Stepping into the Elite
Trajectories of Social Achievement in India, France, and the United States
Price: 995.00 INR
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ISBN:
9780199487240
Publication date:
13/08/2018
Hardback
376 pages
Price: 995.00 INR
We sell our titles through other companies
Disclaimer :You will be redirected to a third party website.The sole responsibility of supplies, condition of the product, availability of stock, date of delivery, mode of payment will be as promised by the said third party only. Prices and specifications may vary from the OUP India site.
ISBN:
9780199487240
Publication date:
13/08/2018
Hardback
376 pages
Jules Naudet and Translated by Renuka George
The experience of shifting from one social class to another—from a dominated group to a dominant group—raises the question of how the upwardly mobile person relates to his/her group of origin. Stepping into the Elite traces the particular ways in which upwardly mobile people in India, France, and the United States—countries embodying three distinct stratification systems—make sense of this change.
Rights: World Rights
Jules Naudet and Translated by Renuka George
Description
The experience of shifting from one social class to another—from a dominated group to a dominant group—raises the question of how the upwardly mobile person relates to his/her group of origin. Stepping into the Elite traces the particular ways in which upwardly mobile people in India, France, and the United States—countries embodying three distinct stratification systems—make sense of this change.
Given that people draw upon specific cultural tools or repertoires to analyse their world and situate themselves in it, Naudet identifies the extent to which narratives of ‘success’ vary from one country to another. For instance, he explains that while stories in a caste-ridden society such as India hinge on the preservation of bonds with the original class, in France, they are centered on the idea that an upwardly mobile person is alienated from all social groups. In the United States, on the other hand, the rhetoric of success is tinged by the ardent belief in the American society being classless. A sociological journey in three different cultural contexts, this book deftly ties the exploration of questions regarding transformation of social identity and views on being successful.
About the Author and Translator
Jules Naudet is a research fellow with Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris, France.
Renuka George is a translator living between New Delhi and Paris.
Jules Naudet and Translated by Renuka George
Table of contents
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part One
1. Redefining the Analytical Framework of the Experience of Social Mobility
2. Comparing the Experience of Social Mobility in France, the United States, and India
Part Two
3. Succeeding without Betraying: Caste and Counter-Cultural Challenges of Social Mobility in India
4. Unquestioned Success: Class, Race, and Meritocracy in the United States
5. Mobility Haunted by Class: Etiquette, Distinction, and Hierarchies in France
6. National Specificities: Defining the Background of Origin
Conclusion: Instituted Ideology—A New Concept in Response to the Challenges of International Comparison
Appendix 1: ‘Lower-Caste’ Groups in India
Appendix 2: Interview Guide in English
Appendix 3: Tables of Interviews Conducted in India, France, and the United States
Index
About the Author and Translator
Jules Naudet and Translated by Renuka George
Jules Naudet and Translated by Renuka George
Review
‘In this daring and original study, Jules Naudet opens new vistas for the comparative study of inequality. Through rich, in-depth interviews with the upwardly mobile, his analysis sheds new light on the complex challenges that come with “making it” and on how experiences come to be structured differently across societies. This brilliant book stayed with me long after discovering it. Students of inequality have much to gain from it.’
Michele Lamont, Harvard University, co-author of Getting Respect: Responding to Stigma and Discrimination in the United States, Brazil and Israel (2016)
‘Jules Naudet is one of the most promising French sociologists of his generation. By focusing on three case studies (India, France, and the United States) that delineate distinctive ideal-types of the experience of upward social mobility (or immobility), he continues a long-standing tradition of comparison of these three countries that, from Tocqueville to Louis Dumont and Amartya Sen, has proven its fruitfulness. Yet he does so in a very original and innovative manner, through a subtle empirical analysis of individual trajectories, which calls attention to the conditions in which working-class origins can sometimes be valorized as an asset and a resource. Its subject matter as much as its methodology make Stepping into the Elite a must-read book.’
Pierre Rosanvallon, professor, College de France, Paris
‘This book is a bold attempt to push the boundaries of the sociological enterprise. The story of social mobility is often narrated in terms of aggregates, focusing on the numbers and their dynamics in a given national context. Naudet’s study explores complexities and nuances of the emotional and relational experiences of individuals on the move. More importantly, it does so comparatively, across three countries located in three different continents using available conceptual frames while also proposing a new set of categories to rethink the way social structures mould subjectivities.’
Surinder S. Iodhka, professor of sociology, Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Description
The experience of shifting from one social class to another—from a dominated group to a dominant group—raises the question of how the upwardly mobile person relates to his/her group of origin. Stepping into the Elite traces the particular ways in which upwardly mobile people in India, France, and the United States—countries embodying three distinct stratification systems—make sense of this change.
Given that people draw upon specific cultural tools or repertoires to analyse their world and situate themselves in it, Naudet identifies the extent to which narratives of ‘success’ vary from one country to another. For instance, he explains that while stories in a caste-ridden society such as India hinge on the preservation of bonds with the original class, in France, they are centered on the idea that an upwardly mobile person is alienated from all social groups. In the United States, on the other hand, the rhetoric of success is tinged by the ardent belief in the American society being classless. A sociological journey in three different cultural contexts, this book deftly ties the exploration of questions regarding transformation of social identity and views on being successful.
About the Author and Translator
Jules Naudet is a research fellow with Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris, France.
Renuka George is a translator living between New Delhi and Paris.
Reviews
‘In this daring and original study, Jules Naudet opens new vistas for the comparative study of inequality. Through rich, in-depth interviews with the upwardly mobile, his analysis sheds new light on the complex challenges that come with “making it” and on how experiences come to be structured differently across societies. This brilliant book stayed with me long after discovering it. Students of inequality have much to gain from it.’
Michele Lamont, Harvard University, co-author of Getting Respect: Responding to Stigma and Discrimination in the United States, Brazil and Israel (2016)
‘Jules Naudet is one of the most promising French sociologists of his generation. By focusing on three case studies (India, France, and the United States) that delineate distinctive ideal-types of the experience of upward social mobility (or immobility), he continues a long-standing tradition of comparison of these three countries that, from Tocqueville to Louis Dumont and Amartya Sen, has proven its fruitfulness. Yet he does so in a very original and innovative manner, through a subtle empirical analysis of individual trajectories, which calls attention to the conditions in which working-class origins can sometimes be valorized as an asset and a resource. Its subject matter as much as its methodology make Stepping into the Elite a must-read book.’
Pierre Rosanvallon, professor, College de France, Paris
‘This book is a bold attempt to push the boundaries of the sociological enterprise. The story of social mobility is often narrated in terms of aggregates, focusing on the numbers and their dynamics in a given national context. Naudet’s study explores complexities and nuances of the emotional and relational experiences of individuals on the move. More importantly, it does so comparatively, across three countries located in three different continents using available conceptual frames while also proposing a new set of categories to rethink the way social structures mould subjectivities.’
Surinder S. Iodhka, professor of sociology, Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Table of contents
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part One
1. Redefining the Analytical Framework of the Experience of Social Mobility
2. Comparing the Experience of Social Mobility in France, the United States, and India
Part Two
3. Succeeding without Betraying: Caste and Counter-Cultural Challenges of Social Mobility in India
4. Unquestioned Success: Class, Race, and Meritocracy in the United States
5. Mobility Haunted by Class: Etiquette, Distinction, and Hierarchies in France
6. National Specificities: Defining the Background of Origin
Conclusion: Instituted Ideology—A New Concept in Response to the Challenges of International Comparison
Appendix 1: ‘Lower-Caste’ Groups in India
Appendix 2: Interview Guide in English
Appendix 3: Tables of Interviews Conducted in India, France, and the United States
Index
About the Author and Translator
