Members Only

Elite Clubs and The Process of Exclusion

By (author) Diana Kendall

Not available to order

Publication date:

25 July 2008

Length of book:

198 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9780742545557

In Members Only Diana Kendall shows how the upper classes use exclusive clubs as their private domain for conducting business, fostering social networks, and launching the next generation of elites - all beyond the view of outsiders and the media. In her research, Kendall explains how and why club members routinely engage in exclusionary practices that help them accumulate personal power and social capital that is unavailable to outsiders.

Members Only addresses how exclusive private clubs maintain and perpetuate class-based privilege and racial/ethnic and religious segregation, and how such patterns of social exclusion heighten social inequality. This book continues Kendall's study of the upper classes, which began with The Power of Good Deeds, and Framing Class.
Kendall illuminates how membership is controlled by and envelops the privileged few with a capacity to exercise social, cultural, and political capital. Her distinctive treatment of these assets fleshes out specific details so well that students of inequality are guaranteed satisfaction. Highly recommended.