Abstract
The point of departure for the study is the central emphasis placed on biographical experiences for elucidating processes of group formation in sociological theory. The study devotes specific attention to contextualized accounts of class biographies in both time, space and according to the dynamics of class fractions. Class analysis often relies on temporal snapshots, disregards intra-class variation, and abstracts class reproduction away from the spatialized contexts in which much social life is played out. Notwithstanding the growing attention devoted to both space and class fractions in recent contributions, a key argument in the study is that these matters remain insufficiently linked to temporal dynamism and life course variation. Thematically, the articles deal with three biographical features that are anticipated to promote homogenized experiences along class divisions; in addition to the conventional interest in intra- and intergenerational class immobility, the study adds ‘contextual immobility’ as indicated by the degree to which one’s neighbourly environment is reproduced over time.
List of papers
Paper 1: Enduring contexts: Segregation by affluence throughout the life course. Maren Toft. The Sociological Review, 2018, Vol. 66(3) 645 –664. DOI: 10.1177/0038026117741051. The paper is not available in DUO due to publisher restrictions. The published version is available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026117741051 |
Paper 2: Upper-class trajectories: capital-specific pathways to power. Maren Toft. Socio-Economic Review, 2018, Vol. 16, No. 2, 341–364. DOI: 10.1093/ser/mwx034. The paper is not available in DUO due to publisher restrictions. The published version is available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwx034 |
Paper 3: Maren Toft. Mobility closure in the upper class: assessing time and forms of capital. The British Journal of Sociology 2018. DOI: 10.1111/1468-4446.12362. The paper is not available in DUO due to publisher restrictions. The published version is available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12362 |