Investing in Status As a Mode of Living - Practices, Conditions, Disturbances

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Karin Gottschall; Professorin Dr. Betina Hollstein; Professor Dr. Uwe Schimank
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2016 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 315179426

The topic of the proposed project is investing in status as a mode of living, which has repeatedly found great public particular attention in public debates since the beginning of modernity, as well as by sociologists starting with the classical authors. Still, by now this mode of living has not been conceptualized precisely with regard to the interplay of its basic components; moreover, how it fits to the contemporary societal situation has not been empirically investigated. Thus, the project s general aim is firstly, to model this mode of living as a mechanism which generates certain practices, including the conditions under which particular members of society can live accordingly, and secondly, to investigate potential disturbances of this way of >>doing life<< by actual societal changes, and the practices of coping with these disturbances. Having answered the first question is a pre-condition for turning to the second one. In societal discourse and by sociological observers, the middle classes are perceived as the main representative of investing in status. Accordingly, within our case-based empirical design we will analyse 42 cases covering, on the one hand, middle class members who practice this mode of living. On the other hand, we will also include middle class members who do not invest in their status, and members of the lower classes who do invest, since the nexus of investing in status and middle class membership has to be seen as an open question., The five spheres of life central for this mode of living are work and the labour market, intimate relations, parenthood, long-term asset-building, and participation in civil society. For these spheres we want to study the >>doing life<< of persons with regard to the synchronic coordination of their activities and to the diachronic biographical perspective and planning of one s life. The qualitative empirical design we will make use of consists in narrative biographical interviews which include guideline-supported follow-up questions. The interviews will be interpreted according to the documentary method.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants