The Sum of Small Things: A Theory of the Aspirational Class

· Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Rachel Dulude
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8 hr 35 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook

In today's world, the leisure class has been replaced by a new elite. Highly educated and defined by cultural capital rather than income bracket, these individuals earnestly buy organic, carry NPR tote bags, and breast-feed their babies. They care about discreet, inconspicuous consumption-like eating free-range chicken and heirloom tomatoes, wearing organic cotton shirts and TOMS shoes, and listening to the Serial podcast. They use their purchasing power to hire nannies and housekeepers, to cultivate their children's growth, and to practice yoga and Pilates. In The Sum of Small Things, Elizabeth Currid-Halkett dubs this segment of society "the aspirational class" and discusses how, through deft decisions about education, health, parenting, and retirement, the aspirational class reproduces wealth and upward mobility, deepening the ever-wider class divide.

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4.0
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About the author

Elizabeth Currid-Halkett is the James Irvine Chair in Urban and Regional Planning and professor of public policy at the University of Southern California. She is the author of The Warhol Economy and Starstruck, and her work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, New Yorker, and Wall Street Journal.

Rachel Dulude is an actor and book narrator based in Providence, Rhode Island. She has been recording audiobooks since 2012 in genres ranging from young adult to adult thrillers. As an actor, she has performed with the Wilbury Theatre Group in Providence and the Gamm Theatre in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

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