Peter Dickens

Property, bureaucracy and culture : middle-class formation in contemporary Britain

Preface: Why we wrote this book 1. Are the Middle Classes Social Classes? 2. The Dynamics of Service Class Formation 3. The Historical Formation of the British Middle Classes 4. The Contemporary Restructuring of the Middle Classes 5. The Housing Market and the Middle Classes: Class Tenure and Capital Accumulation 6. Culture, Consumption and Lifestyle 7. Social Mobility and Household Formation 8. Regional Context and Spatial Mobility 9. Class Formation and Political Change, Appendix 1: What is Class Analysis? Appendix 2: Socio-Economic Groups, Appendix 3: The British Market Research Bureaus Classification of Occupations, Footnotes, References

Linking the Social and Natural Sciences: Is Capital Modifying Human Biology in its Own Image?

Social science has long fought shy of the natural sciences. Meanwhile, concerns with the environment, health and the new genetics are creating a need for systematic links to be made between these disciplines. This paper suggests a new way in which social theory can be linked to biology. Recent developments in biology point to the importance of considering organisms in relation to their environment. And work in epidemiology stresses the links between the infant-development, health in later life and the well-being of future generations. Complex combinations of genetically-determined predispositions and capitalist social relations are responsible for important features of contemporary social stratification and well-being. The paper is informed by critical realist epistemology and Marxs theory of the subsumption. Such a fusion leads to a key assertion. Capital tends to modify the powers of human biology in its own image.

Society, space and human nature

Abstract Much contemporary urban and regional studies literature contains an inadequate understanding of why people do what they do. This paper attempts to redress this situation by examining the implications of sociobiology and social psychology for urban and regional analysis. It is argued that these areas of theory can indeed make a significant contribution to urban and regional studies. However, this can only be achieved if biological and psychological determinism is abandoned and if we combine an understanding of the innate bases of behaviour with the cultures which societies self-consciously construct for themselves. This argument is illustrated with reference to two issues of central concern to urban and regional studies: home life and community relations between adolescents and older people. This paper also suggests that urban and regional studies could profit by returning to older (and now frequently dismissed) forms of urban analysis, particularly the Chicago School of urban sociology.

The Humanization of the Cosmos—To What End?

Society is increasingly humanizing the cosmos. Satellites have for some time been central to the flow of information, to surveillance, and to the conduct of warfare. As these examples suggest, however, the humanization of the cosmos is primarily benefiting the powerful. These include major economic and military institutions. Furthermore, the forthcoming commodification and colonization of the cosmos is again likely to enhance the interests of the powerful, the major aerospace companies in particular. The time has come to consider alternative forms of cosmic humanization. These would enhance the prospects of the socially marginalized. They would also allow humanity to develop a better understanding of the cosmos and our relationship to itThis article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Architecture as commodity fetishism. Some cautionary comments on ‘Green Design’

’Buildings are responsible for more external pollution than any other product’. (D. Mckenzie, 1991)