Culture, Class, Connection: Class and Inequality in the UK and Japan

This workshop brings together an international group of scholars to discuss the comparative dimensions of class and inequality in the UK and Japan. It is the first in a series of events taking place in the UK and Japan as part of an AHRC/ESRC networking grant designed to build research relationships and collaborations between the UK, Japan and beyond.

Since 2000 there has been a major revitalization of class analysis in Sociology, much of which has been led by critical engagements with Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological framework, notably the need to incorporate a multidimensional framework and to recognize the significance of the cultural and symbolic aspects of class alongside the economic dimensions. Initiated in European sociology, notably by scholars working in France, Scandinavia, and the UK, this perspective has become increasingly global and comparative in nature. Major questions have been raised about the extent to which this revitalization of class analysis is Eurocentric, whether it adequately conceptualizes the relationship between cultural, social and economic drivers in an era of intensifying inequality, and its capacity to deal with intersectional inequalities. 

The workshop series is the first major contribution to reflect on these issues through a focus on Japanese society and comparisons with the UK. It will bring together leading scholars researching Japan and the UK to reflect on the salience of class in both nations, and the adequacy of current framings of class analysis to address them. This workshop in Manchester will be followed by a seminar at Newcastle on February 28th, and two seminars in Japan in April 2020.

Programme:

10.00-10.15: Welcome and project introduction

10.15-11.15: Introductory Lecture

Mike Savage (London School of Economics), ‘Rethinking Class in an era of Escalating Global Inequality’.

11.15-11.30: Break

11.30-13.00: Issues of cultural capital - culture, class and distinction

Shinichi Aizawa (Sophia University), ‘Social Class in Japan from the view point of cultural capital’.

 Andrew Miles (University of Manchester), ‘Everyday participation, class and cultural policy in the UK’.

 Comments: David Wright (University of Warwick)

13.00-13.45: Lunch

13.45-15.15: The relationship between economic and cultural capital - work, education and class

Mark Williams (Queen Mary University), ‘Occupational class inequality at work in Britain’.

 Takehiko Kariya (University of Oxford), ‘Post-catch-up modernity and hidden inequality in Japanese education’.            

 Comment: Shinobu Majima (Gakushuin University)

15.15-15.30: Break

15.30-17.00: Issues of social identity and class consciousness - perspectives and the relationship between   'objective' and 'subjective' class identities

Sarah Irwin (University of Leeds), ‘Subjective inequalities and social structure: class, concepts and methods’.

 Ayumi Takenaka (Ritsumeikan University), ‘The Hierarchy of Japanese Identities: constructing nationhood through  diasporas’.

Comment: Wendy Bottero (University Manchester) 

17.00-17.30: Closing remarks

Alan Warde (University of Manchester), ‘Reflections on class, culture and distinction’

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FUNDING

We acknowledge the generous support of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for our activities under their joint ‘Japan-UK Connections’ scheme. Grant no. ES/S013776/1 'Culture, Class, Connection: Bridging Debates on Contemporary Inequality in the UK and Japan' P.I. Niall Cunningham, Newcastle University.