Silence, secrecy, ignorance, and the making of class and status across generations. Becker, J., Bromber, K., & Chavoshian, S. ssoar.info, 2023. abstract bibtex A peculiar aura of uncertainty and difficulty of knowing surrounds class, and especially its transmission from one generation to another. In this programmatic text we trace silences around the reproduction of class through our ethnographic research in Kenya, Egypt, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, and Palestine, and among migrant diasporas that link those countries with Somalia, Afghanistan, Western Europe, Russia, and the Arab Gulf states. We propose a comparative and nuanced attention to the ways in which concealment and silences – that is, ways of not display- ing things or not speaking openly about them even while they may be known; secrets – that is, knowledge that is actively prevented from circulating; and ignorance – that is, ways of not knowing or not addressing something, together contribute to the reproduction of social status across generations. That reproduction, we argue, is in need of not being known or addressed because the mor- al and institutional claims and the public image that are inherent to status are frequently contradicted or compli- cated by the process in which the resources have been gathered, and by the ways in which they are passed on. The passing on of status from one generation to another therefore needs to be understood in a way that is not restricted to its discursive and performative dimension of explicit markers and accomplishments. Marks of dis- tinction, accomplishment of status – and also stigmas of discrimination and stories of failure – are likely to consist equally of aspects that are concealed, forcibly kept se- cret, or not addressed. At the same time, every display and utterance that qualitatively or quantitatively values a person’s or group’s standing vis-à-vis others is likely to be enabled and accompanied by blind spots and silenc- es. These can be best studied from the bottom up through a qualitative enquiry.
@article{becker2023,
title = {Silence, secrecy, ignorance, and the making of class and status across generations},
abstract = {A peculiar aura of uncertainty and difficulty of knowing surrounds class, and especially its transmission from one generation to another. In this programmatic text we trace silences around the reproduction of class through our ethnographic research in Kenya, Egypt, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, and Palestine, and among migrant diasporas that link those countries with Somalia, Afghanistan, Western Europe, Russia, and the Arab Gulf states. We propose a comparative and nuanced attention to the ways in which concealment and silences – that is, ways of not display- ing things or not speaking openly about them even while they may be known; secrets – that is, knowledge that is actively prevented from circulating; and ignorance – that is, ways of not knowing or not addressing something, together contribute to the reproduction of social status across generations. That reproduction, we argue, is in need of not being known or addressed because the mor- al and institutional claims and the public image that are inherent to status are frequently contradicted or compli- cated by the process in which the resources have been gathered, and by the ways in which they are passed on. The passing on of status from one generation to another therefore needs to be understood in a way that is not restricted to its discursive and performative dimension of explicit markers and accomplishments. Marks of dis- tinction, accomplishment of status – and also stigmas of discrimination and stories of failure – are likely to consist equally of aspects that are concealed, forcibly kept se- cret, or not addressed. At the same time, every display and utterance that qualitatively or quantitatively values a person’s or group’s standing vis-à-vis others is likely to be enabled and accompanied by blind spots and silenc- es. These can be best studied from the bottom up through a qualitative enquiry.},
journal = {ssoar.info},
author = {Becker, J. and Bromber, K. and Chavoshian, S.},
year = {2023},
pages = {1--15},
}
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We propose a comparative and nuanced attention to the ways in which concealment and silences – that is, ways of not display- ing things or not speaking openly about them even while they may be known; secrets – that is, knowledge that is actively prevented from circulating; and ignorance – that is, ways of not knowing or not addressing something, together contribute to the reproduction of social status across generations. That reproduction, we argue, is in need of not being known or addressed because the mor- al and institutional claims and the public image that are inherent to status are frequently contradicted or compli- cated by the process in which the resources have been gathered, and by the ways in which they are passed on. The passing on of status from one generation to another therefore needs to be understood in a way that is not restricted to its discursive and performative dimension of explicit markers and accomplishments. 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