Open AccessClass in contemporary Britain: comparing the Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion (CCSE) project and the Great British Class Survey (GBCS)
Author(s) -
Silva Elizabeth B.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the sociological review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.743
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1467-954X
pISSN - 0038-0261
DOI - 10.1111/1467-954x.12286
Subject(s) - sociology , salience (neuroscience) , cultural capital , context (archaeology) , general partnership , class (philosophy) , situated , capital (architecture) , relation (database) , social science , political science , law , epistemology , psychology , history , philosophy , archaeology , database , artificial intelligence , computer science , cognitive psychology
Abstract The paper discusses the salience of class in Britain in relation to the experiment of the BBC–academic partnership of the Great British Class Survey (GBCS). It addresses the claimed inauguration of a third phase in class analysis in the UK sparked by the experiment. This is done by considering three main issues. First, the GBCS experiment is situated in the context of various explorations of cultural class analyses, and chiefly in relation to the Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion (CCSE) project (ESRC funded 2003–6). Secondly, the focus is on the influence of the academic turn to big data for the procedures and claims of the project, and some implications of the methodological choices. Thirdly, attention is turned to the deleterious effects of commercial and institutional pressures on the current research culture in which the experiment exists.