Description
Book SynopsisIn Members Only Diana Kendall shows how the upper classes use exclusive clubs as their private domain for conducting business, fostering social networks, and launching the next generation of elites - all beyond the view of outsiders and the media. In her research, Kendall explains how and why club members routinely engage in exclusionary practices that help them accumulate personal power and social capital that is unavailable to outsiders. Members Only addresses how exclusive private clubs maintain and perpetuate class-based privilege and racial/ethnic and religious segregation, and how such patterns of social exclusion heighten social inequality. This book continues Kendall''s study of the upper classes, which began with The Power of Good Deeds, and Framing Class.
Trade ReviewKendall illuminates how membership is controlled by and envelops the privileged few with a capacity to exercise social, cultural, and political capital. Her distinctive treatment of these assets fleshes out specific details so well that students of inequality are guaranteed satisfaction. Highly recommended. * CHOICE, July 2009 *
Table of ContentsChapter 1 The World of Exclusive Clubs Chapter 2 Exclusion and Snobbery Take a Trip from London to America Chapter 3 How the "Chosen Few" Are Chosen Chapter 4 Membership Has Its Privileges Chapter 5 Making Connections: Clubs and Political Networks Chapter 6 Change and Resistance to Change in Membership Policies Chapter 7 Beyond the Walls: The Wider Influence of Elite Clubs
