Lives Beyond Suspicion: Gender and the Construction of Respectability in Midtwentieth Century Rural North Wales
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چکیده
This article explores and extends the field of historical rural sociology using the idea of respectability via a biographical study of 20 older adults from North Wales (UK) for whom the performance of respectability represented a form of social, symbolic or cultural capital. It entailed the active negotiation and management of barriers between differing constituencies of opinion, generations and family members. Key to this situated respectability in practice was the notion that harsher systems of exclusion for transgressors were located elsewhere, rather than in the present or immediate community. The sense of the past evoked by participants highlights an historical, diachronic dimension to respectability. A particularised, carefully constructed image of the past was present in participants’ evocations of respectability, providing a way of talking about identity and historical progression, as well as a means of managing potentially contentious events to preserve the dignity of the people concerned. Introduction: situating ‘respectable’ Welsh womanhood In the decade since Skeggs famously placed the issue of respectability on the sociological agenda (Skeggs 1997) the notion has been applied fruitfully to a number of social phenomena, including the practice of femininity in school (Allan 2009), cleanliness and the transformation of the labouring classes in the nineteenth century (Crook 2006) and the construction and maintenance of social distinction in rural Ireland (Muldowney 2008). Skeggs’s insight that ‘respectability’ was used by working-class people to accrue some symbolic value to their otherwise devalued and vulnerable class position has inspired us to extend the notion further, to show how the construct may be of value to rural sociology and how it is imbricated with the past. To do this, we examine selected data from a biographical narrative study of older adults in north Wales. © 2011 The Authors. Sociologia Ruralis © 2011 European Society for Rural Sociology. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK Sociologia Ruralis, Vol 51, Number 4, October 2011 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9523.2011.00544.x This article is based on biographical narrative interviews with 20 people who lived during the middle years of the twentieth century in the region of Wales known as Y Fro Gymraeg (the Welsh language area, mapped by Aitchison and Carter 2000). It is a region that has been described as ‘in retreat for centuries but still at the heart of debates about Welsh national identity’ (Day 2002; Bryant 2006, p. 126). At this time, the region was socioeconomically disadvantaged due to the declining fortunes of farming and quarrying, as well as suffering from long-term depopulation. The majority first language was Welsh and the region was deeply imbued with the legacy of religious Nonconformity. The chapel, not the established Anglican church, was at the centre of Welsh rural life and typically chapels were aligned politically with Liberal and radical politics. The influence of Welsh-language Nonconformity was such that even in the 1960s when religious observance itself was declining sharply, a distinctive culture derived from Nonconformity pervaded the region (Madgwick et al. 1973). This was manifested by a suspicion of mass culture such as popular music and dance; disapproval of activities involving gambling, such as whist drives or bingo games; and public houses having to close on Sundays. Some scholars (Jones 1982; Manning 2002, 2004) contend that the culture of rural Wales has involved an exceptionally active reconstruction of the past, foregrounding the role of the Welsh language, piety, the arts and scholarship, as well as the centrality of work in the primary sector of agriculture and extractive industry, to such an extent that sometimes these have been seen as synonymous with Welshness itself. Bourdieu’s work has been used previously to help elucidate the distinctive features of the history of this region (Baker and Brown 2008, 2009) and, following Bourdieu’s notion of cultural capital, it can be argued that the accumulated labour of creating and reconfirming this special sense of history enabled people to add value to their personal identity and collective cultural capital, in ways that allowed them to compete with the more prestigious varieties of cultural capital flourishing in urban areas of England (Baker and Brown 2008, 2009). The crafting of a respectable identity involved the appropriation of psychosocial and physical attributes that reflected preoccupations with deviance, transgression, moralization and economic productivity. Emmett (1964) provides an account of the rural Welsh response to the values of ‘ruling England’, and other classic contributions to Welsh sociology similarly emphasise the distance between the religious and cultural ethos of rural Wales and the dominant norms of modern industrial and urban existence (Rees 1950; Davies and Rees 1960). The popular idea of an intellectually high-minded, pious Welsh rural culture that stretches back across centuries has been undermined somewhat by rival interpretations that argue that much of this was invented during the nineteenth century (Morgan 1983; Jones 1992). What is significant, however, is not so much the reality of this conception as the prominence such sentiments held among the people we interviewed, showing the importance to them of this sense of a uniquely Welsh history and culture and the imbrication of history, identity and the quest for legitimacy. Although it may not be consistent with historians’ accounts, the incorporation of images of erudite Bards and preachers, and ordinary folk with refined intellectual tastes serves to add value to a presumed tradition, in the construction of a glorious and still relevant cultural past. The processes at stake here echo the role that critics of 371 Lives beyond suspicion © 2011 The Authors. Sociologia Ruralis © 2011 European Society for Rural Sociology. Sociologia Ruralis, Vol 51, Number 4, October 2011 colonialism such as Frantz Fanon (1982, p. 210) have ascribed to the creation of a sense of history and of a mystical past. These images of the past were often central to the sense of social value and cultural capital evinced by participants (Baker and Brown 2008). According to Bourdieu’s formulation, social capital includes the resources accrued through group membership. It is ‘the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalised relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition’ (Bourdieu 1986a, p. 248). Rather than being held by the individual alone, it is based instead on relational processes of interaction leading to constructive outcomes. In addition, Bourdieu proposed a separate category of cultural capital, concerned with painstakingly acquired knowledge, skill, education and related advantages, which in some circumstances can lead to a higher social status. It is these resources that approximate most closely to the accretions of knowledge, aspirations and spirituality that have been claimed to be central to Welsh identity (Philips and HarperJones 2002) and that have culminated most recently in the designation of Wales as the ‘learning country’ (National Assembly for Wales 2001). Allied to this, Bourdieu saw matters of morality as being very closely bound up with what he termed ‘symbolic capital’, or the power of consecration (Bourdieu 1980, p. 262). Symbolic capital serves as a kind of credit that social actors or groups may have as a result of having legitimised their social position. This may arise because of their successful conversion of cultural or economic capital. Morality, in this view, is grounded in social practice and habitus rather than in any pure moral philosophy (Bourdieu 1986b). Thus Bourdieu sees moral convictions, customs and judgments as being established through convention and, in a move curiously reminiscent of Foucault (1975), as instruments of discipline, normalisation and repression. Bourdieu’s notion of symbolic capital helps us to explain how moral convictions, habits and judgments guide people in pursuing meaningful lives and in distinguishing between right and wrong, good and evil and, perhaps most importantly for our purposes, between different social groups or forms of conduct. In Bourdieu’s formulation, symbolic capital exists, grows and is recognised through intersubjective reflection. Like social capital, it is based on mutual cognition and recognition (Bourdieu 1980, 1986b). This is how it acquires a symbolic character to become symbolic capital. Indeed, for social capital to become effective at all, differences between groups or classes have to be transformed into classifications that make symbolic recognition and distinction possible. As symbolic capital, distinctions – for example, between the respectable and the less respectable or between one chapel community and another – are ‘the product of the internalization of the structures to which they are applied’ (Bourdieu 1985, p. 204). In connection with this, Bourdieu saw strong moralities as hallmarks of less powerful, more working-class and downwardly mobile social groups. As he saw it, the working class ‘refers often explicitly to norms of morality or agreeableness in all their judgements’ (Bourdieu 1984, p. 41). In this view, those placed at the bottom of social hierarchies yet striving for respectability are apt to subscribe to moral conservatism in religious and sexual matters. The middle classes, by contrast, are inclined instead toward a moral system that is more psychologically minded and focuses on personal 372 Brown, Baker and Day © 2011 The Authors. Sociologia Ruralis © 2011 European Society for Rural Sociology. Sociologia Ruralis, Vol 51, Number 4, October 2011 needs. On the other side of the coin, Skeggs (1997) notes how the middle and upper classes often identify the working classes as dangerous, polluting, threatening and pathological. To Skeggs: Respectability is one of the most ubiquitous signifiers of class. It informs how we speak, who we speak to, how we classify others, how we study and how we know who we are (or not). Respectability is usually the concern of those who are not seen to have it. (Skeggs 1997, p. 1) Respectability means belonging, being included and accepted, being treated with respect, acknowledged and recognised as an individual. In the case of Wales it seems that respectability has been managed through particular kinds of historical sensitivity. On a social level, moralities and striven-for respectabilities may serve as means of discrimination, stigmatisation and exclusion. In the course of social life in Welsh village and chapel communities, people orientated and positioned themselves not only in a moral but also in a social space and, although distinct, these became thoroughly intertwined with one another (Davies and Rees 1960). The dominant notion of respectability and educational success in Wales was itself established in reaction to earlier historical events, in which, curiously like the working class, the Welsh were labelled ‘unrespectable’ (Williams 1985). In 1847 Commissioners appointed by Parliament presented a notorious report on the state of education in Wales (Jones 1978; James and Davies 2009). It provoked a furious reaction (Davies 1994; Roberts 1998) and came to be known in Wales as the ‘treason’ of the Blue Books (Derfel 1854). Ever since the Blue Books declared that eight out of 10 Welsh women were ‘unchaste and insensible to female virtue’, there has been a special relationship between femininity, morality and piety in Wales. It was as if the nation was still smarting at this criticism well into the twentieth century and seeking to negate it. Aaron (1994) and Bohata (2002) have argued that the durability and power of the image of respectable Welsh womanhood could be seen as a legacy of cultural imperialism, as exemplified by the educational commissioners. Aaron (1994, p. 189) notes that In colonized and post-colonized societies this type of conservative retention of repressive behaviour patterns inculcated by the colonizing culture, after that culture has itself abandoned them, is, apparently, a common trait while Bohata (2002, p. 647) comments that ‘the idealized Welsh woman, inspired by England’s middle-class angel of the house, would represent Welsh respectability long after English women had abandoned their haloes in favour of bicycles’. Wales has held a marginalised status in relation to its economically and politically dominant neighbour England (Bohata 2002), and has developed what Hechter (2000) terms the ‘peripheral nationalism’ of a culturally distinctive territory resisting incorporation into a more powerful neighbouring state. Welsh people have therefore often had to struggle to appear worthy of respect. Thus we would anticipate that the issue of respectability would be particularly acutely felt. Moreover, we might expect that it would be engendered in and through the social networks that contributed to community and kinship ties and hence to social capital in rural Welsh life (Rees 1950; Davies and Rees 1960). Early community studies of rural life in Wales have 373 Lives beyond suspicion © 2011 The Authors. Sociologia Ruralis © 2011 European Society for Rural Sociology. Sociologia Ruralis, Vol 51, Number 4, October 2011 highlighted the importance of distinctions based on respectability, between different ‘lifestyle’ groups (Jenkins 1960; Day and Fitton 1975) but so far these have not been understood in terms of capital accumulation. The data presented here represent a unique opportunity to revisit accounts of rural life in the light of recent developments in the theory of respectability itself to see how the concept can be further enhanced. Methodological approach and data sources Our study used an adapted version of Chamberlayne et al.’s (2000) biographical narrative interviewing technique to explore patterns of continuity and change, and the interrelationships between the personal and the social in the lives of our respondents. The participants are asked a generative question and allowed to talk freely, with interruptions only for clarification. Our generative question was ‘Can you tell me about your life from childhood onwards, particularly your memories of women’s and men’s roles?’ The interviews were undertaken as part of a wider study exploring gendered identity. Thus, participants were aware that we had an interest in gender and frequently talked about their memories and perceptions in this light. The 20 participants represent a subgroup of a panel recruited by the researchers to explore life stories and oral history in Y Fro Gymraeg. Recruitment initially began through the authors’ own social networks and was spread through personal contacts and social organisations to which the participants belonged in a variant of respondentdriven sampling (Heckathorn 1997). While the sample contained many who had worked in the education system in later adult life, all participants had spent their childhoods and adolescent years in rural Y Fro Gymraeg and considered Welsh to be their first language. Since the participants were known to at least one author who had met them several times over the course of the larger project, it was possible to use these relationships to undertake informal validity and reliability checks to strengthen the analysis, ensuring that the themes and issues identified resonated with the broader patterns of values in their lives. Ongoing relationships with many of these participants allowed participant validation to be carried out. The core theme identified in the present article, namely respectability, was challenged against the interpretations of other researchers and against participants’ observations over a period of time. Those interviewed were aged between 53 and 84 at the time of interview in 2007 and came from varied backgrounds. Their parents included a cross-section of occupations typical of Welsh rural society of the times: predominantly farmers, farm workers, quarrymen, housewives and domestic servants, but also the occasional minister, publican, miners, and teacher as well as a doctor. While many had some firsthand experience of hardship and deprivation, several felt that they came from backgrounds that were culturally if not materially rich. The views of our participants gave some confirmation to the suggestion made by Hoggart (2007) that social class hierarchies devised for an urban English experience do not map easily onto the situation in Wales. Many maintained indeed that the class structure in Wales differed from that prevalent in England and resorted to distinctions linked more closely to demarcations based on way of life, or in Welsh terminology ‘buchedd’ (Jenkins 1960; Day and Fitton 1975; Day 2002), than class per se (see Table 1). 374 Brown, Baker and Day © 2011 The Authors. Sociologia Ruralis © 2011 European Society for Rural Sociology. Sociologia Ruralis, Vol 51, Number 4, October 2011 Ta bl e 1: P ar ti ci pa nt s’ de ta ils
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