Class transition: a life in between

Oksana Burak

doi:10.15421/172060

Abstract

Most scholars within sociology of education focus on the reproductive function of the education system and on inequalities related to it. Rarely attention is paid to cases which don’t reproduce the class of origin. In particularly to the circumstances under which the class-crossers succeed to make an upward transition and to their life after they enter the upper class. However even P. Bourdieu has actually searched for the mechanisms that could prevent reproduction of social inequality by means of education. This topic remains relevant also in the modern time of (un)equal access to the educational institutions. The problem of reconstruction of exiting social order by educational systems has been not solved yet. It would notably contribute to the reduction of social inequality if we could reconstruct the pattern, that promote/hinder social mobility during the education path. In this article, we analyze the class transition experience of P. Bourdieu and D. Eribon based on their self-analysis and try to integrate a new non-reproduction approach of C. Jaquet in this pattern of social mobility through the education. On the basis of the autobiographical life-stories of mentioned above two sociologists we try to reconstruct the main driving force that has enabled them the way up und also to determine how the life of a class-crosser looks after they succeed the transition. After analyzing the work of P. Bourdieu named “Ein soziologischer Selbstversuch” and the work of D. Eribon named “Rückkehr nach Reim” we could confirm an assumption of C. Jaquet that ambition is the most powerful driving force for social mobility. Moreover, we can conclude that not only a person can be willing to leave the milieu of origin, but that he/she can be just displaced by the milieu. In such a situation he/she is a refugee and is forced to flee. In the most cases of escape and desire to climb up the social ladder such “negative” feelings as shame play a role of a driving force. Besides, the fact of social mobility is usually regarded as an end destination when in fact this transition is a process that never ends but transmutes in new forms.

Highlights

The topic of social mobility through educational institutions and the role of the last in the modern society as a powerful agent of social structure stays to be controversial and doesn’t lose its relevance in modern society that seems to provide equal access to education for every member of society
The Political Arithmetic tradition (Hogben, 1938) in Great Britain which had more quantitative character and dealt with social inequality based on the research about the place of school structure in social class inequalities issues
Jaquet is a further step to develop this intention of Bourdieu. She tried to reconstruct patterns and mechanisms which help the class-crosses in the process of class transition. She proposes a new concept of “complextion” Complexion is the chain of determinations that link together to form the texture of a singular life (Jaquet, p. 101)

Summary

Introduction

The topic of social mobility through educational institutions and the role of the last in the modern society as a powerful agent of social structure stays to be controversial and doesn’t lose its relevance in modern society that seems to provide equal access to education for every member of society. Like Eribon, he describes the Gymnasium in black, as a place full of betrayal and loneliness, where there is no peace He describes the world of the boarding school as immense and terrible school of reality, where one always feels in need of survival There is a time dimension represented in such stages as the separation from the family of origin, the adaptation to a new way of life or the ascent in the arrival milieu, and this is not a linear progress; it is a mixture of flows and back flows, in which the past returns in the present In this process, many things change about the person and there will never be a pure color, but a mixture of their shades. National identity and cultural values are like a harbor where you hold the anchor

The phantom of the world of origin and selfperception

Social origin versus homosexuality in selfanalysis

Conclusions