Rethinking Social Distinction

The analysis of social distinction cannot indefinitely remain confined to logics of reasoning that are markedly ethnocentric. Rather than just applying the consecrated schemes of Veblen or Bourdieu, Daloz provides new foundations in this book for understanding 21st Century Dubai, China, Russia and settings of the past.

"An analytically brilliant, powerfully sustained exercise in comparative theorizing at the middle range. Daloz pushes

the analysis of status distinction to a level it has never before achieved. Rethinking Social Distinction bristles with empirical insight and theoretical sophistication." - Jeffrey C. Alexander, Lillian Chavenson Saden Professor of Sociology, Yale University, US

"By employing the inductive method, and through the judicious use of a wide-ranging number of examples, Professor Daloz explores all aspects of the phenomena of social distinction, without however falling into either the trap of ethnocentricism or reductionism. Indeed his careful and nuanced comparative approach to the study of distinction is an excellent antidote to the all-too-common universalistic models current in the field, and should be compulsory reading for anyone interested in the topic." - Colin Campbell, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of York, UK

"Dealing with a quasi-universal topic, Daloz brilliantly uses comparatism across time and space, and across disciplinary and theoretical traditions. His remarkably informed analysis demonstrates how rigorous qualitative sociology can be. This is a most welcome contribution to those pioneering developments in some quarters of the French social sciences fortunately moving away from the normative perspectives of the previous decades."- Nathalie Heinich, CNRS Research Professor, École des Hautes Études enSciences Sociales, Paris, France

Autorentext
Jean-Pascal Daloz is Research Professor at the University of Strasbourg, France, and President of the Research Committee on Comparative Sociology of the International Sociological Association. His publications include The Sociology of Elite Distinction, Africa Works and Culture Troubles.

Inhalt

1. Introductory Chapter: From Sources of Dissatisfaction to Constructive Propositions 2. On Ostentation and Understatement 3. Exploring Socio-Political Aspects 4. Reference Models in the Eye of the Comparativist 5. From Symbolic Consistency to Synecdochic Strategies 6. Utilitarian Dimensions - Symbolic Dimensions 7. 'Distinction through Taste' Revisited 8. Strategic or Unconscious Grounds?