Class awareness in Iceland
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study class awareness in Iceland in the wake of a national economic collapse. Design/methodology/approach This comparatively oriented case study uses new survey data, secondary data on Iceland and 2005 World Values Survey data. The data are analyzed using a sy...
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cremerald:10.1108/01443331011054253 2024-10-06T13:49:50+00:00 Class awareness in Iceland Aevar Oddsson, Gudmundur 2010 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01443331011054253 http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full-xml/10.1108/01443331011054253 https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/01443331011054253/full/xml https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/01443331011054253/full/html en eng Emerald https://www.emerald.com/insight/site-policies International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy volume 30, issue 5/6, page 292-312 ISSN 0144-333X journal-article 2010 cremerald https://doi.org/10.1108/01443331011054253 2024-09-11T04:06:46Z Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study class awareness in Iceland in the wake of a national economic collapse. Design/methodology/approach This comparatively oriented case study uses new survey data, secondary data on Iceland and 2005 World Values Survey data. The data are analyzed using a synthesis of Weber's theory of class and reference group theory. Findings Contrary to conventional wisdom, Icelanders are class‐aware. Most recognize and understand class terms, and are willing to assign themselves to a class. Consistent with Weber, Icelanders have fairly strong awareness of their class position, evidenced by a strong relationship between subjective class and economic class, on the one hand, and subjective class and class indicators, on the other. Consistent with reference group theory, a subjective “middle class” tendency is revealed across the class structure. Icelanders also have more of a “middle class” view of their class position and see it, on average, as higher than people in most other countries. Originality/value No systematic study of class awareness in Iceland has been carried out since the 1970s. What is more, cross‐national studies have never fielded subjective class questions in Iceland. This paper begins to rectify this omission. Lastly, a linkage of individualization and reference group processes is proposed to broaden the theoretical basis of studies of class awareness. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland Emerald International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 30 5/6 292 312 |
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cremerald |
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English |
description |
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study class awareness in Iceland in the wake of a national economic collapse. Design/methodology/approach This comparatively oriented case study uses new survey data, secondary data on Iceland and 2005 World Values Survey data. The data are analyzed using a synthesis of Weber's theory of class and reference group theory. Findings Contrary to conventional wisdom, Icelanders are class‐aware. Most recognize and understand class terms, and are willing to assign themselves to a class. Consistent with Weber, Icelanders have fairly strong awareness of their class position, evidenced by a strong relationship between subjective class and economic class, on the one hand, and subjective class and class indicators, on the other. Consistent with reference group theory, a subjective “middle class” tendency is revealed across the class structure. Icelanders also have more of a “middle class” view of their class position and see it, on average, as higher than people in most other countries. Originality/value No systematic study of class awareness in Iceland has been carried out since the 1970s. What is more, cross‐national studies have never fielded subjective class questions in Iceland. This paper begins to rectify this omission. Lastly, a linkage of individualization and reference group processes is proposed to broaden the theoretical basis of studies of class awareness. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Aevar Oddsson, Gudmundur |
spellingShingle |
Aevar Oddsson, Gudmundur Class awareness in Iceland |
author_facet |
Aevar Oddsson, Gudmundur |
author_sort |
Aevar Oddsson, Gudmundur |
title |
Class awareness in Iceland |
title_short |
Class awareness in Iceland |
title_full |
Class awareness in Iceland |
title_fullStr |
Class awareness in Iceland |
title_full_unstemmed |
Class awareness in Iceland |
title_sort |
class awareness in iceland |
publisher |
Emerald |
publishDate |
2010 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01443331011054253 http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full-xml/10.1108/01443331011054253 https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/01443331011054253/full/xml https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/01443331011054253/full/html |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_source |
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy volume 30, issue 5/6, page 292-312 ISSN 0144-333X |
op_rights |
https://www.emerald.com/insight/site-policies |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1108/01443331011054253 |
container_title |
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy |
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30 |
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5/6 |
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292 |
op_container_end_page |
312 |
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1812177930476847104 |