Subaltern Workers in Contemporary France

This volume explores the lives and work of those who are kept out of poverty by their employment, but who occupy tenuous social positions and subaltern jobs.

Autorentext

Olivier Masclet is Professor of Sociology at the Université de Limoges and co-director of the GRESCO Research Centre, France.

Thomas Amossé is a researcher at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Lise-CEET Research Centre, Paris, France.

Lise Bernard is a researcher at CNRS and a member of the Centre Maurice Halbwachs, Paris, France.

Marie Cartier is Professor of Sociology at Nantes Université.

Marie-Hélène Lechien is Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Limoges, France.

Olivier Schwartz is Professor of Sociology at the Université Paris Cité, France.

Yasmine Siblot is Professor of Sociology at the University of Paris 8, CRESPPA-CSU Research Centre, France.

Inhalt

1. Subalterns in a 'Society of the Similar': A Study of the Lifestyles of the Stable-Modest Fractions of the Contemporary Working Classes 2. An Exploration of the Working Classes Starting from their Middle Fractions: A Two-Pronged Approach, through Statistics and Case Studies 3. Stories of Stabilisation: An Introduction to Part One 4. 'We went too high': A Household Destabilised by its Residential and Professional Aspirations (Elodie and Clément) 5. Arranging Life: A Strong Investment in Activities Other Than Work (Laurent and Thomas) 6. 'A Mellow Job' and Living with a Friend: A Young, Single Male Worker's Adjustment to a Subaltern Condition (Romain) 7. Holding On: Sparing No Effort to Stabilise an Unstable Position (Véronique) 8. 'Getting it right this time': Aspiring to Join the World of Intellectuals (Souleyman and Yamina) 9. 'You've got to fight': Work as a Resource for a Fragile Success (Mina and Michel) 10. Making a Virtue of Simplicity: The Hedonistic Choices of a Working Couple (Michou and Yvon) 11. A Story of Social Reclassification: A Couple from Rural Backgrounds Gone to the City (Mireille and Roger) 12. Gender Relations and Domestic Space: An Introduction to Part Two 13. Being a Mother and Unemployed: Resisting Being Stuck at Home (Laeticia and Valentin) 14. The Power of Two Femininities (Régine and Hervé) 15. A Business that Works: Breaking Away from the Family Model, Relying on Family Help (Cécile and Jean-Marc) 16. An Interlude of Equality: 'Stéphanie is there with the children; she can manage the homework' (Nicolas and Stéphanie) 17. Keeping the Conjugal Peace: A Compensatory Domestic Equality (Cécilia and Eric) 18. Being a Housewife: Between the Permanence and the Evolution of a Traditional Role (Nadège and Patrick) 19. Triangular Social Consciousness, Institutional Goodwill, and Changing Relations with Other Social Groups: An Introduction to Part Three 20. Being a Respectable Woman: Between the Stigma of Housing Estates and the Union In-Group (Chantal) 21. 'Simple People'? A 'Local' Working Class Family: Between Reproduction and Social Opening (Nathalie and Alain) 22. 'It's Really Important to be Able to Develop': Social Ambitions and Political Disappointments in a Working-Class Household (Vanessa and Samuel) 23. Always between Two Worlds: The Split Local Social Life of a Couple (Manou and Jean) 24. The Cleaning Woman and the School Parents' Association: On Multipositionality in the Working Classes 25. Getting Back to a 'Normal Life': Biographical Disruptions and 'Institutional Goodwill' (Sylvie and Enzo) 26. 'I've had Two Lives': Self-Improvement Work and the Infiltration of Psychological Culture into Working-Class Worlds (Philippe and Marianne) 27. Conclusion. Goodwill as Necessity: Aspirations and the Relationship to Norms of the Middle Fractions of the Working Classes