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Love Across Class
Explore how people from different class backgrounds meet, live with and love one another.
What does it mean to partner across class difference? This lucid and original book is the first to explore cross-class relationships in contemporary Australia, a society long-invested in the myth of egalitarianism. Drawing on in-depth interviews with people from a range of class and cultural backgrounds, Love Across Class brings to life the role of class in shaping people's childhoods, as well as the adult lives couples have built together. These stories move between the mundane, the profound and the taboo, as interviewees reckon openly with the pain, pleasure, humour and contradiction that comes with forming a close relationship across class. From escaping one's class background and confronting class dissimilarity, to managing money and negotiating holidays, this book offers rich accounts of personal worlds shared across class as they are lived
Yet not only do those interviewed reflect on the classed dynamics and tensions present in their relationships and family life, they also strive to grasp the concept of class itself. Conversations about class at home ultimately led to scrutiny of other areas of society deeply implicated in class experience in Australia. Education, work, migration and assets are all examined here amid the backdrop of growing inequality. For many, forming a relationship across class brought these stark realities to the fore. This engaging book will stimulate readers to think about class in intimate, emotional and society-wide terms.
What does it mean to partner across class difference? This lucid and original book is the first to explore cross-class relationships in contemporary Australia, a society long-invested in the myth of egalitarianism. Drawing on in-depth interviews with people from a range of class and cultural backgrounds, Love Across Class brings to life the role of class in shaping people's childhoods, as well as the adult lives couples have built together. These stories move between the mundane, the profound and the taboo, as interviewees reckon openly with the pain, pleasure, humour and contradiction that comes with forming a close relationship across class. From escaping one's class background and confronting class dissimilarity, to managing money and negotiating holidays, this book offers rich accounts of personal worlds shared across class as they are lived
Yet not only do those interviewed reflect on the classed dynamics and tensions present in their relationships and family life, they also strive to grasp the concept of class itself. Conversations about class at home ultimately led to scrutiny of other areas of society deeply implicated in class experience in Australia. Education, work, migration and assets are all examined here amid the backdrop of growing inequality. For many, forming a relationship across class brought these stark realities to the fore. This engaging book will stimulate readers to think about class in intimate, emotional and society-wide terms.
240 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2024
2 people are currently reading
73 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 7, 2024
egalitarianism
"the doctrine that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities."
Love Across Class explores and unmasks the complex dynamics of classism in Australian society. Focusing on cross-class relationships, interviewing an array of couples all with one thing in common, they come from different class backgrounds and upbringings. Incredibly engaging and eye opening, as some individuals come to realise that there upbringings do affect the way they act and how they are treated within there family dynamics.
One chapter in particular that struck a cord with me & was particularly interesting was called "Pain Tension and Ambivalence" where a woman named Ruth goes into how she feels often misunderstood and different from her family since she is doing financially better after she left the family cattle station. Having to alter a lot of her language and speech to try and relate to her family. This was an incredibly eye opening chapter as a reader because it really showed how something that is commonly seen as a good thing (getting educated, doing financially well for yourself, gaining autonomy) can completely alter the family dynamics and be seen as going against the grain, seemingly isolating a person. As a reader, seeing these ideals and dynamics brought up so many questions in my brain and had me sitting and thinking about my own past lived experiences, which for me, marks a great book.
Of course this is such a complex and multi faceted topic and I have absolutely zero merit to speak on it so I will let the experts do the talking, I really recommend reading this, its so interesting! Even the conversation about the language used to discuss class "middle class" "upper middle class" etc was insightful.
"the doctrine that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities."
Love Across Class explores and unmasks the complex dynamics of classism in Australian society. Focusing on cross-class relationships, interviewing an array of couples all with one thing in common, they come from different class backgrounds and upbringings. Incredibly engaging and eye opening, as some individuals come to realise that there upbringings do affect the way they act and how they are treated within there family dynamics.
One chapter in particular that struck a cord with me & was particularly interesting was called "Pain Tension and Ambivalence" where a woman named Ruth goes into how she feels often misunderstood and different from her family since she is doing financially better after she left the family cattle station. Having to alter a lot of her language and speech to try and relate to her family. This was an incredibly eye opening chapter as a reader because it really showed how something that is commonly seen as a good thing (getting educated, doing financially well for yourself, gaining autonomy) can completely alter the family dynamics and be seen as going against the grain, seemingly isolating a person. As a reader, seeing these ideals and dynamics brought up so many questions in my brain and had me sitting and thinking about my own past lived experiences, which for me, marks a great book.
Of course this is such a complex and multi faceted topic and I have absolutely zero merit to speak on it so I will let the experts do the talking, I really recommend reading this, its so interesting! Even the conversation about the language used to discuss class "middle class" "upper middle class" etc was insightful.
Want to read
July 17, 2024The following book reviews have been shared by Melbourne University Publishing – publisher of Love Across Class
“Another book I read and loved this month, which speaks to this kind of knotty nuance, is Love Across Class by Rose Butler and Eve Vincent, a fascinating mix of research and reporting based on the authors’ interviews with 38 Australians”
InReview
“If you, like me, are fascinated by the complexities of class, this is a thought-provoking and fascinating read. And at a time when wealth inequality is ballooning, it feels hugely relevant for understanding the world we’re in.”
