Making Sense of Race, Class, and Gender: Commonsense, Power, and Privilege in the United States

by Pascale; Celine-Marie

• ISBN13: 9780415955362
• ISBN10: 041595536X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-12-14
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Using arresting case studies of how ordinary people understand the concepts of race, class, and gender, Celine-Marie Pascale shows that the peculiarity of commonsense is that it imposes obviousness that which we cannot fail to recognize. As a result, how we negotiate the challenges of inequality in the twenty-first century may depend less on what people consciously think about "difference" and more on what we inadvertently assume. Through an analysis of commonsense knowledge, Pascale expertly provides new insights into familiar topics. In addition, by analyzing local practices in the context of established cultural discourses, Pascale shows how the weight of history bears on the present moment, both enabling and constraining possibilities. Pascale tests the boundaries of sociological knowledge and offers new avenues for conceptualizing social change.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
Routine Matters: Racialization in Everyday Life	p. 23
All the Right Stuff: Gender and Sexuality	p. 51
Class: A Representational Economy	p. 79
Moving Forward	p. 109
Interviewees	p. 117
Collection of Newspaper Articles	p. 119
Endnotes	p. 121
References	p. 131
Index	p. 149
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