Programme full

Friday 17 April 2015 09:00 - 10:30
ROUNDTABLE SESSIONS
Social scientists have always been involved with the functions that social institutions have within the local community.
Overall, institutions, at state and local level, have been perceived as a mechanism of supporting the vulnerable people
within society. The aim of this paper is to critically explore the current debates on institutions within British society.
Self-placement in the Social Structure of Sweden
Karlsson, L.
(Demographic Data Base)
In the research area of social stratification the two assessments of subjective placement in the social structure;
subjective social position (status perception in a top-to-bottom hierarchy) and subjective class (class identity) are
commonly used, sometimes interchangeably. At the same time, small efforts have been made to thoroughly analyze
and compare how they relate differently to background characteristics, and how they relate to each other. A previous
study shows that individuals tend to assign themselves rather differently on the two types of scales (class versus
status) and that a higher proportion of women who identified with the working class, locating themselves in the bottom
strata (Karlsson, submitted article). The aim of this paper is to study changes in the two assessments of subjective
placement among Swedish citizens over a longer time-period, 1987-2012. Special attention will be given to differences
between gender and between age-groups. The source material is derived from the International Social Survey
Programme (ISSP) ('Social Inequality'). The method that will be used is logistic regression.
The Perpetuation of Poverty in the UK during the Age of Austerity: The Charity Sector Examined
Fuhr, C., Cohen, S.
(Woolf Institute and University of Cambridge)
The 2007-08 financial crisis has produced a recession in Europe not seen since the Great Depression. It has
provoked governments to implement drastic public sector cuts, building on anti-welfare measures initiated in the late
1990s. The subsequent rise in poverty has corresponded with the expansion of social initiatives in the United
Kingdom. Using the method of ethnography, this paper explores how staff and volunteers in foodbanks, soup kitchens
and homeless shelters, as well as in referral agencies such as the Citizens Advice Bureau define basic needs and
how they help their users to meet those needs. This analysis will illustrate that while community-oriented charities
widely define basic needs, their responses to fulfilling users' basic needs remains narrowly defined. Interviewees from
both types of initiatives highlight the problem of charities in providing emergency relief rather than holistic long-term
support in alleviating the socio-economic situation of vulnerable citizens. In addition, members of referral agencies
recognise the difficulty in providing immediate and sustaining support for their clients because of the
compartmentalisation of the charity sector. While the government addresses food poverty in its policy discussions, it
fails to recognise that food poverty is part of general poverty overall. Accordingly, the paper suggests that the
compartmentalisation of poverty by charities and the ignorance of its complexity by the government and policy-makers
perpetuate socio-economic deprivation in British society.
Social Divisions/Social Identities 2
ROUNDTABLE 23, CONFERENCE HALL, HAMISH WOOD BUILDING
'I'm not a snob, but..': Class Snobbery in the 21st Century
Friedman, S.
(London School of Economics and Political Science)
Recent research in the UK suggests that class snobbery has all but disappeared - an unsavoury relic of the nation's
class ridden past. Instead it is argued that it has now become a 'badge of honour' to deliberately refrain from drawing
symbolic boundaries based on class and embrace a 'spirit of openness' towards others (Bennett et al, 2009). Drawing
on survey data (N=320,000) and 54 follow-up interviews from the Great British Class Survey (GBCS), this paper
demonstrates that such a thesis may be misleading. Echoing recent work, we too find a widespread rejection of
snobbery among our respondents. However, while this public refusal of snobbery is strong, we argue that this is very
different to its real eradication. Indeed we find there is a strong disconnect between what people say about class
boundaries and how they actually enact them in their everyday lives, particularly through their cultural tastes and
participation. Using the proxy of certain cultural objects or types of cultural audiences, we find that those in high class
positions often make quite aggressive aesthetic and moral judgments about those who occupy lower positions in
social space. Centrally we argue that while most may self-consciously distance themselves from overt snobbery, it
remains a key tool in the policing of contemporary class boundaries.
249 BSA Annual Conference 2015
Glasgow Caledonian University