InReview
“Today, gender, sexuality and race are the dominant prisms through which we refract Australian identity...But class hasn’t evaporated, as anthropologist Eve Vincent and sociologist Rose Butler demonstrate in Love Across Class, using love’s desires, negotiations and conflicts to map its contours. The result is riveting.”
The Saturday Paper
“The book reveals that class is not just social but psychological. It’s shaped by shame and guilt, and fashioned by history and policies that determine signifiers such as home ownership and education.... Beyond that, the underlying message of this important and endlessly illuminating study is that love’s intimacy is perhaps the best frame in which to restart an important conversation about class as it exists now.”
The Saturday Paper
“The two authors recorded the class trajectories of their respondents and, more interesting still, embraced their subjective experiences, taking account of emotions and values once considered more germane to storytelling than to social science. It is this engagement with the personal that makes their meticulous scholarly undertaking so captivating to a lay reader.”
Inside Story
“Through a close examination of what their class-crossed subjects say about themselves, they draw valuable insights into navigations peculiar to Australians.”
Inside Story
“Another book I read and loved this month, which speaks to this kind of knotty nuance, is Love Across Class by Rose Butler and Eve Vincent, a fascinating mix of research and reporting based on the authors’ interviews with 38 Australians”
InReview
“If you, like me, are fascinated by the complexities of class, this is a thought-provoking and fascinating read. And at a time when wealth inequality is ballooning, it feels hugely relevant for understanding the world we’re in.”
InReview
“Today, gender, sexuality and race are the dominant prisms through which we refract Australian identity...But class hasn’t evaporated, as anthropologist Eve Vincent and sociologist Rose Butler demonstrate in Love Across Class, using love’s desires, negotiations and conflicts to map its contours. The result is riveting.”
The Saturday Paper
“The book reveals that class is not just social but psychological. It’s shaped by shame and guilt, and fashioned by history and policies that determine signifiers such as home ownership and education.... Beyond that, the underlying message of this important and endlessly illuminating study is that love’s intimacy is perhaps the best frame in which to restart an important conversation about class as it exists now.”
The Saturday Paper
“The two authors recorded the class trajectories of their respondents and, more interesting still, embraced their subjective experiences, taking account of emotions and values once considered more germane to storytelling than to social science. It is this engagement with the personal that makes their meticulous scholarly undertaking so captivating to a lay reader.”
Inside Story
“Through a close examination of what their class-crossed subjects say about themselves, they draw valuable insights into navigations peculiar to Australians.”
Inside Story
June 20, 2024
Anyone who is interested in social justice and equity, is interested in how class manifests itself in different societies, and whether there are opportunities for social mobility. Australia in the early twentieth century was noteworthy for its egalitarianism, and as the century progressed, for social mobility. Class in Australia, in the days when I learned about it during teacher training, had little to do with aristocratic ancestry or otherwise. It was indicated by differences in income, type and stability of employment, home ownership, and education. Full employment was official economic policy until the 1970s, and the long postwar boom made it achievable. Home ownership rose steadily from the postwar era to the end of the century, and a major breakthrough came in the Whitlam era when school funding was adjusted to benefit disadvantaged students and tertiary education became free.
Nobody thought it was perfect, and there were pockets of persistent disadvantage, but it was government policy to keep improving things, and that was because the electorate expected it.
And then there was Thatcher, and Reagan, and John Howard, and globalisation... and now there are growing chasms between the super rich, the middle class, and the underclass. Even worse, Australia has lost any ambition to be egalitarian.
It has been disconcerting to learn about research that refers to longstanding cultural myths about Australia as an egalitarian and classless society. But whether researchers categorise class into six or eight groups, there seems to be acknowledgement of deepening inequality based on 'new class realities' arising from the increased importance of asset holding, particularly housing.' For example, one classification consists of 'investors' at the top; followed by 'outright homeowners' and then 'homeowners with a mortgage' all of whom can expect their assets to appreciate in value. 'Renters' and the 'homeless' have no housing assets and their goal is to survive. What's more, as we know from reading Alan Kohler's recent Quarterly Essay, there is a generational divide between older and younger Australians.
My source for these discomfiting realities is Love Across Class by Rose Butler and Eve Vincent.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/06/20/l...
Nobody thought it was perfect, and there were pockets of persistent disadvantage, but it was government policy to keep improving things, and that was because the electorate expected it.
And then there was Thatcher, and Reagan, and John Howard, and globalisation... and now there are growing chasms between the super rich, the middle class, and the underclass. Even worse, Australia has lost any ambition to be egalitarian.
It has been disconcerting to learn about research that refers to longstanding cultural myths about Australia as an egalitarian and classless society. But whether researchers categorise class into six or eight groups, there seems to be acknowledgement of deepening inequality based on 'new class realities' arising from the increased importance of asset holding, particularly housing.' For example, one classification consists of 'investors' at the top; followed by 'outright homeowners' and then 'homeowners with a mortgage' all of whom can expect their assets to appreciate in value. 'Renters' and the 'homeless' have no housing assets and their goal is to survive. What's more, as we know from reading Alan Kohler's recent Quarterly Essay, there is a generational divide between older and younger Australians.
The key element shaping inequality today, then, is not just employment relations, but whether one is able to buy assets that appreciate at a faster rate than both inflation and wages. (p.xxvii)
My source for these discomfiting realities is Love Across Class by Rose Butler and Eve Vincent.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/06/20/l...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews