect major hierarchical principles. The town is organized concentrically around a citadel—the home of the local hereditary lord, the Rao—according to degrees of intimacy to the royal family, not by degrees of ritual purity and pollution. The highest ranking castes, with homes in the town center, are the Rao's closest, most experienced servants, while those lower and farther out have been more loosely employed by others. Developing an old argument about "centrality" as the organizing principle of caste, this chapter shows that the town and its social hierarchy were traditionally organized like a family, where the Rao was styled as a "father" and his servants as "children." The respective obligations to care for one's servants and to serve one's master are framed in this familial moral idiom that is pivotal to the broader logic of hierarchy. 3The People Who Were Not There chapter abstractWhile relations with Kanjars are denied in polite company, local aristocrats, farmers, and policemen engage them as watchmen, thieves for hire, and dispute negotiators. As such, Kanjars enter the innermost domains of life, while being denied public recognition. Both beneficiaries and victims of their invisibility, they profit from being employed as "secret agents," while ultimately losing out on the recognition that only openly recognized bonds with patrons afford. While running an often lucrative trade, Kanjars remain reputationally offstage—invisible, masterless, unattached—and so, in the eyes of others, lack a proper, cogent self, and thus any social value. For them, the moral significance of patronal attachments is really and truly a matter of life and death. The moral and social outsider can be disposed of casually, with no moral consequence or qualms. 4The Perils of Masterless People chapter abstractThe history of people who have come to be known as Kanjars is a story of a long and frustrated search for patrons, who would care for them and imparting on the community the existentially crucial belonging they long for. Tracing Kanjar history to the 16th century, when the name "Kanjar" first applied to itinerant entertainers at the Mughal court in Delhi, the chapter follows the story of North India's "vagrant" communities engaged as bards, spies, prostitutes and watchmen-cum-thieves for centuries and until this day. "Kanjar," a name of disrepute (today synonymous with "whore," "bastard," or "pimp"), stuck to communities that failed to attach themselves securely to reputable masters, while those succeeding in doing so had acquired more attractive monikers and position in life. While showing the enduring moral significance of asymmetrical bonds, this history also demonstrates the extraordinary historical lability of caste. 5How to Make and Eat a Goddess in Nine Days chapter abstractOnce a year Kanjars, like other Hindus, stage the festival of Navaratri, the nine days during which they celebrate their patron goddesses. For Kanjars, however, the festival carries special significance. As a people who lack suitable ties with human patrons, Kanjars valorize their attachments to goddesses, seeing them as the chief source of their collective self. Through the microcosm of the ritual process, and the minutiae of the exchange that takes place in its course, the chapter demonstrates the existential significance of patron-servant ties and the mutual constitution that these involve. Here, while the goddesses are manufactured by their Kanjar servants, Kanjars quite literally eat the goddesses, and so take on their substance, or khandān. The same logic of mutual constitution guides relations with human patrons. 6Who and Whose chapter abstractA masterless, unattached people in the eyes of others, Kanjars do have human patrons, who play a decisive role in ranking inside the community. The Kanjar caste is divided into those who work as bards, watchmen or thieves, and prostitutes. The segments of the caste are ranked, it is argued, not through moral judgments of their occupation, but on the basis of how tightly their work ties them to particular, precisely specified patrons. The more narrowly specified are these ties, the better the segment's standing. Kanjars involved in prostitution entertain an unrestricted array of patrons and so rank lowest of all, while the thieves with (actual or remembered) bonds to jajmāns among Rajputs, farmers, and the police rank the highest. What matters for social integrity is the integrity of social bonds. Here to be is to belong. 7The New Lords of Begun chapter abstractThis chapter takes readers into the thick of the electoral politics of Begun. Following two Kanjars, the Rao of Begun, and other political players during the 2008 state election campaign, the chapter shows how the hierarchical principles described in Begun shape the democratic process: orienting political strategies, inflecting voters' judgment, and structuring the rise and fall of political fortunes. The expectation to care for one's people, which lies at the heart of hierarchy as a moral logic of responsibility, gives rise to pervasive disappointment and gives meaning to a distinctive local sense of "corruption," as a failure of relations, rather than a failure of public office. Hierarchy emerges as the chief normative frame of local democracy. 8Every Man a King chapter abstractUnderstood as a moral logic of mutually beholden relations, hierarchy is not confined to provincial India. It is the basic idiom, it is argued here, of social ambition and hope, anywhere in the world where these are valued. While assertively egalitarian societies (mostly small-scale communities) curb personal ambitions, hierarchy—or difference that makes a difference—is fundamental to one's ability to improve one's life. In contemporary metropolitan imaginations, where equality is now (formally) the topmost sacrosanct value, hierarchical norms have not been supplanted, they have been transvalued. People have not been leveled, but have been leveled up through the hierarchical idioms of "respect" and "dignity," which have become the pivotal tropes of current global egalitarianism. Hierarchy is thus not only important in rural North India, but remains a powerful structuring force within stridently egalitarian moralities, the "egalitarian" social settings, which make, in Huey Long's words, "every man a king."

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Book SynopsisWhy are poor Americans so patriotic? They have significantly worse social benefits compared to other Western nations, and studies show that the American Dream of upward mobility is, for them, largely a myth. So why do these people love their country? Why have they not risen up to demand more from a system that is failing them? In Broke and Patriotic, Francesco Duina contends that the best way to answer these questions is to speak directly to America's most impoverished. Spending time in bus stations, Laundromats, senior citizen centers, homeless shelters, public libraries, and fast food restaurants, Duina conducted over sixty revealing interviews in which his participants explain how they view themselves and their country. He masterfully weaves their words into three narratives. First, America's poor still see their country as the "last hope" for themselves and the world: America offers its people a sense of dignity, closeness to God, and answers to most of humanity's problems. Second, America is still the "land of milk and honey:" a very rich and generous country where those who work hard can succeed. Third, America is the freest country on earth where self-determination is still possible. This book offers a stirring portrait of the people left behind by their country and left out of the national conversation. By giving them a voice, Duina sheds new light on a sector of American society that we are only beginning to recognize as a powerful force in shaping the country's future.Trade Review"This is superlative ethnography, allowing voices too little heard to speak for themselves, and to do so with pride. Social understandings can be furthered more by this book than by any other at present in the marketplace."—John A. Hall, McGill University"A superb book! Anyone who wants to know why poor Americans love their country should read this. The answers Duina finds to this question are startling and reveal deep and enduring beliefs in freedom, God, and the American Dream. The lessons Duina provides are especially important given the current state of American politics."—John L. Campbell, Dartmouth College and Copenhagen Business School"An excellent, timely book, which can help us understand the results of the recent elections. The American poor do not envy the rich. They are proud to be Americans and derive personal dignity from membership in the nation. Rather than blame their poverty on society, they take responsibility for it. The elite talk in the great cities would not make sense to them. A sociological counterpart to Hillbilly Elegy."—Liah Greenfeld, author of Mind, Modernity, MadnessTable of Contents1. The Prehistoric Roots of the Modern Mind 1. A People's Country 2. Broke and Patriotic 3. Heading to Alabama and Montana 4. The Last Hope 5. The Land of Milk and Honey 6. Freedom 7. Reconciling Poverty and Patriotism 8. An Unshakable Bond

