Introduction: Class, Culture and Identity
Introduction: Class, Culture and Identity
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简介：阶级、文化和身份
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发表时间：
2005
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通讯作者：
S. Lawler
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作者：
S. Lawler
把这三个术语--阶级、文化、身份--放在一起意味着什么？这样的并列可以在增加对每个术语的分析方面做些什么呢？从历史上看，阶级的理论分析与文化或身份的分析是分开发展的。然而，在将这三个词放在一起考虑--或者实际上是在紧张中--对这一特别问题的不同贡献有一些共同的特点。首先，也许最明显的是，面对广泛的政治和理论上关于“阶级的终结”的宣告，这里的文章论证了阶级作为分析不平等形式的一种手段的持续重要性。其次，他们认为阶级不平等不仅仅是经济不平等的问题，也是通过象征和文化形式传播的--例如，通过人们被判断为在道德上值得的手段，或者被认为拥有正确的知识或“品味”。第三，随之而来的是，撰稿人还将阶级概念化为动态的；作为一种不断在社会生活的大小进程中重新制造的不平等系统：通过全球资本的运作和寻找新的市场，也通过对权利的主张(和非权利)，通过符号和表现，以及在生活的情感和情感层面。阶级的这种动态特征与被分类的身份有关，因此阶级被理解为一组“空的”能指(就业、住房等)。等待着被可以互换的社会行为者填补，但也是我们正在做的事情。因此，对社会制度和社会行为者的二分法提出了挑战。正如Mariam Fraser(1999：120)所说，‘lass不平等，可能被认为是社会和经济公正(或不公正)的“大规模”问题，会产生“真正的”社会影响，其中之一是主观性“。在接下来的内容中，作为对这个问题的介绍，我将依次就这些主题逐一说一点。我的大部分关注点将放在英国，但大多数分析都有更广泛的地理应用。
hat does it mean to bring these three terms – class, culture, identity – together? What can such a juxtaposition do in terms of adding to an analysis of each of the terms? Historically, theoretical analyses of class developed separately from analyses of either culture or identity. However, in considering these three terms in juxtaposition – or indeed in tension – the diverse contributions to this special issue share a number of features. First, and perhaps most obviously, in the face of widespread political and theoretical proclamations of ‘the end of class’ the articles here argue for the continuing significance of class as a means of analysing forms of inequality. Second, they consider class inequality not simply as a matter of economic inequality but also as circulating through symbolic and cultural forms – through, for example, the means by which people become judged as morally worthwhile, or as having the right kind of knowledge or ‘taste’. Third, and following from this, the contributors also conceptualize class as dynamic; as a system of inequality which is continually being re-made in the largeand small-scale processes of social life: through the workings of global capital and the search for new markets, but also through claims for entitlement (and of non-entitlement), through symbols and representations, and in the emotional and affective dimensions of life. This dynamic character of class is related to classed identities, so that class is understood, not as a set of ‘empty’ signifiers (employment, housing, etc.) waiting to be filled by interchangeable social actors, but as also something we are. Hence, a challenge is mounted to the dichotomy between social system and social actor. As Mariam Fraser (1999: 120) puts it, ‘[C]lass inequalities, which might be thought of as “large scale” issues of social and economic justice (or injustice), give rise to “real” social effects, one of which is classed subjectivities’. In what follows, and by way of introduction to this issue, I will say a little about each of these themes in turn. Much of my focus will be on the UK, but most of the analysis has a broader geographical application.