Reimagining the Study of Up: A Reflexive and Relational Approach

• In Event: Roundtable Session 46
  In Roundtable Session: Cultural Dynamics of Social Class Inequality

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to re-introduce and re-imagine “studying up,” with particular emphasis on Bourdieu’s concepts of reflexivity and relational thinking (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992). Though we agree with Laura Nader’s(1972) assertion to study up, we also observe the ways in which studying the elite has not led to the goal of understanding social inequalities in new ways. In this paper, we add to Nader’s call for transforming our thinking, and we offer Bourdieu’s concepts as tools that can enrich our analyses of the elite, as well as the larger social structures in which the elite are situated.

Authors

• Amy Elizabeth Stich, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Julia Colyar, University at Buffalo - SUNY