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Book SynopsisA searing critique of our contemporary policy agenda, and a call to implement radical change. Although it is well known that the United States has an inequality problem, the social science community has failed to mobilize in response. Social scientists have instead adopted a strikingly insipid approach to policy reform, an ostensibly science-based approach that offers incremental, narrow-gauge, and evidence-informed "interventions." This approach assumes that the best that we can do is to contain the problem. It is largely taken for granted that we will never solve it. In Manifesto for a Dream, Michelle Jackson asserts that we will never make strides toward equality if we do not start to think radically. It is the structure of social institutions that generates and maintains social inequality, and it is only by attacking that structure that progress can be made. Jackson makes a scientific case for large-scale institutional reform, drawing on examples from other countries to demonstrate that reforms that have been unthinkable in the United States are considered to be quite unproblematic in other contexts. She persuasively argues that an emboldened social science has an obligation to develop and test the radical policies that would be necessary for equality to be assured for all.Trade Review"Jackson urges scientists to step up and build visions of change that support communities in their fight for justice. She sets the path for radical change that is attainable to save our society from further deterioration—and to realize the Dream of equality on which our government was founded. Change requires all of us—including academics. Let's all heed her call—we cannot afford to wait." * Dolores Huerta *"Should we bind the fates of rich and poor children together, so that if one rises or falls, the other does too? Should we outlaw practices that generate inequality? Should education be reserved for the first two decades of life or should we promote lifelong learning? These are some of the questions Michelle Jackson raises in this thought-provoking book. Manifesto for a Dream dispenses with tinkering around the edges to advocate for a social science that embraces radical reforms to reduce inequality. This is a book to wrestle with." -- Matthew Desmond * Princeton University *"A searing analysis and reckoning with what it will take to ensure the 'dream' extends to those who have been so long denied it. An exceptionally creative and hopeful vision for what America could become. Now is the time to embrace this bold vision." -- Kathryn J. Edin * author of $2.00 a Day *"Grounded in justice, this book provides an essential critique and call to arms for the academy, and social scientists, in particular, to alter our ways of facilitating the status-quo of growing inequality, and, instead, to more directly promote radical reform to a system that has generated institutions that serve the elite and constraint the rest. I applaud Michelle Jackson for setting an example and providing a blueprint for anyone who wants to understand the necessary role of academics for an authentic solution to unjust inequality." -- Darrick Hamilton * The New School *"[Manifesto for a Dream] invites readers to rethink the limited and isolated social proposals present today, and to generate large-scale policy interventions to address the larger, more complex, interconnected network of advantage and disadvantage that unfairly limits access to societal resources. Recommended." -- K. M. McKinley * CHOICE *

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Book SynopsisIn their own words, the subjects of this book present a rich portrait of the modern black middle-class, examining how cultural consumption is a critical tool for enjoying material comforts as well as challenging racism. New York City has the largest population of black Americans out of any metropolitan area in the United States. It is home to a steadily rising number of socio-economically privileged blacks. In Black Privilege Cassi Pittman Claytor examines how this economically advantaged group experiences privilege, having credentials that grant them access to elite spaces and resources with which they can purchase luxuries, while still confronting persistent anti-black bias and racial stigma. Drawing on the everyday experiences of black middle-class individuals, Pittman Claytor offers vivid accounts of their consumer experiences and cultural flexibility in the places where they live, work, and play. Whether it is the majority white Wall Street firm where they're employed, or the majority black Baptist church where they worship, questions of class and racial identity are equally on their minds. They navigate divergent social worlds that demand, at times, middle-class sensibilities, pedigree, and cultural acumen; and at other times pride in and connection with other blacks. Rich qualitative data and original analysis help account for this special kind of privilege and the entitlements it affords—materially in terms of the things they consume, as well as symbolically, as they strive to be unapologetically black in a society where a racial consumer hierarchy prevails.Trade Review"With compelling storytelling and exciting theoretical insights, Pittman Claytor addresses an understudied topic from a unique and creative perspective. A must-read for anyone interested in understanding how race operates in the marketplace." -- Corey Fields * Georgetown University, author of Black Elephants in the Room: The Unexpected Politics of African American Republicans *"A common view of consumption is that it is a source of alienation for blacks. Cassi Pittman Claytor's incisive portrait of consumption among those who are black and privileged challenges us to rethink this view. In an engaging style, Pittman Claytor shows how consumption is a resource for middle-class blacks as they navigate a world where race still matters. Black Privilege is an important and necessary addition to the literature on consumption and inequality." -- Patricia A. Banks * Mount Holyoke College, author of Diversity and Philanthropy at African American Museums *"Cassi Pittman Claytor skillfully uses the narratives of young black professionals to illustrate that it's possible to be able to afford a lifestyle of considerable luxury and leisure and still maintain and cultivate bonds of racial solidarity across class lines. Black Privilege is a crucial intervention in the study of black life, and the study of class and culture in the U.S." -- Mary Pattillo * author of Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City *"A rich and nuanced portrait of the black middle class. Pittman Claytor's insightful analysis should be read widely by college students and wider audiences, for it skillfully and beautifully mobilizes the sociological imagination to make the familiar and taken-for-granted visible." -- Michèle Lamont * co-author of Getting Respect *"This vivid account will be an eye-opener for white readers and will deeply resonate with trained and educated blacks. Narrating original data on race, class, and consumption, Black Privilege is one of those rare studies that leave an indelible impression on readers' minds." -- William Julius Wilson * Harvard University *"In this compelling ethnographic account of middle class Blacks in New York City, Pittman Claytor breaks new ground in the study of black cultural capital and the complex ways her subjects use lifestyle practices to navigate race and class. A major contribution to race, consumption, class, and urban studies. A must-read and must-teach." -- Juliet Schor * author of After the Gig *"Cassi Pittman Claytor's Black Privilege brings rich ethnographic detail to the study of the Black middle class. Showing both the opportunities and restrictions of Black cultural expression and consumption, Claytor expands our understanding of the workings of privilege by underlying the necessity of considering how it is racialized." -- Shamus Khan * Professor author of Sexual Citizens *"Black Privilege is a welcome addition to contemporary research on the US Black middle class. What sets it apart is that it treats the marketplace as a mainstage on which members of the Black middle-class act out their joys and challenges in everyday life. It focuses our attention on how these actors deploy their skills, tastes, and practices—their Black cultural capital—sometimes just to survive and at others to thrive." -- David Crockett * University of South Carolina *"Cassi Pittman Claytor pushes the reader to think about the ways the unique set of experiences, advantages, and opportunities of members of the Black Middle Class are deployed through cultural and material capital within and across race, class, and Black Middle Class boundaries and identities in their neighborhoods, at work, and amongst peers. This book is most compelling for its engagement of cultural processes, the development of the concept of Black cultural capital, and the author's methodology." -- Candice Robinson * Social Forces *"Black Privilegeoffers uncommon insight into the Black middle-class, examining the critical importance of cultural embrace in enjoying material comforts and overcoming racism. This must-read is an eye-opener for anyone curious about the intricacies of Black wealth and status advancement in America." -- Diamond-Michael Scott * Great Books, Great Minds *

