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My dissertation examines couples’ transition to first-time parenthood, and how this experience varies by social class. More specifically, the design of this project is a qualitative comparison of two data collection points, which examines how couples of two different social class groups divide and manage housework before the birth of their first child, and how they manage the same housework (as well as the additional work of childrearing) six to nine months post-birth. With these concerns in mind, the primary question driving this research project is: do marriages become more gendered after the birth of a couple's first child, and if so, how does this experience differ by social class? The specific aims of the research are to identify if and how marriages become gendered after the birth of a couple’s first child. This study also seeks to identify and understand the disjuncture between what participants say versus what they do with regard to the completing of housework and parenting approaches. Research findings demonstrate how some couples’ marriages became more or less gendered, and how some marriages remained more gender-neutral, largely depended on the intersection of their gender repertoires and their social class position. Specifically, every household’s configuration of their access to social resources, availability of social support, their occupational (in)flexibility, and the pre-existing, gendered dynamics between husbands and wives directly and indirectly influenced their transitions to parenthood. Many middle and upper-middle class participants had the material and social resources which interacted with their gender repertoires and assisted them in achieving their desired post-birth outcomes. For most of these households, their new lives as parents involved a more gender-neutral distribution of housework and childrearing, and nearly all middle and upper-middle class mothers returned to paid employment after maternity leave. For most lower-middle class participants, however, the limitations in their educational attainment levels, annual household incomes, and social networks interacted with their gender repertoires in ways that posed constraints to their transition to parenthood, and their ability to achieve their desired post-birth, work-family balance. Financial restrictions and the unaffordability of childcare affected some lower-middle-class mothers’ abilities to return to paid employment, despite their initial intention of doing so. For some lower-middle class fathers, their occupational inflexibility constrained their abilities to spend more time with their families. The variation in gender repertoires between lower-middle, middle, and upper-middle class participants, resulted in differentials in how couples were able to respond to the changes and challenges of becoming parents. / Sociology

No / Class theorists ask for research on the 'paradox of class' - the fact that while class appears to be materially just as important as ever, it hardly features as part of a self-conscious social identity. At the same time mothering is usually seen as a classless activity. This paper describes class based differences in how mothers combine employment and caring for their children, how they divide labour with their partners, and how they choose childcare. These are not simple structural divisions between working class and middle class, but instead refer to more nuanced social identities. These class based differences in mothering present different mixes of choice and constraint, or of 'rationality' and 'preference' in choosing alternative courses of action. However, theories focusing on classless individualised preference (Hakim) and class-based rationality (Goldthorpe) do not go far beyond a tautological description of these alternatives. Rather, the paper shows how preference and rationality are socially and culturally created through the development of career as an identity, through biographical experience, through relations with partners, and through the development of normative views in social networks.

Educators often face a problem of the lack of ongoing contact between the school and students' homes (Delpit, 1995; Delgado-Gaitan, 1991; McCaleb, 1994). Literacy development at school is facilitated by teachers' knowledge of students' home-based discourses (Auerbach, 1989; McCaleb, 1994; Voss, 1996). This dissertation research responded to the question: What do educators need to understand and appreciate about their students' home or living context in order to create partnerships with parents and young students that will nurture literacy growth? This research is an ethnographic study. I spent one school year as a participant observer in a family literacy program. Young mothers who never finished high school and had children under the age of eight attended this program twice weekly. I observed during the family literacy sessions, recorded field notes, and conducted formal and informal interviews with nine family literacy program participants. I visited four women in their homes and conducted interviews. All interviews were tape recorded which were then transcribed. I collected copies of women's written pieces produced during the family literacy program. Data analysis and interpretation (Coffey & Atkinson, 1996) revealed themes and issues consistent within each of six women's stories. The deficiency model (Auerbach, 1989; Purcell-Gates, 1995; Sleeter, 1996) was challenged as each women demonstrated resourcefulness, articulated goals, the use of multiple literacies, commitment to their families' welfare, support and initiative in their children's schooling and a keen awareness of social class barriers. Repositioning our perspectives (Sleeter, 1996) enables educators to discover the strengths in students' home discourses that include multiple literacies (Voss, 1996) and other funds of knowledge (Moll & Greenberg, 1990). We need to move our lens from that of critique and judgement to that of discovery. Each student comes to school with an abundance of family and home experiences that need opportunities for expressions and learning. The pressures of negotiating home discourses with the dominant discourse (Gee, 1990; Sleeter, 1996) create reservoirs of strength for many families that is often masked by non-middle class appearances. / Ph. D.

