Thinking with Bevereley Skeggs - Stockholms universitet

Perhaps the increased differentiation and complexity within andamong classes within contemporary Western societies could beemphasized more.Furthermore, Skeggs’ analysis of the middle class has asomewhat one-sided focus on exchange-value (although this maybe a rhetorical point on her part). Like in Bourdieu’s work, thisimplies a notion of human behaviour as governed by instrumentalinterests. Skeggs (2004: 187) herself denies this being the case,claiming that her analysis just happens to reflect how middleclassselves currently are formed.But I would like a greater focus on the use-value in ‘middleclass’culture, and more generally, on the creativity of action. Forinstance, while Skeggs claims that fashion designers appropriatewhite trash aesthetics in order to ‘open up new markets’, she alsodenigrates, I believe, how fashion and aesthetics have great usevaluefor many of them. It is clear from McRobbie’s study (1998)of British high-fashion designers that most of her intervieweesshowed great passion and non-instrumental motives in their work,seeing fashion design as art rather than simply business. Many ofthem put in an enormous amount of work while experiencingsevere financial pressures. In sum, Skeggs’ work on class is arich resource, which future research would do well to draw on,develop, and critically engage with.ReferencesBeck, U. (1992), Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity (London: Sage).—— and Beck-Gernsheim, E. (2002), Individualization (London: Sage).—— and Rutherford, J. (2002), ‘Zombie Categories: An Interview with UlrichBeck’, in U. Beck and E. Beck-Gernsheim, Individualization (London: Sage).Bottero, W. (2004), ‘Class Identities and the Identity of Class’, Sociology,38(5): 985–1003.Giddens, A. (1991), Modernity and Self-Identity (Stanford: Stanford UniversityPress).27