In the Realm of the Senses: Social Aesthetics and the Sensory Dynamics of Privilege (Cultural Studies and Transdisciplinarity in Education)

This book charts new territory both theoretically and methodologically. Drawing on MacDougall’s notion of social aesthetics, it explores the sensory dimensions of privilege through a global ethnography of elite schools. The various contributors to the volume draw on a range of theoretical perspectives from Lefebvre, Benjamin, Bourdieu, Appadurai, Kress and van Leeuwen to both broaden and critique MacDougall’s original concept. They argue that within these elite schools there is a relationship between their ‘complex sensory and aesthetic environments’ and the construction of privilege within and beyond the school gates. Understanding the importance of the visual to ethnography, the social aesthetics of these elite schools are captured through the inclusion of a series of visual essays that complement the written accounts of the aesthetics of privilege. The collection also includes a series of vignettes that further explore the sensory dimension of these aesthetics: touch, taste—though metaphorically understood— sight and sound. These varying formats illustrate the aesthetic nature of social relations and the various ways in which class permeates the senses. The images from across the different schools and their surroundings immerse the reader in these worlds and provide poignant ethnographic data of the forces of globalisation within the context of elite schooling Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introduction: Local Classes, Global Influences—Considerations on the Social Aesthetics of Elite Schools....Pages 1-26 Vignette: The Fullness of Taste....Pages 27-29 Distinguished Spaces: Elite Schools as Cartographers of Privilege....Pages 31-55 Visual Essay: Space....Pages 57-65 The (Semiotics of) Social Aesthetics in an Elite School in Singapore: An Ethnographic Study....Pages 67-85 Visual Essay: Semiotic Ecology....Pages 87-97 Vignette: Sound....Pages 99-100 Cultivating Students’ Bodies: Producing Physical, Poetic and Sociopolitical Subjectivities in Elite Schools....Pages 101-128 Visual Essay: Bodies....Pages 129-135 The Visual Field of Barbadian Elite Schooling: Towards Postcolonial Social Aesthetics....Pages 137-169 Vignette: Sight....Pages 171-172 Looking Inside and Out: Social Aesthetics of an Elite School in India....Pages 173-189 Visual Essay: Histories....Pages 191-202 Vignette: The Touch of Class....Pages 203-204 Afterword....Pages 205-207 Back Matter....Pages 209-211