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Book SynopsisIn their own words, the subjects of this book present a rich portrait of the modern black middle-class, examining how cultural consumption is a critical tool for enjoying material comforts as well as challenging racism. New York City has the largest population of black Americans out of any metropolitan area in the United States. It is home to a steadily rising number of socio-economically privileged blacks. In Black Privilege Cassi Pittman Claytor examines how this economically advantaged group experiences privilege, having credentials that grant them access to elite spaces and resources with which they can purchase luxuries, while still confronting persistent anti-black bias and racial stigma. Drawing on the everyday experiences of black middle-class individuals, Pittman Claytor offers vivid accounts of their consumer experiences and cultural flexibility in the places where they live, work, and play. Whether it is the majority white Wall Street firm where they're employed, or the majority black Baptist church where they worship, questions of class and racial identity are equally on their minds. They navigate divergent social worlds that demand, at times, middle-class sensibilities, pedigree, and cultural acumen; and at other times pride in and connection with other blacks. Rich qualitative data and original analysis help account for this special kind of privilege and the entitlements it affords—materially in terms of the things they consume, as well as symbolically, as they strive to be unapologetically black in a society where a racial consumer hierarchy prevails.Trade Review"With compelling storytelling and exciting theoretical insights, Pittman Claytor addresses an understudied topic from a unique and creative perspective. A must-read for anyone interested in understanding how race operates in the marketplace." -- Corey Fields * Georgetown University, author of Black Elephants in the Room: The Unexpected Politics of African American Republicans *"A common view of consumption is that it is a source of alienation for blacks. Cassi Pittman Claytor's incisive portrait of consumption among those who are black and privileged challenges us to rethink this view. In an engaging style, Pittman Claytor shows how consumption is a resource for middle-class blacks as they navigate a world where race still matters. Black Privilege is an important and necessary addition to the literature on consumption and inequality." -- Patricia A. Banks * Mount Holyoke College, author of Diversity and Philanthropy at African American Museums *"Cassi Pittman Claytor skillfully uses the narratives of young black professionals to illustrate that it's possible to be able to afford a lifestyle of considerable luxury and leisure and still maintain and cultivate bonds of racial solidarity across class lines. Black Privilege is a crucial intervention in the study of black life, and the study of class and culture in the U.S." -- Mary Pattillo * author of Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City *"A rich and nuanced portrait of the black middle class. Pittman Claytor's insightful analysis should be read widely by college students and wider audiences, for it skillfully and beautifully mobilizes the sociological imagination to make the familiar and taken-for-granted visible." -- Michèle Lamont * co-author of Getting Respect *"This vivid account will be an eye-opener for white readers and will deeply resonate with trained and educated blacks. Narrating original data on race, class, and consumption, Black Privilege is one of those rare studies that leave an indelible impression on readers' minds." -- William Julius Wilson * Harvard University *"In this compelling ethnographic account of middle class Blacks in New York City, Pittman Claytor breaks new ground in the study of black cultural capital and the complex ways her subjects use lifestyle practices to navigate race and class. A major contribution to race, consumption, class, and urban studies. A must-read and must-teach." -- Juliet Schor * author of After the Gig *"Cassi Pittman Claytor's Black Privilege brings rich ethnographic detail to the study of the Black middle class. Showing both the opportunities and restrictions of Black cultural expression and consumption, Claytor expands our understanding of the workings of privilege by underlying the necessity of considering how it is racialized." -- Shamus Khan * Professor author of Sexual Citizens *"Black Privilege is a welcome addition to contemporary research on the US Black middle class. What sets it apart is that it treats the marketplace as a mainstage on which members of the Black middle-class act out their joys and challenges in everyday life. It focuses our attention on how these actors deploy their skills, tastes, and practices—their Black cultural capital—sometimes just to survive and at others to thrive." -- David Crockett * University of South Carolina *"Cassi Pittman Claytor pushes the reader to think about the ways the unique set of experiences, advantages, and opportunities of members of the Black Middle Class are deployed through cultural and material capital within and across race, class, and Black Middle Class boundaries and identities in their neighborhoods, at work, and amongst peers. This book is most compelling for its engagement of cultural processes, the development of the concept of Black cultural capital, and the author's methodology." -- Candice Robinson * Social Forces *"Black Privilegeoffers uncommon insight into the Black middle-class, examining the critical importance of cultural embrace in enjoying material comforts and overcoming racism. This must-read is an eye-opener for anyone curious about the intricacies of Black wealth and status advancement in America." -- Diamond-Michael Scott * Great Books, Great Minds *

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Book SynopsisNearly 90 percent of residents in Dubai are foreigners with no Emirati nationality. As in many global cities, those who hold Western passports share specific advantages: prestigious careers, high salaries, and comfortable homes and lifestyles. With this book, Amélie Le Renard explores how race, gender and class backgrounds shape experiences of privilege, and investigates the processes that lead to the formation of Westerners as a social group. Westernness is more than a passport; it is also an identity that requires emotional and bodily labor. And as they work, hook up, parent, and hire domestic help, Westerners chase Dubai's promise of socioeconomic elevation for the few. Through an ethnography informed by postcolonial and feminist theory, Le Renard reveals the diverse experiences and trajectories of white and non-white, male and female Westerners to understand the shifting and contingent nature of Westernness—and also its deep connection to whiteness and heteronormativity. Western Privilege offers a singular look at the lived reality of structural racism in cities of the global South.Trade Review"Western Privilege is a must-read for those interested in race and racialization anywhere. 'Western' and 'white' remain unmarked, static categories in most postcolonial scholarship. In this excellent ethnography, Amélie Le Renard shows ushow these structuring categories are both integral to Gulf social hierarchies and have an enduring global influence."—Neha Vora, Lafayette College"Western Privilege provides a fascinating analysis of Dubai as a hub city of postcolonial globalization. Amélie Le Renard skillfully weaves together consideration of a complex range of issues, such as intersectionality and heteronormativity, to bring new insights to scholars of Arab studies and all who work on globalization and migration."—Pauline Leonard, University of Southampton"Amélie Le Renard's portrait of professional workers in Dubai not only provides an intimate rendering of the workings of privilege, but shows why understanding it must foreground race (particularly whiteness), gender, and sexuality. Western Privilege is a rare intersectional analysis of privilege that is both empirically and theoretically rich."—Shamus R. Khan, Princeton University"Western Privilegecontributes to a discussion about Western hegemony by showing how Westernness and whiteness organise social life in a non-Western context. Moreover, the use of a postcolonial feminist approach allows the author to provide insights into how Westernness is conditioned and shaped by gender, race and class. Besides its scholarly contributions, the book will hopefully prompt those who self-identify as Westerners in the Middle Eastern context to critically examine their own contributions to the social order in question."—Dr Liina Mustonen, London School of Economics Review of Books"Recommended."—S. Waalkes, CHOICE"I applaud Le Renard for a rich and thorough investigation of class, gender, nationality, and race."—Jörg Matthias Determann, Review of Middle East Studies"Western Privilege provides a compelling analysis that speaks to multiple disciplines and regions in the world. It is highly recommended."—Yuting Wang, American Journal of SociologyTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. The Construction of Skills 2. Structural Advantages in the Job Market 3. Performing Stereotypical Westernness 4. The Heteronormativity of "Guest Families" 5. Relations with Domestic Employees 6. Hedonistic Lifestyles 7. Western Privilege and White Privilege Conclusion

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Book SynopsisA searing critique of our contemporary policy agenda, and a call to implement radical change. Although it is well known that the United States has an inequality problem, the social science community has failed to mobilize in response. Social scientists have instead adopted a strikingly insipid approach to policy reform, an ostensibly science-based approach that offers incremental, narrow-gauge, and evidence-informed "interventions." This approach assumes that the best that we can do is to contain the problem. It is largely taken for granted that we will never solve it. In Manifesto for a Dream, Michelle Jackson asserts that we will never make strides toward equality if we do not start to think radically. It is the structure of social institutions that generates and maintains social inequality, and it is only by attacking that structure that progress can be made. Jackson makes a scientific case for large-scale institutional reform, drawing on examples from other countries to demonstrate that reforms that have been unthinkable in the United States are considered to be quite unproblematic in other contexts. She persuasively argues that an emboldened social science has an obligation to develop and test the radical policies that would be necessary for equality to be assured for all.Trade Review"Jackson urges scientists to step up and build visions of change that support communities in their fight for justice. She sets the path for radical change that is attainable to save our society from further deterioration—and to realize the Dream of equality on which our government was founded. Change requires all of us—including academics. Let's all heed her call—we cannot afford to wait." * Dolores Huerta *"Should we bind the fates of rich and poor children together, so that if one rises or falls, the other does too? Should we outlaw practices that generate inequality? Should education be reserved for the first two decades of life or should we promote lifelong learning? These are some of the questions Michelle Jackson raises in this thought-provoking book. Manifesto for a Dream dispenses with tinkering around the edges to advocate for a social science that embraces radical reforms to reduce inequality. This is a book to wrestle with." -- Matthew Desmond * Princeton University *"A searing analysis and reckoning with what it will take to ensure the 'dream' extends to those who have been so long denied it. An exceptionally creative and hopeful vision for what America could become. Now is the time to embrace this bold vision." -- Kathryn J. Edin * author of $2.00 a Day *"Grounded in justice, this book provides an essential critique and call to arms for the academy, and social scientists, in particular, to alter our ways of facilitating the status-quo of growing inequality, and, instead, to more directly promote radical reform to a system that has generated institutions that serve the elite and constraint the rest. I applaud Michelle Jackson for setting an example and providing a blueprint for anyone who wants to understand the necessary role of academics for an authentic solution to unjust inequality." -- Darrick Hamilton * The New School *"[Manifesto for a Dream] invites readers to rethink the limited and isolated social proposals present today, and to generate large-scale policy interventions to address the larger, more complex, interconnected network of advantage and disadvantage that unfairly limits access to societal resources. Recommended." -- K. M. McKinley * CHOICE *

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Book SynopsisWhat if we could imagine hierarchy not as a social ill, but as a source of social hope? Taking us into a "caste of thieves" in northern India, Nobody's People depicts hierarchy as a normative idiom through which people imagine better lives and pursue social ambitions. Failing to find a place inside hierarchic relations, the book's heroes are "nobody's people": perceived as worthless, disposable and so open to being murdered with no regret or remorse. Following their journey between death and hope, we learn to perceive vertical, non-equal relations as a social good, not only in rural Rajasthan, but also in much of the world—including settings stridently committed to equality. Challenging egalo-normative commitments, Anastasia Piliavsky asks scholars across the disciplines to recognize hierarchy as a major intellectual resource.Trade Review"It's difficult to overemphasize the effect of this narrative: the brio with which it is written, the verve of its characters, the author's intellectual panache. This scintillating re-reading of hierarchy, most poignant where it has supposedly been banished, picks apart one of anthropology's greatest conundrums and poses profound questions for evaluations based on social equivalence." -- Marilyn Strathern * University of Cambridge *"Moving away from the ideas of ineffability and stasis that attach to understandings of caste, Piliavsky puts forward a courageous, refreshingly original position on hierarchy." -- Dilip Menon * University of Witwatersrand *"An extraordinary work. A major rethinking of the social productivity of hierarchical relations, this is ethnographically grounded anthropological theorizing at its best. It should fundamentally transform contemporary conversations about the nature of social life." -- Joel Robbins * University of Cambridge *"By exploring the politics of everyday patronage, this compelling study of a 'caste of thieves' addresses one of the most important debates in the sociology of South Asia." -- Filippo Osella, Professor of Anthropology and South Asian Studies * Sussex University *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts0Prologue chapter abstractIn 1991 a hamlet in southern Rajasthan, where the author conducted her research, was nearly razed by a pogrom. Decades later, its perpetrators felt no regret or remorse for the violence. Their victims were Kanjars, a caste of professional thieves and the most marginal local community. Parsing out the moral logic of the pogrom, Piliavsky argues that Kanjars are untouchable among the untouchables not because they are ritually most polluted, but because they are socially least attached. Asymmetrical ties with patrons are essential to the local calculus of people's worth, making hierarchical norms central to the logic of social ambitions. Challenging the egalo-normative commitments of writings on social mobility and aspiration in South Asia, and engaging critically the work of Louis Dumont, the prologue introduces the book's central argument: that hierarchy—as opposed to inequality—can drive social ambition, recognition, and hope. 1Hierarchy as Hope chapter abstractMany in India look to hierarchy as a social good that helps them pursue better lives. Social scientists, conversely, tend to see in hierarchy a system of oppressive stasis. In a wide-ranging reflection on social theory, chapter 1 outlines how its egalo-normative bearings and the old Christian idea of hierarchy as a "pyramid" have produced a caricature of hierarchy as a motionless whole, making it impossible to see why people the world over value it. It argues that hierarchies of all kinds always involve a logic of mutual responsibility structured by difference. Expressed in the idiom of patronal or parent-child relations, these norms do not imply or produce stasis; rather, they are inherently asymmetric, unstable, and dynamic. Outlining how hierarchical norms play out in patronal relations in Rajasthan, Piliavsky challenges the hoary contrast between "holism" and individualism, and outlines a vision of hierarchical individuality. 2The Lords of Begun chapter abstractChapter 2 reveals Begun, a market town, whose layout and history reflect major hierarchical principles. The town is organized concentrically around a citadel—the home of the local hereditary lord, the Rao—according to degrees of intimacy to the royal family, not by degrees of ritual purity and pollution. The highest ranking castes, with homes in the town center, are the Rao's closest, most experienced servants, while those lower and farther out have been more loosely employed by others. Developing an old argument about "centrality" as the organizing principle of caste, this chapter shows that the town and its social hierarchy were traditionally organized like a family, where the Rao was styled as a "father" and his servants as "children." The respective obligations to care for one's servants and to serve one's master are framed in this familial moral idiom that is pivotal to the broader logic of hierarchy. 3The People Who Were Not There chapter abstractWhile relations with Kanjars are denied in polite company, local aristocrats, farmers, and policemen engage them as watchmen, thieves for hire, and dispute negotiators. As such, Kanjars enter the innermost domains of life, while being denied public recognition. Both beneficiaries and victims of their invisibility, they profit from being employed as "secret agents," while ultimately losing out on the recognition that only openly recognized bonds with patrons afford. While running an often lucrative trade, Kanjars remain reputationally offstage—invisible, masterless, unattached—and so, in the eyes of others, lack a proper, cogent self, and thus any social value. For them, the moral significance of patronal attachments is really and truly a matter of life and death. The moral and social outsider can be disposed of casually, with no moral consequence or qualms. 4The Perils of Masterless People chapter abstractThe history of people who have come to be known as Kanjars is a story of a long and frustrated search for patrons, who would care for them and imparting on the community the existentially crucial belonging they long for. Tracing Kanjar history to the 16th century, when the name "Kanjar" first applied to itinerant entertainers at the Mughal court in Delhi, the chapter follows the story of North India's "vagrant" communities engaged as bards, spies, prostitutes and watchmen-cum-thieves for centuries and until this day. "Kanjar," a name of disrepute (today synonymous with "whore," "bastard," or "pimp"), stuck to communities that failed to attach themselves securely to reputable masters, while those succeeding in doing so had acquired more attractive monikers and position in life. While showing the enduring moral significance of asymmetrical bonds, this history also demonstrates the extraordinary historical lability of caste. 5How to Make and Eat a Goddess in Nine Days chapter abstractOnce a year Kanjars, like other Hindus, stage the festival of Navaratri, the nine days during which they celebrate their patron goddesses. For Kanjars, however, the festival carries special significance. As a people who lack suitable ties with human patrons, Kanjars valorize their attachments to goddesses, seeing them as the chief source of their collective self. Through the microcosm of the ritual process, and the minutiae of the exchange that takes place in its course, the chapter demonstrates the existential significance of patron-servant ties and the mutual constitution that these involve. Here, while the goddesses are manufactured by their Kanjar servants, Kanjars quite literally eat the goddesses, and so take on their substance, or khandān. The same logic of mutual constitution guides relations with human patrons. 6Who and Whose chapter abstractA masterless, unattached people in the eyes of others, Kanjars do have human patrons, who play a decisive role in ranking inside the community. The Kanjar caste is divided into those who work as bards, watchmen or thieves, and prostitutes. The segments of the caste are ranked, it is argued, not through moral judgments of their occupation, but on the basis of how tightly their work ties them to particular, precisely specified patrons. The more narrowly specified are these ties, the better the segment's standing. Kanjars involved in prostitution entertain an unrestricted array of patrons and so rank lowest of all, while the thieves with (actual or remembered) bonds to jajmāns among Rajputs, farmers, and the police rank the highest. What matters for social integrity is the integrity of social bonds. Here to be is to belong. 7The New Lords of Begun chapter abstractThis chapter takes readers into the thick of the electoral politics of Begun. Following two Kanjars, the Rao of Begun, and other political players during the 2008 state election campaign, the chapter shows how the hierarchical principles described in Begun shape the democratic process: orienting political strategies, inflecting voters' judgment, and structuring the rise and fall of political fortunes. The expectation to care for one's people, which lies at the heart of hierarchy as a moral logic of responsibility, gives rise to pervasive disappointment and gives meaning to a distinctive local sense of "corruption," as a failure of relations, rather than a failure of public office. Hierarchy emerges as the chief normative frame of local democracy. 8Every Man a King chapter abstractUnderstood as a moral logic of mutually beholden relations, hierarchy is not confined to provincial India. It is the basic idiom, it is argued here, of social ambition and hope, anywhere in the world where these are valued. While assertively egalitarian societies (mostly small-scale communities) curb personal ambitions, hierarchy—or difference that makes a difference—is fundamental to one's ability to improve one's life. In contemporary metropolitan imaginations, where equality is now (formally) the topmost sacrosanct value, hierarchical norms have not been supplanted, they have been transvalued. People have not been leveled, but have been leveled up through the hierarchical idioms of "respect" and "dignity," which have become the pivotal tropes of current global egalitarianism. Hierarchy is thus not only important in rural North India, but remains a powerful structuring force within stridently egalitarian moralities, the "egalitarian" social settings, which make, in Huey Long's words, "every man a king."

