Search

Scholarship demonstrated the major role of inheritance and kinship for elite's power reproduction, particularly among noble families. In the absence of monarchic and court structures, ruling classes that enjoyed privileges and engaged in social closure could become the functional equivalent of a nobility. In this paper, we examine the evolution of the power of Swiss patrician families in the three major Swiss cities (Basel, Geneva, and Zurich) since the end of the nineteenth century and assess whether urban oligarchies endure in the twentieth century and what role kinship ties play in the reproduction of power structures. Building on a systematic database of 5,199 urban elites who hold power positions in the main economic, political, academic, and cultural institutions, we describe the evolution of Swiss patrician families between 1890 and 1957. Using social network, kinship, and sequence analysis, we provide a comprehensive investigation of the Swiss patrician elite's evolution at both the individual and the family level. Our analyses show a general decline of patrician families' presence in urban positions of power, however with significant variations according to both the cities and the spheres of activity. Furthermore, we identify distinct trajectories of families who have either lost their access to power positions, managed to access again or have remained in urban power positions according to different survival strategies. Beyond the Swiss case, we contribute to the literature on power and kinship through an interdisciplinary approach combining historical and sociological perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manon Garcia's book, "We Are Not Born Submissive," explores the role of women's submission in perpetuating patriarchy. Garcia defines submission as a form of consent, where women actively choose not to pursue freedom. She argues that feminism should address this phenomenon and study its manifestations in women's lives. Garcia draws on Simone de Beauvoir's work to understand women's submissiveness, but some critics question the validity of Beauvoir's approach and suggest exploring other feminist thinkers. Garcia also examines the connection between submissiveness and patriarchy, raising questions about the distinctiveness of women's submissiveness compared to other oppressed groups. She envisions a future where women no longer feel the temptation of submission, challenging patriarchy and transforming various aspects of women's lives. Overall, Garcia's book contributes valuable insights to feminist philosophy and the study of domination and oppression. [Extracted from the article]

In the book "Privilege and Prophecy: Social Activism in the Post-War Episcopal Church" by Robert Tobin, the author explores the tension within the Episcopal Church between its English heritage and its desire to establish itself as genuinely American. The church has historically been associated with a privileged elite, appealing to the educated and aesthetically sensitive. However, a post-war generation of leaders dedicated themselves to progressive social reform, sacrificing the prestige and unity of the church. The book examines the challenges faced by clergy from privileged backgrounds claiming the role of prophets, as well as the church's shift towards extreme liberalism during the 1960s. The author also offers a challenge to the Church of England, cautioning against following the path of the Episcopal Church. [Extracted from the article]

Health benefits among the members of state-level societies may vary depending on sex, social privilege, and whether the individual resides in an urban or rural setting. Human skeletal remains are prone to express individual life experiences and, ultimately, well-being. This research elaborates on these correlates by contextualizing the physiological stresses among Classic Maya hinterland populations in comparison to their urban peers. Comparisons are made using the frequencies and expression of enamel hypoplasia, caries, porotic hyperostosis, infectious osteomyelitis/subperiosteal reaction and osteoporosis in 842 adult skeletons of both sexes from 63 peripheral and centric, inland, lowland settlements. The results suggest problematic inland weaning diets and higher infectious load among rural populations. While comparisons between urban and rural lifeways show inconsistent load differences, our results indicate repeated distinctions between the sexes. We cautiously interpret this pattern as an indication of a physically demanding regime of rural life compared to a more sedentary routine among urban peers and gendered lifestyles in general. We conclude that apart from these distinctions (and potential sample biases), the health costs versus benefits impacted rural lifestyles in a complex and non-uniform fashion during the first millennium a.d., rejecting clear-cut hierarchical conceptualizations while inviting more nuanced causal explorations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay traces the literary and cultural history of resentment from the word’s first arrival in English. It argues that resentment harbors the seeds of a new paradigm of anger, tied to a new sense of anger’s social content: where ancient accounts of anger center on the anger of the powerful, this form of anger—embodied most famously in Nietzsche’s theory of Ressentiment—addresses the anger of disempowered social agents. The argument unfolds in three stages: first, I use digital tools and a large-scale archive to analyze what early modern writers wrote about when they wrote about resentment; second, I pursue the word into the history of science and new ways of thinking about the nature of anger; and third, I read literary history and the Shakespearean plot of tragic intrigue in particular as an extended imaginative investigation of this changing set of concerns in the sociality of anger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through engaging with everyday practices among student activists in contemporary Indian campus politics, this ethnographic study examines the breadcrumb trail between the left and self-fashioning. It focuses on a performative modality of political representation in Indian democracy by tracing the formation of biographical reconfigurations that implement subject-oriented techniques. The article charts their relevance in producing political legitimacy. It engages with the way in which personal reconfigurations are mobilized to recruit and appeal to both subaltern and privileged communities, thus generating universalistic representative claims and political efficacy. The study discusses self-presentations among leading left activists who are members of five contending Marxist student organizations that are active in Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University campus. It shows that reconfigurations are a hallmark of practices of social 'downlift' which echo the notion of declassifying, a concept developed by philosopher Jacques Rancière. While embracing secularism and the legacy of political martyrs, the analysis illustrates how self-fashioning attempts to erase signs and habits attached to economic and social privileges through subverting and engaging creatively with sacrificial and ascetic tropes. Conversely, such practices find themselves critically questioned by activists at the bottom of the social ladder who aspire to social upliftment, including members of lower castes and impoverished Muslim communities. I find that the biographical effects of left activism are both long-lasting and renegotiable, shaping campus lives and subsequent professional careers. While such reconfigurations are not inspired by world renouncers of the Hindu mendicant tradition, these practices of the self might exemplify the historical cross-fertilization between long-standing cultural idioms and the Indian Marxist praxis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the category of foreigner in the context of academia. In the first part I explore this category and its philosophical significance. A quick look at the literature reveals that this category needs more attention in analyses of dimensions of privilege and disadvantage. Foreignness has peculiarities that demarcate it from other categories of identity, and it intersects with them in complicated ways. Devoting more attention to it would enable addressing issues affecting foreigners in academia that go commonly unnoticed. In the second part of the article I argue that current efforts to make academia a more inclusive environment should address the disadvantages that many foreign academics face. I focus on two senses of foreigner: working and living in a country that is not your country of origin, and being a nonnative speaker of the language in which you work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on Chinese politics frequently utilize the safety valve analogy to describe various political decisions that allow space for feedback and challenges. Drawing upon these empirical studies and the theoretical literature on institution, authoritarianism, and democratization, this review essay delineates the logic of the safety valve strategy and how it fits into the scheme of prolonging authoritarian rule. It identifies the use of informal and temporary measures to appease aggrieved citizens as the central feature of the safety valve strategy, complementing formal means such as institutional reform. The informal and temporary measures are different from the patronage system, and credibility is not necessarily a prerequisite for effectiveness. The safety valve strategy contributes to authoritarian resilience by relieving public frustration, reducing the propensity to contentious politics, and in some cases enabling the government to collect information on potential opposition groups or emerging problems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

