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CONTEMPORARY BRITISH SOCIETY by Nicholas Abercrombie and Alan Warde
(hier online bestellen)
Contents:
This third and completely revised and updated edition of the highly acclaimed CONTEMPORARY BRITISH SOCIETY is the
only textbook to provide comprehensive coverage of all aspects of the social structure of modern Britain.
This new edition employs the very latest statistical information and empirical studies, and examines all
the new arguments and debates concerning modern British society.
Separate chapters explore the major areas of modern life in Britain - economic organization, employment, patterns
of inequality, class, gender, ethnicity, family and households, education, health, media, deviance and
politics. New to this edition are chapters on globalization, associations and leisure.
The emphasis throughout this book is on an accessible, user-friendly, and non-technical approach. It is
written in an jargon-free and approachable style; there is extensive cross-referencing and frequent and clear summarizing of
arguments; and numerous photographs, diagrams, graphs, drawing and cartoons complement and illuminate
the text.
Extract from book:
From 'Social Classes - the upper class - networks':
"There are different kinds of networks between members of the upper class. There are marriage or kinship relations,
friendship or the 'old boy network', business and financial relationships, and the whole area of common background
formed, amongst other things, by school and university. We have already referred to the way that the wealth of
upper class individuals largely derives, by inheritance, from family connections. Members of the upper class also tend
to marry other upper-class individuals, giving the class a unity based on kinship and marriage. This has, of course,
always been the case. In the nineteenth century, when individual families controlled large businesses, there was extensive
intermarriage, as for example between the Quaker families which owned large food firms.
Connections of kinship and marriage are further extended by the ties of friendship and acquaintance which are often
summarized in the phrase 'old boy network'. To a large extent, this network is social. It is based on individuals seeing
each other regularly, not only in the way of business but also socially.
Social contacts of this kind are possible because of common background. Members of the upper class associate together
easily because they have the same tastes, attitudes and inclinations, formed by being brought up in the same
kinds of family and going to the same kinds of school and university. As J. Scott (1982) argues: 'The integrative role of the
public schools concerns their ability to mould the ideas and outlook of their pupils and to ensure frequent and
easy interaction among them'(p.160). Members of the business core of the upper class do, indeed, have a public
school background. For example, three-quarters of clearing bank directors in 1970 were from public schools, and one in three
were from Eton. In addition, between half and three-quarters of these directors had been to either Oxford or Cambridge university.
Or, to take a different case, Otley (1973) found that, in 1971, 75 per cent of senior army officers (lieutenant-
general and above) had been to major public schools.
A common background in family, school and university gives a common culture to members of the upper class which
enables them to interact freely. It also serves as the path to recruitment into the upper class by giving the required qualifications.
The result is that the class has a high degree of self-recruitment and social closure. What this means is that
current members of the upper class are likely to be the offspring of wealthy individuals, and their sons
and daughters are also likely to remain in the same social position. ....
About the authors:
Nicholas Abercrombie (photo) is Professor of Sociology and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Lancaster.
He is the author of many publications, including The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd edition
(Penguin, 1994), Television and Society (Polity, 1996), and Social Change in Contemporary Britain, edited
with Alan Warde (Polity, 1994).
Alan Warde is Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester. His recent publications
include Consumption, Food and Taste: Culinary antinomies and commodity culture, (Sage, 1997), S. Edgell,
K. Hetherington & A. Warde (eds), Consumption Matters, (1996), A. Warde & L. Martens, Eating Out: Social
differentiation, consumption and pleasure, (Cambridge University Press, 2000).
Rosemary Deem is Professor of Educational Research, Sue Penna is Lecturer
in Applied Social Science, Keith Soothill is Professor in Applied Social Science, John Urry and Andrew Sayer are
Professors of Sociology, all at the University of Lancaster. Sylvia Walby is Professor of Sociology at the University
of Leeds.
Buchdaten:
CONTEMPORARY BRITISH SOCIETY by Nicholas Abercrombie and Alan Warde
Sprache: Englisch
Broschiert - 640 Seiten - Polity Press
Erscheinungsdatum: 20. April 2000
Auflage: 3rd
ISBN: 0745622976
Preis: € 30,50
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