The Sum of Small Things: A Theory of the Aspirational Class

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Reading and Q & A with Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, University of Southern Carolina.

In today’s world, the leisure class has been replaced by a new elite: highly educated and defined by cultural capital rather than income bracket. These individuals earnestly buy organic, care about discreet, inconspicuous consumption—like eating free-range chicken or wearing organic cotton shirts, and listening to the latest podcasts. They use their purchasing power to hire nannies and housekeepers to cultivate their children’s growth, and to practice yoga and Pilates. In her book, Currid-Halkett dubs this segment of society “the aspirational class” and discusses how, through deft decisions about education, health, parenting, and retirement, this new class reproduces wealth and upward mobility, deepening the ever-wider class divide. She explores its rise and argues that the power of material goods as symbols of social position has diminished due to their accessibility. As a result, the aspirational class has altered its consumer habits away from overt materialism to more subtle expenditures that reveal status and knowledge. And these transformationsinfluence how we all make choices.

Elizabeth Currid-Halkett is an American academic and author. She currently is the James Irvine Chair of Urban and Regional Planning and Professor of Public Policy at the University of Southern California.

Die deutsche Ausgabe „Fair gehandelt?“ erschien im Juni 2021 beim btb Verlag.

• In English
• Location: online @ www.dai-tuebingen.de/elite
• Admission free

In cooperation with btb and Buchhandlung Osiander