Another thread about class

[AllisonSays]

I'm bowing out of what is becoming a painfully circular conversation, Trents, but Dissolute Ocelot (great username btw) expressed what I'm trying to say better than I have managed to so far.

[derek stitt]

Pierre Bourdieu had a nuanced analysis of class that wasn't just up and down, but divided according to social (who you know), economic (how much you have), and cultural capital (which relates to soft knowledge and who you can mix with), and society divided into different fields in which people could be more or less successful.

This is a really good description,  although I would be a little more abrasive in my explanation of how  middle class cultural capital manifests itself. Middle class snobbery can be just as limiting for those of us born below stairs as the old boy network.

[TrenterPercenter]

I'm bowing out of what is becoming a painfully circular conversation, Trents, but Dissolute Ocelot (great username btw) expressed what I'm trying to say better than I have managed to so far.

Ocelots post is good; I'm a big fan of Bourdieu as it happens.

You'll find some interesting counter arguments in the link below on how Bourdieu is basically working from and not replacing Marx's theory
http://burawoy.berkeley.edu/Bourdieu/3.Marx.pdf

My personal feelings are they are both right in different ways and the habitus is an essential and logical extension of what Marx was saying.

[Non Stop Dancer]

I was going to write something similar to this. Grew up pretty poor - not the worst, but I think if my parents had to raise me in the current age where things are much shitter  we'd be quite near the bottom rung.

Left school with no qualifications and eventually somehow managed to turn a crap job into a quite well paying business and now have savings which would pretty much pay the (small compared to many) mortgage off twice if we wanted, but I have it baked into me that it might somehow all disappear and I'll be destitute,and I don't think I'd shake that with 10 times as much in the bank. There are things I'm happy to spend money on without thinking about it too much, but I never buy takeaways because it seems like a waste of money just daft little things like that which make me feel somehow guilty.

Edit: this was supposed to be in reply to JaDanketies similar post a few pages back.

[bgmnts]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/did-become-ashamed-admit-middle-class/

[Kankurette]

Breakfast, lunch, tea. I'm not sure where I got that from.

[PowerButchi]

3 meals a day? You bunch of Quentins.

[Paul Calf]

Of course 30 seconds after posting that message I get a call from my girlfriend telling me that she's lost her job. Or rather been put on unpaid leave, which is more or less the same thing as they know she won't be well enough to go back for a while yet.

Oh well, goodbye life savings. It's been nice knowing you.

Is that even legal? I know I'm basically teaching my granny to suck eggs but have you tried ACAS or the other, inferior CAB?

[ProvanFan]

Kick, punch and a headbutt is what we got and we were bloody grateful

[AllisonSays]

Ocelots post is good; I'm a big fan of Bourdieu as it happens.

You'll find some interesting counter arguments in the link below on how Bourdieu is basically working from and not replacing Marx's theory
http://burawoy.berkeley.edu/Bourdieu/3.Marx.pdf

My personal feelings are they are both right in different ways and the habitus is an essential and logical extension of what Marx was saying.

I read and wrote about Bourdieu for an embarrassing amount of time before deciding I don't really like it, haha, although for sure I don't think he's incompatible with Marx; maybe he's a wee bit more pessimistic. I really like some of the stuff that people have written about him though - Lee Charlesworth in the British context, Didier Eribon in the French one (especially Return to Reims). And the recent series of novels by Édouard Louis are interesting as Bourdeusian novels about class and sexuality.

More broadly, again, none of what I'm saying is to debunk Marxism - it's intended to be complementary, really.

[Jockice]

Is that even legal? I know I'm basically teaching my granny to suck eggs but have you tried ACAS or the other, inferior CAB?

Possibly not but I think the firm she works for (a very well-known multinational) is trying to get rid of staff (especially part-time ones) and her being on long-term sick leave during a pandemic has given them the chance to try their luck.

She joined a union not long ago (I finally managed to convince her it was a good idea) and as I do voluntary stuff for a disability charity that does a bit of employment stuff (but strangely won't give me an actual job) I mentioned it to my 'boss' who sent me a list of people to contact.

She's dyslexic (my girlfriend not my 'boss') so finds it really difficult to fill in forms but has managed to do it all on the phone up to now. Which is fine. She loves talking. Especially to random strangers. Me, not so much.