The Moral Significance of Class [Paperback]

The Moral Significance of Class, first published in 2005, analyses the moral aspects of people's experience of class inequalities.The Moral Significance of Class analyses the moral aspects of people's experience of class inequalities. By drawing upon concepts from moral philosophy and social theory and applying them to empirical studies of class, this fascinating and accessible study shows how people are valued in a context in which their life-chances and achievements are objectively affected by the lottery of birth class, and by forces which have little to do with their moral qualities or other merits.The Moral Significance of Class analyses the moral aspects of people's experience of class inequalities. By drawing upon concepts from moral philosophy and social theory and applying them to empirical studies of class, this fascinating and accessible study shows how people are valued in a context in which their life-chances and achievements are objectively affected by the lottery of birth class, and by forces which have little to do with their moral qualities or other merits.Class affects not only our material wealth but our access to relationships and practices which we have reason to value, including the esteem or respect of others and hence our sense of self-worth. It determines the kind of people we become and our chances of living a fulfilling life. Applying concepts from moral philosophy and social theory to empirical studies of class, this accessible study demonstrates how people are valued in a context of the lottery of birth class, or forces having little to do with moral qualities or other merits.Preface and acknowledgements; 1. Introduction; 2. From habitus to ethical dispositions; 3. Recognition and distribution; 4. Concepts of class: clearing the ground; 5. Struggles of the social field; 6. Moral and immoral sentiments and class; 7. Responses to class I. egalitarianism, respect(ability), class pride and moral boundary drawing; 8. Responses to class II. exlsf