A growing amount of research finds that the accumulation of, investment in, and mobilization of certain cultural resources are significant predictors of children's advantageous social development in both institutional settings and interpersonal relationships. Several theories and empirical analyses illustrate the importance of children's leisure-time activities in the accumulation of valuable resources. These cultural resources confer advantages to children, especially in educational settings (e.g. teachers' perception of students, intellectual development, and academic outcomes) because these arenas are often key spaces for social mobility. However, few research studies attempt to empirically pinpoint the socioeconomic origins of children's cultural (dis)advantages. This notable gap in the research literature can be addressed by examining family-level predictors of the accumulation and transmission of these cultural resources. The purpose of this study is to investigate the link between family-level socioeconomic status and children's participation in structured, extracurricular, arts-based activities as well as cultural performance attendance. Drawing on Bourdieu's (1984) concept of 'cultural capital' and Lareau's (2002; 2003) concept of 'concerted cultivation', this study explores whether or not socioeconomic status is a significant predictor of children's participation in extracurricular arts activities as well as attendance of cultural performances using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and the Child Development Supplement (CDS-II). I evaluate Lareau's class analysis and expand upon it by disaggregating the key dimensions of socioeconomic status and identifying which are the most salient for increased participation in arts-based activities among children in the United States context. I provide a detailed analysis and discussion of the nuanced relationships between socioeconomic status measures and youth participation in the arts. / Master of Science

Over the past 20 years, counseling professionals have become more committed to addressing multicultural competence and issues of diversity in order to respect and acknowledge the spectrum of worldviews clients represent. Race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and spirituality/religion are well-researched areas commonly included in counselor education courses. These courses allow counselors-in-training to examine their biases, beliefs, values, and worldviews about diverse populations, and develop applicable skills. However, far too often, social class and socioeconomic status are excluded from counselors' multicultural training, and similarly, often overlooked as an integral aspect of clients' culture (Liu, 2011; Smith, 2008). The current literature reveals that scholars have taken more interest in social class in the past decade, but none has explored counselors' social class awareness and understanding, two foundational aspects of multicultural competence. The purpose of this study was to describe counselors' social class understanding and awareness through qualitative methodology. Via semi-structured interviews, licensed counselors in the Commonwealth of Virginia described how they understood social class and socioeconomic status, their awareness about social class and socioeconomic status, and issues related to classism. Four themes emerged related to social class understanding and awareness: income/money, social class designations, social status, and the places people live. Three themes surfaced linked to socioeconomic status understanding and awareness: Income, education and financial stability. Two categories emerged with regard to classism: participants' classism experiences and participant demonstrations of classism during the interview process. Three themes arose related to participant demonstrations of classism during the interview process: class microaggressions, class misconceptions, and class privilege. Implications for counseling, counselor education, and supervision are discussed, study limitations are provided, and avenues for future research are considered. / Ph. D.

