Equality And Authority: A Study Of Class, Status And Power In Australia
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Edition: repr.,
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image; creased spine and corners
At the intersection of democracy's promise and social reality lies a profound paradox — the myth of the egalitarian society — and Equality and Authority: a Study of Class, Status and Power in Australia confronts this contradiction head-on. S. Encel presents a rigorous sociological examination of Australian society, arguing that beneath the nation's celebrated fair go ethos lies a deeply entrenched system of class distinctions, status hierarchies, and concentrated power structures that shape every facet of public and private life. Drawing on a wealth of empirical data and comparative analysis, the work details the mechanisms by which social stratification is reproduced across institutions — from the workplace and the professions to politics and education — dismantling the comfortable national mythology with scholarly precision. Encel writes with the authority of a seasoned sociologist, situating Australia within the broader theoretical traditions of Weber, Marx, and the pluralist school, while insisting on the distinctiveness of the Australian case. Equality and Authority stands as a landmark of Australian social science — a text that challenged a nation to look honestly at itself, and whose insights into the durability of inequality remain as urgent today as when first published. Who truly holds power in a society that believes, above all else, in mateship and the level playing field?
Author: S Encel
Format: Paperback
Published: 1972, Cheshire, Melbourne
Genre: Society & culture
Edition: repr.,
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image; creased spine and corners
At the intersection of democracy's promise and social reality lies a profound paradox — the myth of the egalitarian society — and Equality and Authority: a Study of Class, Status and Power in Australia confronts this contradiction head-on. S. Encel presents a rigorous sociological examination of Australian society, arguing that beneath the nation's celebrated fair go ethos lies a deeply entrenched system of class distinctions, status hierarchies, and concentrated power structures that shape every facet of public and private life. Drawing on a wealth of empirical data and comparative analysis, the work details the mechanisms by which social stratification is reproduced across institutions — from the workplace and the professions to politics and education — dismantling the comfortable national mythology with scholarly precision. Encel writes with the authority of a seasoned sociologist, situating Australia within the broader theoretical traditions of Weber, Marx, and the pluralist school, while insisting on the distinctiveness of the Australian case. Equality and Authority stands as a landmark of Australian social science — a text that challenged a nation to look honestly at itself, and whose insights into the durability of inequality remain as urgent today as when first published. Who truly holds power in a society that believes, above all else, in mateship and the level playing field?