ABSTRACT

The strategies, decisions and beliefs of those who occupy prominent positions of economic power have influence on very large corporations and the markets they dominate, on vast amounts of economic resources, and on the rules of the game. However, the sociology of elites faces a dual challenge: divergent conceptualisations of what can be considered as a position of economic power and internationally incompatible sources of information hinder comparative analysis. The World Elite Database (WED) addresses this dual challenge, by generating, based on a consistent definition, standardised data for 16 countries. This research note introduces WED, its construction principles, and presents preliminary findings on how economic elites differ across countries.

ABSTRACT

The association between contextual poverty and educational achievement is not well-researched in lower-income countries. This paper investigates this link and examines how it varies between urban and rural school locations in Bangladesh, acknowledging the dual urban-rural dynamics of the country. Analyses based on original school-level longitudinal data, encompassing over 90 per cent of secondary schools in Bangladesh, demonstrate that subdistrict-level educational poverty (measured as the proportion of adults with education below the primary level) has a stronger and significantly negative association with achievement at the secondary level compared to economic poverty (measured as the percentage of people under the national poverty line). This negative association is starker for the ‘science’ academic stream, which necessitates supplementary private tutoring. I argue that in poorer local areas, pupils are less likely to encounter successful role models in science fields, experience a shortage of qualified instructors, and face difficulties in securing additional resources for science subjects due to poverty. Furthermore, urban areas generally exhibit higher achievement levels, reflecting a greater proportion of educated individuals and role models. However, urban achievement experiences a sharper decline with increasing educational poverty, likely due to structural inequalities such as informal settlements and unequal access to quality schools. In contrast, rural areas show less sensitivity to educational poverty, possibly due to the ‘scarcity effect’ of role models, where the limited presence of role models exerts a disproportionately positive influence on aspirations, even in high-poverty contexts.

ABSTRACT

This paper is concerned with how nationalism is convened and condensed in this moment by exploring the function of loss and death and their centrality to nationalism's articulation. The discussion attempts to make sense of how death possesses an ideological currency that wields an alluring quality and equips nationalism with a moral imperative. This focus is stimulated by the abundant rhetoric which draws on real, mythologised and metaphorical deaths, to imply the ‘killing off’ of our communities, our industrial heartlands, our values, our nation, etc., and which has been a perennial feature of English nationalisms but which has intensified since the Brexit campaigns, their enduring legacy and the general move to the right. The racialised dimensions of these arguments are recognised as vital to reveal the close imbrication of the narration of race, class and nation and the various claims made through their articulation with death, including how this underpins who is worth saving and not. Indeed, the key aim of the paper is to demonstrate nationalism's capacity to simultaneously produce the moral imperative for sacrifice for authentic (often white working class) subjects and the brutal abandonment of racialised ‘others’ for the sake of the longevity of the nation. In short, it seeks to better understand how lives are said to matter and not, especially in times of economic hardship. I propose that the integrity of the nation claims to be reliant on the sacrifices of the, implicitly white working-class ‘left behind’ via austerity, Brexit and beyond, but that this is simultaneously contingent on the brutal abandonment of racialised others.

ABSTRACT

This article explores gender and social justice in post-conflict societies, using Northern Ireland as a case study. It focuses specifically on the socio-economic impact of the UK's withdrawal from the EU (Brexit) on women in Northern Ireland using a social justice framework, drawing on recognition, redistribution and representation as conceptualised by Nancy Fraser. It uses qualitative research conducted between 2022 and 2023 comprising focus groups, an expert seminar and semi-structured interviews sensitive to an intersectional understanding of women. While centred on Brexit, the findings have broader implications for understanding how post-conflict governance, sovereignty, and international obligations intersect with gendered inequalities. We argue that Brexit demonstrates a profound neglect of Northern Ireland's unique position, politically and geographically, particularly the UK's obligations under the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement, and underscores the marginalisation and exclusion of women's voices in post-conflict governance. We find that the impact of Brexit on women in Northern Ireland is distinct and disproportionate from other parts of the UK for several reasons, including that it is a post-conflict society; there exists specific patterns of violence against women; and there is a prior reliance by the third sector on EU funding. The article thus contributes to a deeper understanding of the systemic barriers that inhibit participatory equality and outlines pathways for achieving social justice in Northern Ireland.

ABSTRACT

A growing population in economically developed societies are simultaneously providing childcare and older adult care, or sandwich care. The existing studies reveal that sandwich carers are more physically, mentally and financially challenged than those providing dyadic care. This article explores an understudied area of sandwich care and ambivalence. Ambivalence encompasses the difficulties, challenges, and range of feelings, including guilt, anger, isolation, sense of duty, fulfilment and many others that sandwich carers' experience. Building on the existing sociological approach to ambivalence, this paper proposes a theoretical framework for delineating the entangled structural and relational webs where sandwich carers' experiences and negotiations are situated. Our theoretical framework captures the temporal, socially structured and policy-contextual properties of ambivalence. We argue that ambivalence arises from historical and prospective family relationships (temporal) that intersect with the gendered expectations for parenting and family responsibility of adult social care (socially structured), which further intersects with care policy and available care services (policy contextual). The three qualities of ambivalence influence each other in multiple ways. Socially structured and temporal qualities of ambivalence can influence sandwich carers' access to and experience of using care services, but the social arrangement of care can also increase or mitigate ambivalence in sandwich care arising from them. While we illustrate this by drawing on considerable evidence from Japan, we argue that our study provides a useful theoretical framework attuned to understanding the experience of such carers in diverse social and cultural contexts.

ABSTRACT

Insurance serves as a social good, providing financial protection against disasters whilst operating within a profit-driven market. This dual role highlights the complex intersection of social and commercial interests, raising a fairness puzzle often portrayed as a trade-off between solidarity and actuarial fairness. Insurance organisations adhere to actuarial fairness by setting insurance premiums proportional to each individual's risk. As extreme weather drives greater losses in high-risk areas, actuarial fairness often results in unaffordable premiums for many. To address this, societies may adopt principles of solidarity fairness to subsidise their premiums. However, this approach threats diminishing personal responsibility to contain risk, as individuals may rely on subsidised protection rather than taking proactive measures. This study draws on a longitudinal qualitative study of a government-legislated insurance organisation to develop a process framework that reconceptualises fairness in insurance as a duality of solidarity and actuarial fairness. It offers insights into designing insurance systems that are socially equitable and financially sustainable.

ABSTRACT

In his classic work L'ancien régime et la révolution, Alexis de Tocqueville proposes a reinterpretation of the French Revolution: behind the spectacular ruptures associated with the event, profound continuities are at play. Beyond the specific case of the French Revolution, Tocqueville calls for vigilance in mobilizing the notion of revolution to account for historical dynamics. In this contribution, I propose to apply this vigilance to account for the supposed “Big Data revolution” in the field of European insurance. Most observers of the sector—whether professionals or academic—agree that the arrival of Big Data represents a major rupture. This break would call into question the business model of insurance companies, stabilized for 250 years around the principle of risk pooling, since it would now be possible to individualize risk management. This individualization of risk management would then reconfigure the nature of solidarity and the social bond at work within Western societies, which, since the end of the 19th century, have been constituted as “insurance societies” (Ewald 1986). On the contrary, I defend the idea that these ruptures are only apparent, incomplete or unfinished, and that the “Big Data Revolution” masks profound continuities, by mobilizing two arguments: attempts to individualize risk management long predate the advent of big data; and attempts to individualize risk management based on big data are, to date, inconclusive.

The British Journal of Sociology, Volume 76, Issue 2, Page 473-475, March 2025.

The British Journal of Sociology, Volume 76, Issue 2, Page 470-472, March 2025.

The British Journal of Sociology, Volume 76, Issue 2, Page 462-463, March 2025.

The British Journal of Sociology, Volume 76, Issue 2, Page 467-469, March 2025.

Abstract

The conventional understanding of resilience often portrays it as a positive outcome emerging from adverse situations. This perspective frequently shapes interventions aimed at bolstering resilience among individuals considered to be in need. Drawing upon data from a European study, this paper contends that young people's apparent ‘latent rejection’ of favourable opportunities, or their deliberate choice to remain in precarious situations despite having some agency, should be recontextualised as unconventional but valid expressions of resilience. Instead of framing resilience solely as an aspirational concept, we propose a reframing that emphasises its role in coping with and surviving challenging circumstances. Furthermore, we advocate for the adoption of Mason's ‘safe-uncertainty’ model to foster a more practical form of resilience. This approach towards a more sustainable resilience could be valuable in other fields dealing with those populations labelled as ‘vulnerable’, ‘problematic’ or ‘disadvantaged’, and it can, we argue, enhance decision-making skills, and promote the development of robust support networks.

Abstract

In this paper, we complement a previous study of the UK natural science elite, as represented by Fellows of the Royal Society, with a comparable study of the humanities and social sciences elites, as represented by Fellows of the British Academy. We seek to establish how far similarities and differences exist in the social composition of these three academic elites and in the routes that their members have followed into elite positions. We are also concerned with the consequences of the humanities and social sciences elites being brought together in the British Academy, in contrast with the situation in most other countries where elite natural and social scientists are located in the same academy. We pursue these issues in the context of C. P. Snow's discussion of the social underlay of the cultural disjunction that he saw between the natural sciences and the humanities, while also considering how the social sciences fit in. We find that there is support for Snow's position at the time of his writing. However, a notable development in more recent years is that the growing social sciences elite is moving in its social composition away from the humanities elite and closer to the natural science elite. This is primarily due to changes in the social origins and education of Fellows in those sections of the British Academy that are on the borderline between the social and the natural sciences. A widening difference thus arises with Fellows in the humanities sections most representative of Snow's ‘traditional culture’.

Abstract

Academics influence not only knowledge production but also selection to the labour market and policy development. They have power. Despite the sociological attention paid to class in higher education, few studies have examined the way in which class interferes with the careers of those navigating from being students to becoming scholars. Building on Bourdieu's theory of social reproduction, this study examines how class influences different groups' experiences of becoming academics. Based on 60 interviews with Norwegian scholars in their early to mid-careers, the analysis identifies the kind of classed resources that are in play in the unequal access to academic positions. Beyond more classical resources, such as financial, cultural, and psychological certainty, the interviewees point to the significance of an early familiarity with the rules of the game and strategic navigation of the academic system. We use these findings to discuss and nuance Pierre Bourdieu's perspectives on the role of incorporated, practical consciousness and disinterestedness in class reproduction in the academic world. This theoretical contribution facilitates the combined analysis of the implicit and the explicit ways that dominant classes preserve their position in the hierarchy, which the study demonstrates as key to social reproduction in academic careers.

Abstract

This paper seeks to enhance memory studies' conceptual toolkit by reconsidering established perspectives on “memory politics.” The paper theorizes various modes of temporal connectivity cultivated through politicized references to a shared past. Our empirical case is focused on a collection of roughly 5.000 recent articles about the war in Ukraine from major Russian state-aligned news outlets. We analyze and typologize the narrative and rhetorical gestures by which these articles make the Soviet “Great Patriotic War” and the post-Soviet “special military operation” speak to one another, both prior to and following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The analysis demonstrates that even in contemporary Russia's tightly controlled, propagandistic mass media ecology, politicized uses of memory foster diverse temporal structures within the propaganda narratives. We present a typology of these relations, mapping the distinct modes and intensities of connections between past and present. At one end of the spectrum, we identify a mode of temporal organization that presents past events and figures as fully detached from the present, available solely for historiographic reflection. At the other end, we find narratives that entirely collapse historical distance, addressing contemporary audiences as participants in a timeless war drama, with stakes that transcend any specific historical period. We propose that the presented typology may be applicable beyond our specific case. As a tool for analyzing the hitherto understudied organization of time in politicized articulations of memory, it could be employed in various cultural and political contexts. Furthermore, our approach can serve as a foundation for future research into the actual persuasive and affective impact that specific temporal modalities may have on their target audiences.

Abstract

Treasuring the legacy of Ida B Wells-Barnett as a Black feminist is a vital liberatory commitment, as previous scholarship has commendably demonstrated. Equally important, however, is the need to present Wells-Barnett as an anticolonial theorist whose scholarly texts—Southern Horrors, A Red Record, and Crusade for Justice—should be incorporated into social theory curricula. This article examines Wells-Barnett's acute apprehension of the foundational structures of the US empire-state in her scholarly writings on lynching. As she analysed, the white mob violence epitomised the co-re-formation of race and gender, rule of difference, and subversion of offender-judge relationship. The agency of non-state actors (e.g., lynch mobs) and government agents (e.g., judge and politicians) co-constituted the reformation—not total transformation—of these foundational structures. Lynching, therefore, was the lynchpin of the US empire-state in the post-Reconstruction period: it sustained the white supremacist order by imposing a mass death penalty on Black people, while simultaneously serving as a disgrace to US civilization. To conclude, we highlight how Wells-Barnett's theory offers broader relevance to anticolonial/postcolonial sociology, particularly through her subaltern standpoint, attention to the role of non-state actors, and her commitment to intersectional analysis.

Abstract

How do sellers on online marketplaces determine agreeable prices? This question is a theoretical concern for sociologists but a professional one for secondhand clothing resellers. Thousands of resellers across the United States purchase items from physical secondhand clothing sources and then resell them for a profit on sites such as Depop, Etsy, and Poshmark. They confront two pricing challenges: secondhand clothing items are aesthetic items of non-standard, uncertain quality, and online marketplaces offer limited explicit institutional support to back pricing claims. I analyze interviews and fieldwork to theorize how resellers price items for sale on online marketplaces. Resellers gain knowledge of secondhand community values and online marketplace technologies via immersion into offline (local reselling networks and secondhand sources) and online spaces (social media and the marketplaces themselves). Resellers selectively draw on these sources of pricing knowledge to deploy similar but varied pricing practices. These situated valuation practices reveal how resellers rely on reselling community structures and reflexively invoke pricing displays on marketplace interfaces to price secondhand clothing. These practices increase confidence in exchange as resellers can suitably justify the prices of material goods to online marketplace participants with varying levels of knowledge and experience.

Abstract

Changes in the social mobility of men in Scotland between the late-19th and the late-twentieth century are examined using new individual-level data from nineteenth-century censuses, linking records of men aged 0–19 in 1871 to their records in 1901, and then comparing their patterns with the social mobility of men aged 30–49 in 1974 and in 2001 as recorded in social surveys at these dates. The extent of social mobility in the nineteenth century was large. In particular, the social origins of people in the highest classes—the salariat—were very varied, indicating a society that was more open than is sometimes supposed. There was a slow growth in social mobility between then and 2001. In both periods, class inheritance—sons in the same social class as their father—was strongest in the economically declining sectors, which were agriculture and fisheries in 1901 and industry in 1974 and 2001. In the 1901 data, however, the transition to a non-agricultural economy induced strong outward mobility from agriculture.

Abstract

This article examines the erosion of political legitimacy in ex-mining towns in England. Political sociologists and political scientists have long taken an interest in the politics of coalmining areas, which were characterised by high strike rates and militant left values. More recently, the question of legitimacy in these areas has resurfaced, as now-deindustrialised pit towns register unusually high levels of political discontent and disengagement compared to areas with similar economic and demographic profiles. In interviews and group discussions with 93 residents of the former mining town of Mansfield, England, I find that many express ideas that profoundly challenge the system of representative democracy in its current form, with almost one in three participants understanding politics primarily through the frame of corruption. Drawing on an emergent literature which casts corruption talk as a moralised discourse of political in/exclusion, I argue that the corruption frame is best understood as the inversion of a now-defunct symbolic economy. As workers in pit towns no longer received the same tokens of care from their representatives, reflecting their reduced power, many came to understand the political system as corrupt and illegitimate.

The British Journal of Sociology, Volume 76, Issue 2, Page 460-461, March 2025.