A emergência de uma massa de novos consumidores no Brasil na década de 2000 gerou a necessidade, por parte das empresas e organizações, de conhecer hábitos, comportamentos e gostos desta parcela da população, que até então estava invisível, pela restrição econômica, aos olhos do mercado. Gerou também uma intensa discussão sobre a reconfiguração de nossa sociedade, em que importa a suposta criação de nova classe social, a \"nova classe média\" ou \"nova classe C\". Estes fatos provocaram o interesse inicial para o desenvolvimento desta Tese de Doutorado, que, assentada no paradigma marxista, buscou lançar mão de arcabouço teórico capaz de compreender as questões relacionadas ao tema central, o consumo, e de seu reconhecido vetor, a Publicidade, conjugadas à discussão sobre as condições materiais impostas pela sociedade capitalista. Os objetivos foram aprofundar o conhecimento teórico sobre o consumo e suas significações; contribuir para a análise sobre os novos consumidores em particular; compreender as suas representações por meio da Publicidade. A base metódica foi composta por revisão bibliográfica, pesquisa qualitativa com consumidores e análise semiótica. O percurso de pesquisa ampliou seu escopo inicial e, ao final, foi possível elaborar e propor tipos ideais de processos de consumo ancorados no quadro mais amplo de classes sociais. Esses processos, com o auxílio da análise das representações na Publicidade, foram descritos em diferentes dimensões que, a nosso ver, compõem a complexa sociedade contemporânea: a dimensão fluida dos movimentos ascendentes ou segregatórios do consumo, a dimensão rígida da estrutura e das classes sociais, a dimensão simbólica das representações. Desenhou-se assim o que chamamos de retratos sociocomunicacionais. / The emergence of a mass of new consumers in Brazil, in the decade of 2000, created the need for companies and organizations to learn about the habits, behavior patterns and preferences of this portion of the population, which, until then, was invisible to the market\'s eye, as a result of economic strain. It also triggered an intense discussion on the reconfiguration of our society, to which the supposed creation of a new social class is of importance, the \"new middle class\" or \"new C social class\". These facts attracted our first interest in preparing this PhD Thesis, which, based on the Marxist paradigm, resorted to a theoretical framework that is able to understand the issues related to the main topic, consumption, and its acknowledged vector, Advertising, combined with the discussion on the material conditions a capitalist society imposes. The goals are those of diving deep into the theoretical knowledge on consumption and its meanings; of adding to the analysis conducted on new consumers in particular; of understanding its representations by means of Advertising Activities. Bibliographic review, quantitative research conducted with consumers, and semiotic analysis comprise the methodical base. The research path expanded its initial scope, and, ultimately, we were able to prepare and propose ideal types of consumption processes supported by the wider range of social classes. These processes, with the help of the analysis conducted on representations used in Advertising, were described within different dimensions, which, in our opinion, comprise the complex, contemporary society: the fluid dimension of consumption\'s ascending or segregated movements, the unbending dimension of structure and social classes, the symbolic dimension of representations. And so were designed what we call socio-communicational portraits.

A emergência de uma massa de novos consumidores no Brasil na década de 2000 gerou a necessidade, por parte das empresas e organizações, de conhecer hábitos, comportamentos e gostos desta parcela da população, que até então estava invisível, pela restrição econômica, aos olhos do mercado. Gerou também uma intensa discussão sobre a reconfiguração de nossa sociedade, em que importa a suposta criação de nova classe social, a \"nova classe média\" ou \"nova classe C\". Estes fatos provocaram o interesse inicial para o desenvolvimento desta Tese de Doutorado, que, assentada no paradigma marxista, buscou lançar mão de arcabouço teórico capaz de compreender as questões relacionadas ao tema central, o consumo, e de seu reconhecido vetor, a Publicidade, conjugadas à discussão sobre as condições materiais impostas pela sociedade capitalista. Os objetivos foram aprofundar o conhecimento teórico sobre o consumo e suas significações; contribuir para a análise sobre os novos consumidores em particular; compreender as suas representações por meio da Publicidade. A base metódica foi composta por revisão bibliográfica, pesquisa qualitativa com consumidores e análise semiótica. O percurso de pesquisa ampliou seu escopo inicial e, ao final, foi possível elaborar e propor tipos ideais de processos de consumo ancorados no quadro mais amplo de classes sociais. Esses processos, com o auxílio da análise das representações na Publicidade, foram descritos em diferentes dimensões que, a nosso ver, compõem a complexa sociedade contemporânea: a dimensão fluida dos movimentos ascendentes ou segregatórios do consumo, a dimensão rígida da estrutura e das classes sociais, a dimensão simbólica das representações. Desenhou-se assim o que chamamos de retratos sociocomunicacionais. / The emergence of a mass of new consumers in Brazil, in the decade of 2000, created the need for companies and organizations to learn about the habits, behavior patterns and preferences of this portion of the population, which, until then, was invisible to the market\'s eye, as a result of economic strain. It also triggered an intense discussion on the reconfiguration of our society, to which the supposed creation of a new social class is of importance, the \"new middle class\" or \"new C social class\". These facts attracted our first interest in preparing this PhD Thesis, which, based on the Marxist paradigm, resorted to a theoretical framework that is able to understand the issues related to the main topic, consumption, and its acknowledged vector, Advertising, combined with the discussion on the material conditions a capitalist society imposes. The goals are those of diving deep into the theoretical knowledge on consumption and its meanings; of adding to the analysis conducted on new consumers in particular; of understanding its representations by means of Advertising Activities. Bibliographic review, quantitative research conducted with consumers, and semiotic analysis comprise the methodical base. The research path expanded its initial scope, and, ultimately, we were able to prepare and propose ideal types of consumption processes supported by the wider range of social classes. These processes, with the help of the analysis conducted on representations used in Advertising, were described within different dimensions, which, in our opinion, comprise the complex, contemporary society: the fluid dimension of consumption\'s ascending or segregated movements, the unbending dimension of structure and social classes, the symbolic dimension of representations. And so were designed what we call socio-communicational portraits.

