Translocational Belongings by Anthias Floya;

Author:Anthias, Floya;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2021-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

The material/economic and the cultural/symbolic

It’s useful to note the ways in which class (in terms of role in production), gender, ethnicity and race involve an intersection between the economic and the symbolic/cultural (see also Anthias 2001 a). Symbolic aspects of work relations include ideas that some jobs are clean and some are dirty, the former often being seen as more desirable irrespective of the economic rewards (found in the different valuation of non-manual and manual work). There are a range of resources that are gained therefore from the performance of more ‘desirable’ jobs that are relevant for the assessment of an individual’s life conditions and life chances (e.g. see the arguments in Pakulski and Waters 1996). Deference is attached to some occupations, such as medicine and law which gives the roles, and the individuals who perform them, authority and to some extent control over others. For example, the medicalisation of childbirth has given doctors power over women’s life conditions when they are in a vulnerable condition during pregnancy and childbirth. Some occupations are given value in terms of servicing the community; in this category we can include nurses, possibly teachers, therapists and priests. This gives the individuals self-worth and some degree of power over those with whom they interact professionally. This value, however, is not necessarily translated into high economic rewards, and it could be argued that incentives for these jobs are not derived from the marketplace. The knowledge base of some work is valued in and of itself, although professors, judges, doctors and others may be empowered through that knowledge base. This may give privileged access to knowledge, which can be translated into life conditions, such as knowledge of the best areas for good schools for their children, or the best forms of health care. The work we do may be regarded as an embodiment of ourselves and provide us with self-esteem. Hence those out of work, particularly the long-term unemployed, may lose that self-esteem which, arguably, is a prerequisite to good life chances and conditions. Some forms of work require the objectification and depersonalisation of their incumbents, found in the use of uniforms by nurses, priests, judges, policemen, soldiers and others who may have authority. Such symbolic representations of authority or position function to legitimate their behaviour as well as the system that they operate within. Moreover, some bureaucratic jobs are invested with authority to decide how resources should be distributed to populations and individuals, indicating that resource allocation is not only market led (Esping-Anderson 1990). The power of migration officials, security guards, welfare officers and social workers comes to mind.

Individuals may be sponsored to social places. For example, the children of doctors are more likely to be thought of as fit for medical training. Social places are not merely subject to the determination of class but of cultural and embodied social positionalities specifying types of human persons (this is especially the case with notions of gendered or racialised jobs, see Lutz 2017; Anderson 2006; Bradley 1996). Meeting

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