Category Archives: Class and the Media

Is Class Really Forgotten?: Working-Class Studies Association 2017 Awards

Posted on May 22, 2017 by

Over the last week, I’ve read a couple of pieces in which elite academics highlight their discovery of the importance of class, both noting how the topic has been neglected by academia and ‘the elite’. In a Financial Times interview … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and the Media, Contributors, Issues, Tim Strangleman, Understanding Class, Work | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Springsteen’s Born to Run: Memoir as “Repair”

Posted on May 15, 2017 by

Few rock music memoirs have caught the attention of esteemed novelists such as Richard Ford, whose New York Times review of Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run (2016) exalts the musician as not simply an extraordinary artist and showman but a … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and the Media, Contributors, Guest Bloggers, Issues, Working-Class Culture | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

The Working Class at the Oscars

Posted on April 10, 2017 by

A scene in Denzel Washington’s movie of Fences is not in August Wilson’s original play, and it illustrates how a spate of Oscar-nominated films this year uncharacteristically reveal basic insights into working-class ways of living a life. Troy Maxson is … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and the Media, Contributors, Issues, Jack Metzgar, Understanding Class | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Class on the Small Screen

Posted on March 27, 2017 by

Every year when I teach the sociology of work, I’m filled with the same nagging doubt: are my cultural references out of date? Are they still relevant for my students of nineteen and twenty, who were only just born in … Continue reading →

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I, Daniel Blake and The Power of Working-Class Story Telling

Posted on December 5, 2016 by

Ken Loach’s latest film I, Daniel Blake (2016) was hard for me to watch. I left the cinema with a knot in my stomach and tears in my eyes. It was a visceral experience that brought back memories of my … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and the Media, Contributors, Issues, Sarah Attfield | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

A Future Nobel Literature Prize for a Working-Class Rapper?

Posted on October 24, 2016 by

Reactions were mixed to the announcement that songwriter Bob Dylan had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Some literary aficionados were outraged that a popular musician had won the prize (rather than a novelist or poet), while others were … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and the Media, Contributors, Issues, Sarah Attfield | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Who is Shameless This Election Season? One TV Show’s Challenging Depiction of the Working Poor

Posted on September 26, 2016 by

  Since the 2016 Presidential race began, pundits have been scrambling to understand what is apparently the most inscrutable segment of the Trump voting bloc: disaffected white working-class middle-aged men who feel they have lost gender and race privileges along … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and the Media, Contributors, Guest Bloggers, Issues, Working-Class Culture | Tagged , , | 2 Comments