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Book SynopsisIn Normalized Financial Wrongdoing, Harland Prechel examines how social structural arrangements that extended corporate property rights and increased managerial control opened the door for misconduct and, ultimately, the 2008 financial crisis. Beginning his analysis with the financialization of the home-mortgage market in the 1930s, Prechel shows how pervasive these arrangements had become by the end of the century, when the bank and energy sectors developed political strategies to participate in financial markets. His account adopts a multilevel approach that considers the political and legal landscapes in which corporations are embedded to answer two questions: how did banks and financial firms transition from being providers of capital to financial market actors? Second, how did new organizational structures cause market participants to engage in high-risk activities? After careful historical analysis, Prechel examines how organizational and political-legal arrangements contribute to current record-high income and wealth inequality, and considers societal preconditions for change.Trade Review"This book offers a theoretically sophisticated, empirically rich explanation of how financialization was politically created in the United States beginning in the 1980s, and how it has increased inequality. Prechel takes us inside corporations to see how financial capitalists leveraged control over organizations to enhance their power or government and thereby enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else including other fractions of capital." -- Richard Lachmann * University at Albany, State University of New York *"A must-read for anyone wishing to understand the foundations of contemporary capitalism. It draws on quantitative analysis, in-depth case studies, and trenchant historical analysis to uncover the class conflicts and structural dynamics that have given rise to the modern financial system, which to so many people's dismay has proven prone to periodic crisis." -- Donald Palmer * University of California, Davis *"This important study looks at changes in corporate–state relations and changes inside the corporation to find the origins of corporate malfeasance. As corporations layered up more complex ownership structures, opportunities opened for behavior that precipitated the Great Financial Crisis. Prechel grounds his analysis in larger changes in U.S. society that have contributed to disastrous social inequality." -- Terrence McDonough * National University of Ireland Galway *

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Book SynopsisIn the last 30 years, Delhi, the capital of India, has displaced over 1.5 million poor people. Resettlement and welfare services are available—but exclusively so, as the city deems much of the population ineligible for civic benefits. The Right to Be Counted examines how Delhi's urban poor, in an effort to gain visibility from the local state, incrementally stake their claims to a house and life in the city. Contributing to debates about the contradictions of state governmentality and the citizenship projects of the poor in Delhi, this book explores social suffering, logistics, and the logic of political mobilizations that emanate from processes of displacement and resettlement. Sanjeev Routray draws upon fieldwork conducted in various low-income neighborhoods throughout the 2010s to describe the process of claims-making as an attempt by the political community of the poor to assert its existence and numerical strength, and demonstrates how this struggle to be counted constitutes the systematic, protracted, and incremental political process by which the poor claim their substantive entitlements and become entrenched in the city. Analyzing various social, political, and economic relationships, as well as kinship networks and solidarity linkages across the political and social spectrum, this book traces the ways the poor work to gain a foothold in Delhi and establish agency for themselves.Trade Review"The Right to Be Counted presents a rich ethnographic analysis of the range of strategies adopted by displaced populations crowding into urban slums to stake their claim to belong to the city. Routray's depiction of 'numerical citizenship' is persuasive and enlightening. This is a valuable addition to the growing literature on popular politics in megacities."—Partha Chatterjee, Columbia University"This is a 'how things work' book of top quality. With deep, analytical, thoughtful scholarship, Routray provides one of the clearest and most accessible accounts of how the poor fight to make a home in Delhi."—Durba Chattaraj, Ashoka University"Routray offers an impressive and authoritative account that displays a remarkable ability to synthesize interdisciplinary ideas from across disciplines and geographies, while always building his theorizing from a deep commitment to a historically informed ethnography. I learned so much about the relationship between housing, politics and citizenship in Delhi, and beyond. I am sure this text will resonate well beyond its origins."—Ryan Powell, Housing Studies"Routray's book highlights how the logics of planning are employed not only by the powerful to suit the interests of global city making but also by marginalized communities to resist processes of uprooting and work to secure the rights of urban citizenship. The author navigates the difficult task of arguing for the agency of Delhi's urban poor while documenting the profound injustice and suffering they endure in the process."—Shoshana Goldstein, Journal of the American Planning Association

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Book SynopsisIn the last 30 years, Delhi, the capital of India, has displaced over 1.5 million poor people. Resettlement and welfare services are available—but exclusively so, as the city deems much of the population ineligible for civic benefits. The Right to Be Counted examines how Delhi's urban poor, in an effort to gain visibility from the local state, incrementally stake their claims to a house and life in the city. Contributing to debates about the contradictions of state governmentality and the citizenship projects of the poor in Delhi, this book explores social suffering, logistics, and the logic of political mobilizations that emanate from processes of displacement and resettlement. Sanjeev Routray draws upon fieldwork conducted in various low-income neighborhoods throughout the 2010s to describe the process of claims-making as an attempt by the political community of the poor to assert its existence and numerical strength, and demonstrates how this struggle to be counted constitutes the systematic, protracted, and incremental political process by which the poor claim their substantive entitlements and become entrenched in the city. Analyzing various social, political, and economic relationships, as well as kinship networks and solidarity linkages across the political and social spectrum, this book traces the ways the poor work to gain a foothold in Delhi and establish agency for themselves.Trade Review"The Right to Be Counted presents a rich ethnographic analysis of the range of strategies adopted by displaced populations crowding into urban slums to stake their claim to belong to the city. Routray's depiction of 'numerical citizenship' is persuasive and enlightening. This is a valuable addition to the growing literature on popular politics in megacities."—Partha Chatterjee, Columbia University"This is a 'how things work' book of top quality. With deep, analytical, thoughtful scholarship, Routray provides one of the clearest and most accessible accounts of how the poor fight to make a home in Delhi."—Durba Chattaraj, Ashoka University"Routray offers an impressive and authoritative account that displays a remarkable ability to synthesize interdisciplinary ideas from across disciplines and geographies, while always building his theorizing from a deep commitment to a historically informed ethnography. I learned so much about the relationship between housing, politics and citizenship in Delhi, and beyond. I am sure this text will resonate well beyond its origins."—Ryan Powell, Housing Studies"Routray's book highlights how the logics of planning are employed not only by the powerful to suit the interests of global city making but also by marginalized communities to resist processes of uprooting and work to secure the rights of urban citizenship. The author navigates the difficult task of arguing for the agency of Delhi's urban poor while documenting the profound injustice and suffering they endure in the process."—Shoshana Goldstein, Journal of the American Planning Association

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Book SynopsisAfter Pinochet's dictatorship ended in Chile in 1990, the country experienced a rapid decline in poverty along with a quickly growing economy. As a result, Chile's middle class expanded dramatically, echoing trends seen across the Global South as neoliberalism took firm hold in the 1990s and the early 2000s. Identity Investments examines the politics and consumption practices of this vast and varied fraction of the Chilean population, seeking to better understand their value systems and the histories that informed them. Using participant observation, interviews, and photographs, Joel Stillerman develops a unique typology of the middle class, made up of activists, moderate Catholics, pragmatists, and youngsters. This typology allows him to unearth the cultural, political, and religious roots of middle-class market practices in contrast with other studies focused on social mobility and exclusionary practices. The resultant contrast in backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives of these four groups animates this book and extends an emerging body of scholarship focused on the connections between middle-class market choices and politics in the Global South, with important implications for Chile's recent explosive political changes.Trade Review"This long-awaited and important book blends first-rate scholarship with oral history interviews and photos in an innovative way. Stillerman is a leader in his field and this book shows why. A must-read for Chile scholars."—Peter Winn, Tufts University"Using the innovative concept of identity investments as a unifying thread, Stillerman shows how distinct fractions of the contemporary Chilean middle class manage to retain commitments to guiding activist, religious, and moral visions. A must-read for scholars interested in culture, consumption, education, urban, and social movement studies."—Omar Lizardo, University of California, Los Angeles"[Identity Investments], which reveals the identity investments of the middle class through its thick description, is not only valuable as a study of the middle class but also as a study that sheds light on Chile's recent sociopolitical transformations. It also provides a detailed picture of the middle-class reality from the past to the present and gives important insights for addressing the political, social, and economic challenges associated with the middle class's increasing vulnerability."—Kota Miura, The Developing Economies"Joel Stillerman provides an intricate and refined depiction of the contemporary middle classes in Chile.... In sum, anyone interested in Chilean society, middle classes in general, qualitative sociology, or conceptual innovations derived from Bourdieu will surely enjoy this wonderful book."—Nicolás M. Somma, Social Forces"Overall, this well-researched, engaging book helps readers understand the transformation of Chilean society over the last 50 years, the consequences of the erosion of traditional middle-class jobs, and families' strategies to adapt to these changes and maintain their identities and cultures."—A. Vergara, CHOICE"Stillerman's well-documented book addresses the plural and relational nature of the middle classes as an object of study and tackles the pertinence of space as place-meaning-making in the construction of a sense of belonging and social identity. Thus, it constitutes an immense contribution to the current state of the art of contemporary sociological studies of the middle classes in Chile and abroad that also speaks to historical studies of the middle classes."—Claudia Stern, Hispanic American Historical ReviewTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Perilous Pathways to Middle-Class Employment 2. Housing, Extended Family, and the Search for a Sense of Place 3. School Choice: Neighborhoods, Values, and Concerted Cultivation 4. Community, Conflict, and Citizenship at Schools 5. Home Decorations as Representations of Family, Taste, and Identity 6. Leisure Time Practices across Groups and Communities Conclusion: Identity Investments, Precarious Privilege, and Chile's Political Transformation Appendix: Appendix: Research Design and Methods

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Book SynopsisAfter Pinochet's dictatorship ended in Chile in 1990, the country experienced a rapid decline in poverty along with a quickly growing economy. As a result, Chile's middle class expanded dramatically, echoing trends seen across the Global South as neoliberalism took firm hold in the 1990s and the early 2000s. Identity Investments examines the politics and consumption practices of this vast and varied fraction of the Chilean population, seeking to better understand their value systems and the histories that informed them. Using participant observation, interviews, and photographs, Joel Stillerman develops a unique typology of the middle class, made up of activists, moderate Catholics, pragmatists, and youngsters. This typology allows him to unearth the cultural, political, and religious roots of middle-class market practices in contrast with other studies focused on social mobility and exclusionary practices. The resultant contrast in backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives of these four groups animates this book and extends an emerging body of scholarship focused on the connections between middle-class market choices and politics in the Global South, with important implications for Chile's recent explosive political changes.Trade Review"This long-awaited and important book blends first-rate scholarship with oral history interviews and photos in an innovative way. Stillerman is a leader in his field and this book shows why. A must-read for Chile scholars."—Peter Winn, Tufts University"Using the innovative concept of identity investments as a unifying thread, Stillerman shows how distinct fractions of the contemporary Chilean middle class manage to retain commitments to guiding activist, religious, and moral visions. A must-read for scholars interested in culture, consumption, education, urban, and social movement studies."—Omar Lizardo, University of California, Los Angeles"[Identity Investments], which reveals the identity investments of the middle class through its thick description, is not only valuable as a study of the middle class but also as a study that sheds light on Chile's recent sociopolitical transformations. It also provides a detailed picture of the middle-class reality from the past to the present and gives important insights for addressing the political, social, and economic challenges associated with the middle class's increasing vulnerability."—Kota Miura, The Developing Economies"Joel Stillerman provides an intricate and refined depiction of the contemporary middle classes in Chile.... In sum, anyone interested in Chilean society, middle classes in general, qualitative sociology, or conceptual innovations derived from Bourdieu will surely enjoy this wonderful book."—Nicolás M. Somma, Social Forces"Overall, this well-researched, engaging book helps readers understand the transformation of Chilean society over the last 50 years, the consequences of the erosion of traditional middle-class jobs, and families' strategies to adapt to these changes and maintain their identities and cultures."—A. Vergara, CHOICE"Stillerman's well-documented book addresses the plural and relational nature of the middle classes as an object of study and tackles the pertinence of space as place-meaning-making in the construction of a sense of belonging and social identity. Thus, it constitutes an immense contribution to the current state of the art of contemporary sociological studies of the middle classes in Chile and abroad that also speaks to historical studies of the middle classes."—Claudia Stern, Hispanic American Historical ReviewTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Perilous Pathways to Middle-Class Employment 2. Housing, Extended Family, and the Search for a Sense of Place 3. School Choice: Neighborhoods, Values, and Concerted Cultivation 4. Community, Conflict, and Citizenship at Schools 5. Home Decorations as Representations of Family, Taste, and Identity 6. Leisure Time Practices across Groups and Communities Conclusion: Identity Investments, Precarious Privilege, and Chile's Political Transformation Appendix: Appendix: Research Design and Methods

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Book SynopsisDrawing on a rich set of original oral histories conducted with retired factory workers from industrial centers across the country, this book provides a bottom-up examination of working class participation in factory life during socialist and reform-era China. Huaiyin Li offers a series of new interpretations that challenge, revise, and enrich the existing scholarship on factory politics and worker performance during the Maoist years, including the nature of the Maoist state as seen in the operation of power relations on the shop floor, as well as the origins and dynamics of industrial enterprise reforms in the post-Mao era. In sharp contrast with the ideologically driven goal of promoting grassroots democracy or manifesting workers' status as the masters of the workplace, Li argues that Maoist era state-owned enterprises operated effectively to turn factory workers into a well-disciplined labor force through a complex set of formal and informal institutions that functioned to generate an equilibrium in power relations and work norms. The enterprise reforms of the 1980s and 1990s undermined this preexisting equilibrium, catalyzing the transformation of the industrial workforce from predominantly privileged workers in state-owned enterprises to precarious migrant workers of rural origins hired by private firms. Ultimately, this comprehensive and textured history provides an analytically astute new picture of everyday factory life in the world's largest manufacturing powerhouse.Trade Review"The Master in Bondageis not a simple history. In each chapter,HuaiyinLisystematically—and convincingly—makes a substantial contribution to the history of labor in China, challenging key tenets of what have become conventional understandings of industrial relations during the Maoist era."—Joel Andreas, John Hopkins University"Huaiyin Li presents a treasure trove of oral history which can never be collected again, and which goes way beyond the documentary record to add so much that is significant, new, and surprising to our picture of the Chinese working class at a crucial juncture in its re-formation."—Marc Blecher, Oberlin College

