- Title
- Class and class relations
- Creator
- Archer, Verity
- Date
- 2016
- Type
- Text; Book chapter
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/179294
- Identifier
- vital:15536
- Identifier
- ISBN:9780190300661
- Abstract
- James Arvanitakis, who put this book together, tells the following story in his lecture on class: It is a cool winter’s morning and I’m sitting in a café at a beach in Sydney with a good friend. We have just had a swim in the sea and we’re talking about the merits of what makes a good co ee when she turns to me and states: ‘You swim like a public schoolboy.’ I am a little stunned. ‘Sorry,’ I replied, ‘What did you say?’ She smiles and repeats: ‘You swim like a public schoolboy. You see, where I grew up in Tasmania, I went to a private school. We had access to pools and swimming lessons and my friends and I are all good swimmers. When we used to go swimming at the Launceston Gorge, we used to make fun of the boys from public schools who couldn’t swim very well. You swim like one of them.’ She is right— I did go to a public school, and the only access we had to swimming pools was at the annual swimming carnival. I begin to protest, but after thinking of the way she left me behind when we were swimming, I withdraw my protests and sink behind my co ee. This concept of dividing by those who have access to di erent levels of income and resources is known as ‘class analysis’. The issue of class is one that has been debated by sociologists and cultural theorists for centuries. One reason for this is that, although class essentially refers to social groups denied by their access to economic resources, the exact meaning of ‘class’ varies. While some argue that we should de ne class in terms of wealth, others believe that status is more important. In modern societies such as Australia, many believe that class is now irrelevant.
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Relation
- Sociologic : analysing everyday life and culture Chapter 6 p. 98-118
- Rights
- All metadata describing materials held in, or linked to, the repository is freely available under a CC0 licence
- Subject
- Sociology; Applied Sociology
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