Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 11:47:28 +0100
From: Anja Weiß <anja.weiss-AT-berghof.b.shuttle.de>
Subject: Clarifications


On Wed, 25 Feb 1998, mitchell wilson wrote:

> Hello, Anja.  You wanted to know if your message made sense.  Most of it
> did.  And I enjoyed reading it.
> 
> But this was ambiguous: 
> 
> "Talking in terms of empirical methods I would think that - were my
> > hypothesis correct - there should be a cluster of people that is
> > distinguished as a class by ethnic/racial markers (in combination with
> > other forms of capital), i.e. which is empirically distinct from others
> > who share the same forms of capital, but not the ethnic/racial markers."
> 
> I mean, look at your qoute here, as I've cut out the middle-part.  The
> middle part was an interjection that confused the issue.  You appear to
> say "there should be a cluster of people that is distinguished as a
> class by ethnic/racial markers . . . who share the same forms of
> capital, but not the ethnic/racial markers."  
> 
> How can a group distinguished by the same ethnic markers not share those
> ethnic markers?
> 
> Does that make sense to you?  Am I reading this wrong, or are you saying
> that a group who EVEN THOUGH fails to share the same ethnic markers,
> nevertheless is distinguished by ostensibly shared ethnic markers?  This
> would be analogous to ethnic stereotypes, would it not?

Patrick Scott wrote:
Without having the middle part to look at, it seems to me that
"others" was meant to placehold here:

She is proposing that there should be: 

1) "A cluster of people that is distinguished as a class by
ethnic/racial
markers (in combination with other forms of capital)" 

"which is empirically distinct from"

2) "Others who share the same form of capital, but not the ethnic/racial
markers"

Just to clarify that point: I agree with the latter interpretation. What
I was trying to say is that people with the same distribution of
economical, cultural and social capital should theoretically be one
class. However if ethnic/racial markers play an important role in class
formation there might be two classes instead of one who are empirically
clearly distinguished by the ethnic/racial markers. This is not to say
that ethnic groups are something essential, but to say that being
constructed as different may delegitimize their capital and thereby
create another class position for them.

-- 
Anja Weiss
anja.weiss-AT-berghof.b.shuttle.de

Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management
Altensteinstrasse 48a
D-14195 Berlin
fon: *49-30-8318090/99
fax: *49-30-8315985
http://www.b.shuttle.de/berghof/

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