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Book SynopsisOn November 24, 2016, the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia signed a revised peace accord that marked a political end to over a half-century of war. Feel the Grass Grow traces the far less visible aspects of moving from war to peace: the decades of campesino struggle to defend life, land, and territory prior to the national accord, as well as campesino social leaders' engagement with the challenges of the state's post-accord reconstruction efforts. In the words of the campesino organizers, "peace is not signed, peace is built." Drawing on nearly a decade of extensive ethnographic and participatory research, Angela Jill Lederach advances a theory of "slow peace." Slowing down does not negate the urgency that animates the defense of territory in the context of the interlocking processes of political and environmental violence that persist in post-accord Colombia. Instead, Lederach shows how the campesino call to "slowness" recenters grassroots practices of peace, grounded in multigenerational struggles for territorial liberation. In examining the various layers of meaning embedded within campesino theories of "the times (los tiempos)," this book directs analytic attention to the holistic understanding of peacebuilding found among campesino social leaders. Their experiences of peacebuilding shape an understanding of time as embodied, affective, and emplaced. The call to slow peace gives primacy to the everyday, where relationships are deepened, ancestral memories reclaimed, and ecologies regenerated.Trade Review"This book expertly and eloquently offers a close examination of how human and more-than-human relations are regenerated in the context of war and its aftermath. Lederach recovers and makes visible how campesino peacebuilding emerges from a distinct ecological imagination, and their efforts to achieve in praxis reparation and reconciliation."—María Clemencia Ramírez, Instituto Colombiano de Antropologia e Historia"Lederach's scholarship is impeccable, deftly fusing Colombian and international scholarship on peacemaking, her own ethnographic insights, and the voices of montemariano peasants, who are not mere interlocutors, but co-thinkers and mentors. This beautifully written book is a powerful example of what collaborative ethnography can be."—Joanne Rappaport, Georgetown University"This is a deeply human and humane book that builds a case for 'slow peace', or peace based on developing relationships over time in a particular place. Angela Lederach has crafted an excellent book that is full of sensitively observed details of how communities get on with life after conflict. The book ties together the themes of the environment, power, temporality and place. It is highly recommended."—Roger Mac Ginty, Durham University"This beautifully written book is a must read for academic and nonacademic readers interested in peace building processes at the grassroots level. Essential."—A. Arraras, CHOICETable of ContentsIntroduction: To Defend Life: An Introduction One: From and For the Territory: The Campesino Struggle for Peace Two: The Earth Suffered, Too: The Death of the Avocado Forest and Multispecies Three: The Times of Slow Peace Four: Too Much Prisa: The Temporal Dynamics of Violence and Peace Four: Too Much Prisa: The Temporal Dynamics of Violence and Peace Six: Voice and Votes: Building Territorial Peace Seven: Vigías of Hope: Slow Peace and the Ethics of Attention Coda: Coda

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Book SynopsisFor decades, the outside world mostly knew Myanmar as the site of a valiant human rights struggle against an oppressive military regime, predominantly through the figure of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. And yet, a closer look at Burmese grassroots sentiments reveals a significant schism between elite human rights cosmopolitans and subaltern Burmese subjects maneuvering under brutal and negligent governance. While elites have endorsed human rights logics, subalterns are ambivalent, often going so far as to refuse rights themselves, seeing in them no more than empty promises. Such alternative perspectives became apparent during Burma's much-lauded decade-long "transition" from military rule that began in 2011, a period of massive change that saw an explosion of political and social activism. How then do people conduct politics when they lack the legally and symbolically stabilizing force of "rights" to guarantee their incursions against injustice? In this book, Elliott Prasse-Freeman documents grassroots political activists who advocate for workers and peasants across Burma, covering not only the so-called "democratic transition" from 2011-2021, but also the February 2021 military coup that ended that experiment and the ongoing mass uprising against it. Taking the reader from protest camps, to flop houses, to prisons, and presenting practices as varied as courtroom immolation, occult cursing ceremonies, and land reoccupations, Rights Refused shows how Burmese subaltern politics compel us to reconsider how rights frameworks operate everywhere.Trade Review"A combination analytical breadth, sparkling playfulness, ethnographic granularity, and deep sympathy for the heroic resistance of the Burmese democratic movement. Take a deep breath and dive in at the deep end; you'll be glad you did."—James C. Scott, Yale University"In this thoughtful exploration of the brutal political realities of present-day Myanmar, Elliott Prasse-Freeman unpacks the various understandings of human rights that both direct and bedevil attempts to instigate democratic reform. Noting that external observers have repeatedly misread Burmese conceptions of the very concept of rights, he offers an incisive corrective to such cultural tone-deafness with his nuanced analysis of Burmese activism and its often surprisingly diverse goals. His argument is a valuable lesson for all those who blithely assume that all meanings and values are inherently universal and thereby run the risk, in Prasse-Freeman's telling phrase, of "mocking the miserable.""—Michael Herzfeld, Harvard University"Rights Refused is a theoretically ambitious and ethnographically rich study of social activism, refusal and resistance in Myanmar. Prasse-Freeman lucidly captures how activists in specific local contexts reconfigure human rights discourses to challenge oppressive state power, and his insightful analysis reshapes our understanding of rights are operating in the contemporary world."—Shannon Speed, University of California, Los Angeles"Rights Refused transcends the confines of a mere book; it serves as a vital expedition, inviting readers to engage in a profound journey of empathy and introspection. Prasse-Freeman's humanisation of the activists and individuals at the heart of the struggle invites readers to step into their shoes and comprehend the immense challenges they face."—Thanapat Chatinakrob, London School of Economics Review of BooksTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Variegated Violence 2. Living Refusal 3. Plow Protests 4. Cartoons, Curses, and the Corpus 5. Taking Rights, Seriously 6. Rights in Desperation Conclusion: Rights Erosion and Refusal beyond Burma

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Book SynopsisDrawing on a rich set of original oral histories conducted with retired factory workers from industrial centers across the country, this book provides a bottom-up examination of working class participation in factory life during socialist and reform-era China. Huaiyin Li offers a series of new interpretations that challenge, revise, and enrich the existing scholarship on factory politics and worker performance during the Maoist years, including the nature of the Maoist state as seen in the operation of power relations on the shop floor, as well as the origins and dynamics of industrial enterprise reforms in the post-Mao era. In sharp contrast with the ideologically driven goal of promoting grassroots democracy or manifesting workers' status as the masters of the workplace, Li argues that Maoist era state-owned enterprises operated effectively to turn factory workers into a well-disciplined labor force through a complex set of formal and informal institutions that functioned to generate an equilibrium in power relations and work norms. The enterprise reforms of the 1980s and 1990s undermined this preexisting equilibrium, catalyzing the transformation of the industrial workforce from predominantly privileged workers in state-owned enterprises to precarious migrant workers of rural origins hired by private firms. Ultimately, this comprehensive and textured history provides an analytically astute new picture of everyday factory life in the world's largest manufacturing powerhouse.Trade Review"The Master in Bondageis not a simple history. In each chapter,HuaiyinLisystematically—and convincingly—makes a substantial contribution to the history of labor in China, challenging key tenets of what have become conventional understandings of industrial relations during the Maoist era."—Joel Andreas, John Hopkins University"Huaiyin Li presents a treasure trove of oral history which can never be collected again, and which goes way beyond the documentary record to add so much that is significant, new, and surprising to our picture of the Chinese working class at a crucial juncture in its re-formation."—Marc Blecher, Oberlin College

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Book SynopsisA cultural revolution in England, France, and the United States beginning during the time of the industrial and political revolutions helped usher in modernity. This cultural revolution worked alongside the better documented political and economic revolutions to usher in the modern era of continuous revolution. Focusing on the period between 1847 and 1937, the book examines in depth six of the cultural "battles" that were key parts of this revolution: the novels of the Brontë sisters, the paintings of the Impressionists, the poetry of Emily Dickinson, the Ballets Russes production of Le Sacre du printemps, James Joyce's Ulysses, and Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Using contemporaneous reviews in the press as well as other historical material, we can see that these now-canonical works provoked outrage at the time of their release because they addressed critical points of social upheaval and transformation in ways that engaged broad audiences with subversive messages. This framework allows us to understand and navigate the cultural debates that play such an important role in 21st century politics.Trade Review"Outrage will teach readers to think about modernity in new ways—as an era in which public disputes about art shifted our imaginations of society and our ability to critique the status quo. Giuffre's book is the newest and best addition to a tradition of academic scholarship on cultural conflict and the politics of the arts."—Jennifer Lena, Columbia University"Giuffre persuasively and engagingly documents how artistically transgressive works not only violate the conventions of their own genres, but also offend contemporary sensibilities. They spur outrage in the short run, whether intentionally or inadvertently, but they also respond to and catalyze long-term social and moral change. A terrific work that shows how art and politics are recurrently intertwined."—Paul McLean, Rutgers UniversityTable of Contents1. Symbolic Warfare in the Field of Culture 2. "A Morbid Love of the Coarse, Not to Say the Brutal": The Novels of the Brontë Sisters 3. "The Summit of Vulgarity": The Paintings of the Impressionists 4. "An Eccentric, Dreamy, Half-Educated Recluse": The Poetry of Emily Dickinson 5. "Delirious Cocksuckers": Le Sacre du printemps and the Ballets Russes 6. "Damnable, Hellish Filth from the Gutter of a Human Mind": James Joyce's Ulysses 7. "No Theme, No Message, No Thought": Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God 8. A Permanent Revolution

