Maria Törnqvist: The Making of an Egalitarian Elite: School Ethos and the Production of Privilege

Klasse- og eliteseminaret inviterer til seminar om egalitære verdier og sosial ulikhet i Skandinavia, med innlegg fra Maria Törnqvist (Uppsala Universitet).

Basert på hennes feltarbeid ved en videregående skole i Stockholm innleder Törnqvist med "The Making of an Egalitarian Elite: School Ethos and the Production of Privilege"

Maria Törnqvist. Foto: Beret Bråten

Abstract:

This article explores the significance of an egalitarian ethic on the emergence of privileged student subjectivity. Through an ethnographic study of ethos in terms of an embodied incentive, an organizational principle and a transmitter of symbolic values the article unfolds how a possible tension between egalitarianism and elitism resolves into a productive relation whereby the students' incarnation of socialist, feminist and sustainable ideals becomes a means for mobilizing privileged dispositions. In analogy with Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic, in which he depicts how a group of faithful Calvinist became successful capitalists while striving to be good Christians, the study explores the formative force of unintended consequences and soci(ologic)al significance of ethics

Published Feb. 11, 2015 12:57 PM - Last modified June 25, 2024 12:34 PM