getting started

[wrdnrd]

Hello! I hate writing 1st posts because i always feel like a pretentious twit, but i couldn't talk any of the cats into doing it for me so here goes.

The initial proposal for this community was a reading group, possibly using Barbara Jensen's bibliography from the class zine from WisCon 33. I haven't read anything from the biblio yet myself, but several titles looked likely (these are in no particular order except that i put the ones that seemed country-specific at the bottom) -- tho' i'm not sure how academic in tone they might be.  Also, links go to Worldcat so you can see if your local library has a book:

• Where We Stand: Class Matters. (bell hooks. Routledge, 2000.)
• Inequality: Social class and Its Consequences. (Eitzen, D.S., & Johnston, J.E. Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2007.)
• Class: A Guide Through the American Status System. (Paul Fussell. New York: Touchstone, 1992.)
• Economic Apartheid in America: a Primer on Economic Inequality & Insecurity. (Chuck Collins, C., & Felice Yeskel. New York: New Press, 2005.)
• Money, Morals, and Manners: the culture of the French and American upper-middle class. (Michele Lamont. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.)

Any other titles anyone would like to suggest?

Other things i thought might be interesting to tackle in the community:

• Sharing/analyzing news articles and weblinks.  For example: I've been coming across a lot of articles recently about poverty and food in the U.S. and classist assumptions about how poor people do/should eat.
• Possibly working toward a classism 101 toolkit: what is class locally/globally, what is classism, how can we recognize classism, how can we combat classism, et cetera.

Some ground rules (to be added to the community's profile page):

• Don't be an asshole.
• Locked, private posts are welcome (if something is sensitive and not for public consumption).
• Please don't post links to web articles that are not freely accessible.

Last question:  How do you each feel about introductory posts?  Comfortable with brief introductions on who we are and what brings us to discussions of class?  Or feel they're not really necessary?

Comments

[liseuse]

Links! Shiny!

I'm comfortable with introductory posts. I think it would be an interesting way of find the ways in which our interests intersect and combine.

[wrdnrd]

Thanks! I tend to agree, tho' at the same time i DO hate talking about myself and so i completely understand if people AREN'T comfortable with it.

I LOL at your icon!

[liseuse]

I'm trying to get over my fear of talking about myself. If this conference lark has taught me anything it is that I have to sell myself and my research (which led to much internal "I AM NOT A COMMODITY!"ing).

It's a good icon!

[maladroit]

I'm up for introductory posts. IF someone else goes first - to get me over that whole "what do I say? how much do they really want to know? should I be a little funny or totally serious? what if the.very.first.thing.I.do is put my foot in my mouth?" brain-twitchy thing.

[wrdnrd]

Hee, i totally understand the brain-twitchy thing. Even now i'm thinking, "Well, i guess i'll just go first OH MY GOD WHAT DO I SAY?!?!"

[phredd]

Heya,

Sorry I haven't been active here. Still obsessing over DBA stuff and also am now getting ready to start a new remote sysadmin gig for a bit. I'm not going to be that available for the next week, at least, but once this weekend comes, I'll make an effort to get up to speed with the pdf posted above and so on.

Also, today I found this: http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/ian-jack/5-boys

which I found terribly interesting.

Cheers!

[wrdnrd]

That link didn't work for me, but this one did:
http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/ideas/ian-jack/five-boys-story-a-picture

That WAS really interesting. Thanks for the link! Think i'll be processing that one for awhile.