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Book SynopsisOn November 24, 2016, the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia signed a revised peace accord that marked a political end to over a half-century of war. Feel the Grass Grow traces the far less visible aspects of moving from war to peace: the decades of campesino struggle to defend life, land, and territory prior to the national accord, as well as campesino social leaders' engagement with the challenges of the state's post-accord reconstruction efforts. In the words of the campesino organizers, "peace is not signed, peace is built." Drawing on nearly a decade of extensive ethnographic and participatory research, Angela Jill Lederach advances a theory of "slow peace." Slowing down does not negate the urgency that animates the defense of territory in the context of the interlocking processes of political and environmental violence that persist in post-accord Colombia. Instead, Lederach shows how the campesino call to "slowness" recenters grassroots practices of peace, grounded in multigenerational struggles for territorial liberation. In examining the various layers of meaning embedded within campesino theories of "the times (los tiempos)," this book directs analytic attention to the holistic understanding of peacebuilding found among campesino social leaders. Their experiences of peacebuilding shape an understanding of time as embodied, affective, and emplaced. The call to slow peace gives primacy to the everyday, where relationships are deepened, ancestral memories reclaimed, and ecologies regenerated.Trade Review"This book expertly and eloquently offers a close examination of how human and more-than-human relations are regenerated in the context of war and its aftermath. Lederach recovers and makes visible how campesino peacebuilding emerges from a distinct ecological imagination, and their efforts to achieve in praxis reparation and reconciliation."—María Clemencia Ramírez, Instituto Colombiano de Antropologia e Historia"Lederach's scholarship is impeccable, deftly fusing Colombian and international scholarship on peacemaking, her own ethnographic insights, and the voices of montemariano peasants, who are not mere interlocutors, but co-thinkers and mentors. This beautifully written book is a powerful example of what collaborative ethnography can be."—Joanne Rappaport, Georgetown University"This is a deeply human and humane book that builds a case for 'slow peace', or peace based on developing relationships over time in a particular place. Angela Lederach has crafted an excellent book that is full of sensitively observed details of how communities get on with life after conflict. The book ties together the themes of the environment, power, temporality and place. It is highly recommended."—Roger Mac Ginty, Durham University"This beautifully written book is a must read for academic and nonacademic readers interested in peace building processes at the grassroots level. Essential."—A. Arraras, CHOICETable of ContentsIntroduction: To Defend Life: An Introduction One: From and For the Territory: The Campesino Struggle for Peace Two: The Earth Suffered, Too: The Death of the Avocado Forest and Multispecies Three: The Times of Slow Peace Four: Too Much Prisa: The Temporal Dynamics of Violence and Peace Four: Too Much Prisa: The Temporal Dynamics of Violence and Peace Six: Voice and Votes: Building Territorial Peace Seven: Vigías of Hope: Slow Peace and the Ethics of Attention Coda: Coda

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Book SynopsisA cultural revolution in England, France, and the United States beginning during the time of the industrial and political revolutions helped usher in modernity. This cultural revolution worked alongside the better documented political and economic revolutions to usher in the modern era of continuous revolution. Focusing on the period between 1847 and 1937, the book examines in depth six of the cultural "battles" that were key parts of this revolution: the novels of the Brontë sisters, the paintings of the Impressionists, the poetry of Emily Dickinson, the Ballets Russes production of Le Sacre du printemps, James Joyce's Ulysses, and Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Using contemporaneous reviews in the press as well as other historical material, we can see that these now-canonical works provoked outrage at the time of their release because they addressed critical points of social upheaval and transformation in ways that engaged broad audiences with subversive messages. This framework allows us to understand and navigate the cultural debates that play such an important role in 21st century politics.Trade Review"Outrage will teach readers to think about modernity in new ways—as an era in which public disputes about art shifted our imaginations of society and our ability to critique the status quo. Giuffre's book is the newest and best addition to a tradition of academic scholarship on cultural conflict and the politics of the arts."—Jennifer Lena, Columbia University"Giuffre persuasively and engagingly documents how artistically transgressive works not only violate the conventions of their own genres, but also offend contemporary sensibilities. They spur outrage in the short run, whether intentionally or inadvertently, but they also respond to and catalyze long-term social and moral change. A terrific work that shows how art and politics are recurrently intertwined."—Paul McLean, Rutgers UniversityTable of Contents1. Symbolic Warfare in the Field of Culture 2. "A Morbid Love of the Coarse, Not to Say the Brutal": The Novels of the Brontë Sisters 3. "The Summit of Vulgarity": The Paintings of the Impressionists 4. "An Eccentric, Dreamy, Half-Educated Recluse": The Poetry of Emily Dickinson 5. "Delirious Cocksuckers": Le Sacre du printemps and the Ballets Russes 6. "Damnable, Hellish Filth from the Gutter of a Human Mind": James Joyce's Ulysses 7. "No Theme, No Message, No Thought": Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God 8. A Permanent Revolution

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Book SynopsisTechnological advancements, expanding education, and unfettered capitalism have encouraged many around the world to aspire to better lives, even as declines in employment and widening inequality are pushing more and more people into insecurity and hardship. In Egypt, a generation of young men desire fulfilling employment, meaningful relationships, and secure family life, yet find few paths to achieve this. The Labor of Hope follows these educated but underemployed men as they struggle to establish careers and build satisfying lives. In so doing, this book reveals the lived contradiction at the heart of capitalist systems—the expansive dreams they encourage and the precarious lives they produce. Harry Pettit follows young men as they engage a booming training, recruitment, and entrepreneurship industry that sells the cruel meritocratic promise that a good life is realizable for all. He considers the various ways individuals cultivate distraction and hope for future mobility: education, migration, consumption, and prayer. These hope-filled practices are a form of emotional labor for young men, placing responsibility on the individual rather than structural issues in Egypt's economy. Illuminating this emotional labor, Pettit shows how the capitalist economy continues to capture the attention of the very people harmed by it.Trade Review"There is no doubt that Harry Pettit has the gift of ethnographic presentation. The Labor of Hope is an important, original, and truly laudable addition to the emerging literature on contemporary labor in Egypt."—Nefissa Naguib, University of Oslo, author of Nurturing Masculinities"The Labor of Hope is an amazing ethnography of capitalist dreams that motivate Egyptians of modest means to strive for success—a success largely denied by inequalities that push people towards precarious service work. Harry Pettit reveals what happens when you're inspired to be the next Steve Jobs, but the labor market wants you for the call center."—Samuli Schielke, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient,author ofMigrant Dreams"The Labor of Hope brings into sharp focus the emotive work undertaken by slipping middle classes as they endure the many indignities and compromised life-trajectories of a polarized labor market. Harry Pettit offers a penetrating analysis of the affective labor that underpins contemporary capitalism marked by steepening inequalities."—Bruce O'Neill, Saint Louis University, author of The Space of BoredomTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Selling Hope 2. The Drugs of Life 3. Without Hope There Is No Life 4. The Labor of Love 5. The Migration of Hope Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

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