Making the middle classes on shifting ground? Residential status, performativity and middle-class subjectivities in contemporary London

an article by Michaela Benson and Emma Jackson (Goldsmith's College, University of London, UK) published in The British Journal of Sociology Volume 68 Issue 2 (June 2017)

Abstract

This paper argues that shifts in access to housing – both in relation to rental and ownership – disrupt middle-class reproduction in ways that fundamentally influence class formation. While property ownership has had a long association with middle-class identities, status and distinction, an increasingly competitive rental market alongside inflated property prices has impacted on expectations and anxieties over housing futures.

In this paper, we consider two key questions:

1. What happens to middle-class identities under the conditions of this wider structural change?
2. How do the middle classes variously manoeuvre within this?

Drawing on empirical research conducted in London, we demonstrate that becoming an owner-occupier may be fractured along lines of class but also along the axes of age, wealth and timing, particularly as this relates to the housing market. It builds on understandings of residential status and place as central to the formation of class, orienting this around the recognition of both people and place as mutable, emphasizing that changing economic and social processes generate new class positionalities and strategies for class reproduction.

We argue that these processes are writ large in practices of belonging and claims to place, with wider repercussions within the urban landscape.

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Valorised but not valued? Affective remuneration, social reproduction and feminist politics beyond the crisis

an article by Emma Dowling (Middlesex University, London, UK) published in British Politics Volume 11 Issue 4 (December 2016)

Abstract

This paper proposes an analytical distinction between modes of valorising and modes of valuing social reproduction to suggest that a conflict between these two opposing modes lies at the heart of an on-going crisis of social reproduction in the face of purported economic recovery, where unpaid reproductive labour constitutes a source of surplus value.

A systemic imperative to expand markets in the pursuit of profitability goes hand in hand with a devaluation of social reproduction, either by making this work invisible or by externalising its cost.

This article analyses the specificities of this process in the context of contemporary Britain and investigates the role of the state, focusing on volunteering and new forms of ‘affective remuneration’ linked to financialisation and the connection between social reproduction and wealth extraction.

In conclusion, the paper outlines the contours of possible counter-practices informed by a feminist politics.

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Social mobility or social reproduction? A case study of the attainment patterns of students according to their social background and ethnicity

an article by Matthew Collins (Lichfield Cathedral School, Staffordshire, UK), Gemma Collins (University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, UK) and Graham Butt (Oxford Brookes University, UK) published in Educational Review Volume 67 Issue 2 (April 2015)

Abstract

This paper explores levels of achievement amongst boys who attended a selective school in Birmingham, UK through consideration of their attainment, social background and ethnicity.

It seeks to answer three main questions.

Firstly, to what extent does academic attainment vary between students from different socio-economic groups and ethnic backgrounds?

Secondly, what are the possible reasons for these variations?

Thirdly, what can selective schools do to close the gaps in attainment between these groups?

The research study sought to determine whether different groups of boys in the case study school experienced social mobility, or social reproduction, as a consequence of the education they received.

Using quantitative data of student attainment (n = 625), combined with information on their residential location, areas of comparatively low achievement across the city of Birmingham were mapped. Spatial data for levels of deprivation and ethnicity were also considered. The resulting map identifies areas of high vulnerability (HV) to poor performance, specifically by identifying the postcodes of neighbourhoods containing students who are most likely to underachieve.

Qualitative data was gathered amongst students (n = 121) who were embarking on their General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) studies. All were asked to identify factors that might affect their academic performance. These findings were then cross-referenced with the postcode study to help analyse possible reasons for underachievement.

The main finding of this research was that the study school experiences a distance-decay effect in relation to examination success. Boys from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups generally performed worse than White British (WB) boys, while students from deprived areas of the city were also less likely to succeed. Students from poorer communities tend to live in environments of relatively low aspiration, although one inner city area was identified as anomalous with regard to the achievements of its students.

We conclude that social reproduction, rather than social mobility, is occurring within the case study school and suggest a range of initiatives to raise the levels of achievement of those who are most socially disadvantaged.

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