Ruling Class, Ruling Culture

by Connell, R. W.

• ISBN13: 9780521291330
• ISBN10: 052129133X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1977-06-01
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

This is a study of the Australian ruling class - the main companies, the leading political groups and the links and conflicts among them. The author also analyses class inequalities in education, the development of children's ideas about class, the role of the mass media and the way class relations are cemented culturally and psychologically. He introduces his book with a brief discussion of the literature on class theory, and a critical evaluation of Australian writing on class. Professor Connell's major aims are to describe and analyse Australia in the 1970s, to show how class theory is a useful tool in understanding the situation and to develop the theory by working through some practical cases. Apart from its obvious importance for Australian readers, this book should be of interest in other countries, both for comparison and for its original ideas on a number of important issues, such as conflict in the ruling class, and class consciousness in young people.

Table of Contents

Preface

Approach to class analysis

The idea of class in Australian social science

The Ruling Class

The structure of the ruling class

The major companies

Conflict in the ruling class, 1970-1972

Ruling-class responses to Labor, 1973-1975

The Ruling Culture

Class consciousness in childhood

Class and personal socialization

The media and middle-class culture

The pattern of hegemony

Notes

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.