Missing Class

Betsy Leondar-Wright

Description

Many activists worry about the same few problems in their groups: low turnout, inactive members, conflicting views on racism, overtalking, and offensive violations of group norms. But in searching for solutions to these predictable and intractable troubles, progressive social movement groups overlook class culture differences. Missing Class looks through a class lens and discovers that members with different class life experiences tend to approach these problems differently. Using this class lens enables readers to envision new solutions, solutions that draw on the strengths of all class cultures to form the basis of stronger cross-class and multiracial movements.In Missing Class, the first comprehensive empirical study of US activist class cultures, Betsy Leondar-Wright looks at class dynamics in twenty-five groups that span the spectrum of social movement organizations in the United States today, including the labor movement, grassroots community organizing, and groups working on global causes in the anarchist and progressive traditions. Missing Class applies Pierre Bourdieu's theories of cultural capital and habitus to four class trajectories: lifelong working-class and poor; lifelong professional middle class; voluntarily downwardly mobile; and upwardly mobile.Compellingly written for both activists and social scientists, Missing Class describes class differences in paths to activism, attitudes toward leadership, methods of conflict resolution, ways of using language, diversity practices, use of humor, methods of recruiting, and group process preferences. Too often, we miss class. Missing Class makes a persuasive case that seeing class culture differences could enable activists to strengthen their own groups and build more durable cross-class alliances for social justice.

Sujets

• Charities
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Sociology
• Charitable organization
• Social class
• Activism

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 20 mars 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801470714
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

MISSING CLASS

MISSING CLASS

ST RE NGT HE NI NG SOCI AL MOVE ME NT GROUPS BY SE E I NG CL ASS CULT URES

B e t s y L e o n d a r  W r i g h t

ILR PRESS animprint of CORNELLUNIVERSITYPRESS IthacaandLondon

Copyright © 2014 by Cornell University

Allrightsreserved.Exceptforbriefquotationsinareview, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

Firstpublished2014byCornellUniversityPress Firstprinting,CornellPaperbacks,2014

PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Leondar-Wright, Betsy, author.  Missing class : strengthening social movement groups by seeing class cultures / Betsy Leondar-Wright.  pages cm  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN 978-0-8014-5256-7 (cloth : alk. paper) —  ISBN 978-0-8014-7920-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)  1. Social classes—United States. 2. Social movements— United States. 3. Speech and social status—United States. 4. Class consciousness—United States. 5. Intercultural communication—United States. I. Title.  HN90.S6L465 2014  303.48'40973—dc23 2013040673

CornellUniversityPressstrivestouseenvironmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Cloth printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Paperback printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Felice Yeskel 1954–2011 Myinspirationtoexploreclass, mycolleagueinfightingclassism, andmybelovedfriend

Co nt e nt s

List of Tables and Figures ix List of Online Tables and Appendixes xi

Introduction: Activist Class Cultures as a Key to Movement Building

1

Pa r t I . C l a s s D i v e r s i t y a m o n g A c t i v i s t s 1. Why Look through a Class Lens? Five Stories through Three Lenses 9 2. Applying Class Concepts to US Activists 29 3. Four Class Categories of Activists and Their Typical Group Troubles 38 4. Movement Traditions and Their Class-Cultural Troubles 64 Pa rt I I . A c t i v i s t C l a s s C u ltu r e s a n d S o lv i n g G r o u p Tr o u b l e s 5. Where Is Everybody? Approaches to Recruitment and Group Cohesion 87 Humor andClass Speech Differences I: Laughter115 6. Activating the Inactive: Leadership and Group-Process Solutions That Backfire 121 Abstract andClass Speech Differences II: Concrete Vocabulary152 Class Speech Differences III: Racial Terms158

viii CONTENTS

7.DiversityIronies:ClashingAntiracism Frames and Practices

Class Speech Differences IV: Talking Long, Talking Often184

8.Overtalkers:CopingwiththeUniversal Pet Peeve

V: Anger, Swearing,Class Speech Differences and Insults195

9. Activists Behaving Badly: Responses to Extreme Behavior Violations

VI: MissingClass Speech Differences Class Talk219

Conclusion: Building a Movement with the Strengths of All Class Cultures

Acknowledgments233 Appendix: Methodology Notes 235 Notes245 References257 Index269

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Ta b l e s a n d F i g u r e s

Table 3.1 Class categories and their education/occupation indicators Tabletradition percentages within each4.1 Movement class category Table4.2 Class percentages within each movement tradition Table I.1 Mean rates per hour of three types of humor in meetings by class background Table 7.1 Mentions of race or racism in meetings and interviews, percentages for frames by class trajectory Table 9.1 Conflict cultures, class composition, and movement traditions Table9.2 Conflict behavior and attitudes typical of four class-trajectory subcategories Figure 2.1 Diagram of social space; the volume and composition of capital Figure 3.1 Activists’ tastes in the social space of volume and composition of capital

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