After decades of civil war, the archdukes Albert and Isabella drew on the princely hunt to consolidate their regime in the Habsburg Netherlands. In essence a performance of dominion, the hunt served to enact their exalted birth and the return to peace and order. Attempts to unify the hunting laws of their possessions were, however, frustrated by provincial liberties. As a result the archducal hunt had to derive its prestige from where it was held, rather than from the species that were hunted. Appropriating the cult of Saint Hubertus and patronizing artistic representations further enhanced the prestige of these locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Church of England is experiencing a significant decline in membership and in other forms of influence and engagement, whose implications may have consequences for the Anglican Communion as a whole. The qualitative as well as quantitative changes suggest the need for a renewal of Anglican public theology that maintains a positive account of the relationship between church and world while letting go the expectation of privilege and power. Articles in this issue of the Journal of Anglican Studies address the public character of Christianity in Britain after Christendom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the impact of systematic ignorance and epistemic uncertainty upon white Western women's participation in anti-racist and transnational feminisms. I argue that a 'methodology of the privileged' is necessary for effective coalition-building across racial and geopolitical inequities. Examining both self-reflexivity and racial sedition as existing methods, I conclude that epistemic uncertainty should be considered an additional strategy rather than a dilemma for the privileged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Job-market discrimination research in the United States and Europe measures discrimination by a majority against racial minorities, discrimination that stems from historical patterns of inequality and privilege. Chilean researchers have applied these models to study class-based discrimination, finding some evidence to support its existence. Their innovative methods make race as well as class visible, and contradictions in their work show racial differences among Chileans. This research note highlights the interesting research from a new generation of labor economists who have simultaneously pushed the sanctioned limits of social debate and reaffirmed dominant explanations of inequality. Critical race theory is useful for making sense of the contradictions in their work and, it is argued, can improve the quality of Chilean social science research so as to reach a more accurate and self-reflective understanding of the sources and effects of inequality in Chile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a discursive approach, this study explores the ways that adolescents construct the notion of social status and ?being privileged? through their talk about musician role models. Drawing on social identity theory (see Tajfel, 1978), we examined how adolescents moved between the relational ?in? and ?out? groups of being privileged versus being disadvantaged as a framework for discussing classical and popular musician role models. Seven focus groups were conducted, each composed of male and female adolescent musicians and non-musicians aged 14?15 years. Participants were asked to discuss 19 pictures of famous classical and popular musicians, commenting on whether they were familiar or unfamiliar figures, and whether they were liked or disliked and the reasons why. Through their talk, the adolescents constructed and negotiated a complex understanding of musical subcultures, whereby high levels of expertise and success were perceived within the notion of privilege. Findings suggest that adolescents' perceptions of privilege may act as a barrier or constraint to their exploration of alternative conceptualisations of musical expertise and success, thereby limiting their own musical aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Van de Vliert's findings fit nicely with our recent arguments implying that (1) differentiated selfhood is partly motivated by requirements of cultural groups, and (2) free will mainly exists within culture. Some cultural groups promote individual freedom, whereas others constrict it so as to maintain elites' power and privilege. Thus, freedom is, to a great extent, a creation of culture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]