«A Sense of Inequality»: What Does the Subjective Inequality Mean and How to Study It
Review
How to Cite
Polukhina E.V. «A Sense of Inequality»: What Does the Subjective Inequality Mean and How to Study It. Interaction. Interview. Interpretation. 2020. Vol. 12. No. 2. P. 81-90. DOI: https://doi.org/10.19181/inter.2020.12.2.5 (in Russ.).
Abstract
This book review considers “А Sense of Inequality” by Wendy Bottero. The author is a Reader in Sociology at the University of Manchester (UK).Wendy Bottero inspires us to look broadly at the phemomenon of inequality through the social mechanisms ofobligations and restrictions bounding individuals on a daily basis. At the same time, the author suggests a broader understanding of inequality and insists on “a methodological localism”, i.e. the importance of studying local inequalities, which individuals experience in their milieus (subjective inequality or a sense of inequality). She argues that people tend to be more aware of “local” inequality in their daily lives. Individuals have a restricted vision of objective inequality. According to Bottero, objective inequality does not necessarily lead to social discontent or protest. And data of mass quantitative surveys give us an abstract understanding of a sense of inequality. Individuals’ perceptions of inequality are formed by institutional regimes, political debates and discussions in the media. Therefore, the key concept of this book is “subjective inequality” — a specific feeling of individuals arising through a variety of unequal social relations, entailed subordination, unequal opportunities and statuses.This book gives us an understanding of how to be more reflective of everyday inequalities. This work will be especially of great value for social researchers because it offers acritically revised theoretical frame and solid methodological basis for studying subjective inequalities. The book reveals the mechanics of the key global social phenomenon — inequality and discovers the opportunities for studying it on the level of individuals.
Keywords:
sense of inequality, local inequality, subjective inequality, social hierarchies, social relation, methodological localism
References
Bottero W., Crossley N. (2011) Worlds, Fields and Networks: Becker, Bourdieu and the Structures of Social Relations. Cultural Sociology. Vol. 5. No. 1. P. 99–119. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1749975510389726
Bottero W., Irwin S. (2003) Locating Difference: Class, 'Race' and Gender, and the Shaping of Social Inequalities. Sociological review. Vol. 51. No. 4. P. 463–567. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2003.00431.x
Bottero W. (2012) Who Do You Think They Were? How Family Historians Make Sense of Social Position and Inequality in the Past. British Journal of Sociology. Vol. 63. No. 1. P. 54–74. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2011.01393.x
Bourdieu P., Accardo A., Ferguson P. (1999) The Weight of the World: Social Suffering in Contemporary Society. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
Hochschild A. (2003) The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Piketty T. (2015) Kapital v XXI veke [Capital in the Twenty-First Century]. М.: Ad Marginem. (In Russ.)
Semenova V.V., Chernysh M.F., Sushko P.E. (eds) (2019) Social'naya mobil'nost' v uslozhnyayushchemsya obshchestve: ob"ektivnye i sub"ektivnye aspekty [Social mobility in an increasingly complex society: objective and subjective aspects]. М.: FNISC RAN. (In Russ.)
Simonova O.A. (2013) Emocional'nyj trud v sovremennom obshchestve: nauchnye diskussii i dal'nejshaya konceptualizaciya idej A.R. Hohshil'd [Emotional Labor in Modern Society: Rethinking and Conceptualizing Ideas of A.R. Hochschild]. Zhurnal issledovanij social'noj politiki [The Journal of Social Policy Studies]. Vol. 11. No. 3. P. 339–354. (In Russ.)
Veenhoven R. (2008) Sociological Theories of Subjective Well-Being / In: Eid M., Larsen R. (eds) The Science of Subjective Well-being: A tribute to Ed Diener. NY: Guilford Publications. P. 44–61.
Walker Ch. (2015) Stability and Precarity in the Lives and Narratives of Working-Class Men in Putin’s Russia. Social Alternatives. Vol. 34. No. 4.
Bottero W., Irwin S. (2003) Locating Difference: Class, 'Race' and Gender, and the Shaping of Social Inequalities. Sociological review. Vol. 51. No. 4. P. 463–567. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2003.00431.x
Bottero W. (2012) Who Do You Think They Were? How Family Historians Make Sense of Social Position and Inequality in the Past. British Journal of Sociology. Vol. 63. No. 1. P. 54–74. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2011.01393.x
Bourdieu P., Accardo A., Ferguson P. (1999) The Weight of the World: Social Suffering in Contemporary Society. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
Hochschild A. (2003) The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Piketty T. (2015) Kapital v XXI veke [Capital in the Twenty-First Century]. М.: Ad Marginem. (In Russ.)
Semenova V.V., Chernysh M.F., Sushko P.E. (eds) (2019) Social'naya mobil'nost' v uslozhnyayushchemsya obshchestve: ob"ektivnye i sub"ektivnye aspekty [Social mobility in an increasingly complex society: objective and subjective aspects]. М.: FNISC RAN. (In Russ.)
Simonova O.A. (2013) Emocional'nyj trud v sovremennom obshchestve: nauchnye diskussii i dal'nejshaya konceptualizaciya idej A.R. Hohshil'd [Emotional Labor in Modern Society: Rethinking and Conceptualizing Ideas of A.R. Hochschild]. Zhurnal issledovanij social'noj politiki [The Journal of Social Policy Studies]. Vol. 11. No. 3. P. 339–354. (In Russ.)
Veenhoven R. (2008) Sociological Theories of Subjective Well-Being / In: Eid M., Larsen R. (eds) The Science of Subjective Well-being: A tribute to Ed Diener. NY: Guilford Publications. P. 44–61.
Walker Ch. (2015) Stability and Precarity in the Lives and Narratives of Working-Class Men in Putin’s Russia. Social Alternatives. Vol. 34. No. 4.
Article
Received: 16.04.2020
Accepted: 25.06.2020
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APA
Polukhina, E. V. (2020). «A Sense of Inequality»: What Does the Subjective Inequality Mean and How to Study It. Interaction. Interview. Interpretation, 12(2), 81-90. https://doi.org/10.19181/inter.2020.12.2.5
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