Contributions, conjunctures and care: revisiting Formations of Class and Gender

Wood, Helen and Littler, Jo. 2025. Contributions, conjunctures and care: revisiting Formations of Class and Gender. The Sociological Review, 73(2), pp. 344-361. ISSN 0038-0261 [Article]

[img] Text
wood-littler-2025-contributions-conjunctures-and-care-revisiting-formations-of-class-and-gender.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial.

Download (218kB)
[img] Text
Formations_and_its_conjunctures 9 Nov final .pdf - Accepted Version
Permissions: Administrator Access Only
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives.

Download (320kB)

Abstract or Description

Since its publication in 1997, Formations of Class and Gender has become a touchstone for research in sociology and feminist media and cultural studies due to the precise, evocative and generative way it pinpoints and theorises class and gender. Skeggs’ careful ethnographic work – listening to 83 women training to be carers in the north of England over 12 years – provides tangible evidence of classed ‘feelings’ at the intersection of culture and economy and uses a multifaceted cultural studies approach to understand how this relates to their socially and historically specific context, or conjuncture. Formations gave many people a language with which to extend their analysis of the cultural violence enacted through the terms of ‘respectability’, alongside the undervalued nature of classed and gendered labours of care. These insights have had remarkable analytical reach for sociology and media and cultural studies, helping us understand how inequalities are both formed and felt. This article analyses the book’s contribution in three parts. The first opens by highlighting key features of the text and sharing our reflections on the book when re-reading it in the present. The second part charts the impact and contributions of the text in and around feminist media and cultural studies. The third part discusses the book’s continued relevance for understanding the current conjunctural moment of widening social inequality and a crisis in care, when sexism, racism and class divides adopt new incarnations, and suggests how its lessons might be repurposed today.

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1177/00380261241310011

Keywords:

Beverley Skeggs, care, class, conjuncture, gender

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Media, Communications and Cultural Studies

Dates:

DateEvent
7 January 2025Accepted
4 March 2025Published Online
March 2025Published

Item ID:

38773

Date Deposited:

09 May 2025 08:27

Last Modified:

09 May 2025 08:35

Peer Reviewed:

Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/38773

View statistics for this item...

Edit Record Edit Record (login required)