Beverley Skeggs, Professor of Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London
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Wednesday 29 February 2012
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6.30pm - 8.00pm
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Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House, LSE
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Chaired by Dr Sadie Wearing, LSE Gender Institute
Open to all - no booking required. Followed by an informal drinks reception from 8.00pm in the Gender Institute Open Space.
This event was recorded. Listen here.
Abstract
In this talk I will revisit my longitudinal ethnographic work on how a group of women produced their subjectivity through investments in respectability (it was published as Formations of Class and Gender: Becoming Respectable in 1997). I return to this work because of the many parallels with the current political conjuncture were revealed through a recent research project on reality television, almost in a first time tragedy, second time farce mode. Some forms of reality television make spectacular the previously identified idioms of 'care', arriving on our screens as a cartoon version of social work: problem people are caricatured (usually working class women) and the experts (usually middle class) dish out inappropriate advice which has very little bearing on the television participant's circumstances. In the name of entertainment people are invited to perform their (lack of) value. However this is not a straightforward case of symbolic violence. Our audience responses to this genre was remarkably similar to that of the Formations ethnographic participants' responses. The desire for value, investment in gendered ideology and perplexity towards authority mark a very particular form of class politics. This talk will explore the nuances of this politics as it unpacks how investments in person value and resistance to authority produce entanglements and antagonisms of class and gender writ large.
Biography
Beverley Skeggs worked at the Universities of Keele, York, Lancaster and Manchester before joining the Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths, London. She has worked in the areas of Women's Studies and Cultural Studies as well as Sociology. Her main publications include The Media (1992), Feminist Cultural Theory (1995), Formations of Class and Gender (1997), Transformations: Thinking Through Feminism (2000); Class, Self, Culture (2004), Sexuality and the Politics of Violence and Safety (2004) (with Les Moran, Paul Tyrer and Karen Corteen) and Feminism After Bourdieu (with Lisa Adkins). She is a series editor of the Transformations: Thinking Through Feminism book series (with Routledge) and has just completed an ESRC funded project (with Helen Wood) on Making Class and Self through Televised Ethical Scenarios, to be published as Reacting to Reality Television: Audience, Performance,Value (2012) and Reality TV and Class (2011).