This thesis argues that in the wake of the Decembrist Revolt in Russia in 1825, the British Foreign Office was forced to address the tension between two conceptions of stability-one domestic and one international. It contends that the aristocratic ethos of the British diplomatic corps both magnified the fragile social condition of the Russian Empire and organized the political response which subordinated this concern to the international equilibrium of Europe. Ambassadors such as Lord Strangford and Edward Cromwell Disbrowe helped interpret the events of the Decembrist conspiracy while stationed in St. Petersburg and reported back to their Foreign Secretary, George Canning, who used the revolt as an attempt to realign British interests with Russia. In the end, elite Britons chose to protect the international balance of power in post-Napoleonic Europe instead of the traditional social hierarchies believed to be under siege in Russia. / by Kenneth Posner. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

The purpose of this study was to understand how White students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds (operationalized as students who are both low income and of the first generation in their family to attend college) experience and navigate social class during college. This was a qualitative research study employing a phenomenological research methodology. A critical theoretical lens was used to illuminate systemic issues of power and privilege related to social class present in the experiences of these participants. This study was guided by the following research question: How do White, low SES students experience and navigate social class during college? Participants in this study had many similar experiences to one another related to their social class. However, there also existed a variety of individual differences in how students understood and experienced their social class during college. Overall, participants expressed a limited awareness of their social class growing up, but all became keenly aware of it during college. In particular, during college, students became aware of how their own social class differed from the dominant middle class to upper class social class represented on campus. Participants minimized the salience of social class as an aspect of their identity with many of them expressing that they did not want their social class to define them. While participants largely did not feel as if social class was an important aspect of their identity, it became clear through their stories that this aspect of their identity influenced how they viewed themselves, the world around them, and their higher SES peers in college. For example, participants readily acknowledged the frustration and resentment that set them apart from their college peers. The students who participated in this study exhibited ethics of hard work, self-sufficiency, and financial responsibility. These values and attitudes also were evident in students' practices and behaviors (e.g., their judicious spending habits, their long hours working for pay). It also became clear that the long hours most participants in this study worked in order to afford college meant missing out on opportunities for involvement in activities outside of the classroom. Finally, participants' experiences interacting with their high SES peers played a pivotal role in their awareness of their social class during college. Participants were often frustrated by the attitudes, values, and behaviors of their higher SES peers, and for some, these social class differences led to social isolation. Overall, these findings illuminate a variety of issues and areas for concern, directly related to social class, experienced by low-income, first-generation college students in higher education.