Rethinking elites in British sociology
Great Britain as a house-society
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3533898 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Daniel R Smith (0000-0003-2649-6529, Cardiff University) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 72 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 340-358 |
| Publication date | 2024-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Sociological Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0038-0261 • E-ISSN: 1467-954X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00380261231162694 |
| OpenAlex | W4360838425 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 31 |
This article outlines a novel conceptual framework to examine English society's ruling institutions. Usually called 'The Establishment', the term has been a thorn in the side of analyses of class, status and power in British sociology as it stands between polemic and an explanation for England's peculiar exaggeration of status over class. Drawing upon Lévi-Strauss's concept of a 'house-society', the article rethinks how England's ruling institutions are called upon to do two things at once: disguise political-economic interests through the language of kinship and naturalise status and belonging. English society's ruling institutions are overdetermined in the call to create legitimate and exclusive membership to something, perhaps anachronistically, called ' Great Britain'. Tracing this to the origins of English class nomenclature in early modern political thought, the article applies this framework to a discussion of Eton College and the Etonians' relationship to our present political crisis
Kinship · Political science · Political sociology · Politics · Power (physics) · Ruling class · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Law · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Policy and Reform Studies
Britons
Kinship and the Social Order.
Privilege
Capital in the Twenty-First Century
Elites and power in British society
The origins of English individualism
Outline of a Theory of Practice
Access to Origins
Beyond Kinship
English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit, 1850–1980
The class ceiling
The clamour of nationalism
Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe
The Upper Classes
The Jack Wills crowd
Bringing Britain into being
The Decline and Persistence of the Old Boy
Theoretical and methodological pathways for research on elites
The British Political Elite, 1955-1972
The corporate power of the British monarchy
Welcome to 'Pikettyville'? Mapping London's alpha territories
Black Mafia, Loggies and Going for the Stars
The End of the English Cultural Elite
Kinship
The Bases of Elite Social Behaviour
The Myth of the Multitude, or, Who's Afraid of the Crowd
Racism, Crisis, Brexit
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |