The term "runway" often refers to a strip of paved surface where aircraft take off and land. In this context, "The Middle Class Runway" symbolizes the journey of the middle class through life. Just like an airplane needs a runway to take flight, the middle class needs certain foundations and resources to achieve success and upward mobility. The book explores the idea of the middle class as a launching pad for individuals to pursue their dreams and aspirations.

This is the second volume in a three volume set, the first of which encompassed the working class; the third will cover the upper class. Improvements over the first volume include an index, making this compendium more useful as a reference, and a discussion of how the author has defined the middle class. Each section deals with a decade and comprises cartoons, advertisements, posters, and photographs of families, workers, and working conditions, as well as portions of magazine articles and quotations, interspersed with information about significant events of the decade and bits of social and economic information. In addition, Derks (whose credentials are not stated) has written fictional family profiles (76 in all)--composites intended to represent the financial and social situations of families from an array of ethnic groups and occupations. c. Book News Inc.

Project Runway meets Fame in a trendy new series from the authors of The Cupcake Club Balloons Spaghetti Rainbows If you were to ask Mickey Williams, these would not be her top points of inspiration for designing a party dress. But in fashion, the client is always right...and Mickey's client happens to be fashion legend Victoria Vanderweil's five-year-old granddaughter. Even though it's the toughest assignment Mickey's gotten during her time at the Fashion Academy of Brooklyn, she can't pass up the opportunity to impress a top designer like Victoria. But when Cordy turns out to be a tiny terror with non-stop demands, the assignment goes from hard to impossible. Not only that, but Victoria wants Mickey to babysit Cordy during NYC Fashion Week! Can Mickey pull off her project and pass, or will it fall apart at the seams? See how it all began in The Fashion Academy!

How the leisure class has been replaced by a new elite, and how their consumer habits affect us all In today’s world, the leisure class has been replaced by a new elite.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. Exploring the rise of the aspirational class, Currid-Halkett considers how much has changed since the 1899 publication of Thorstein Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class. In that inflammatory classic, which coined the phrase “conspicuous consumption,” Veblen described upper-class frivolities: men who used walking sticks for show, and women who bought silver flatware despite the effectiveness of cheaper aluminum utensils. Now, Currid-Halkett argues, the power of material goods as symbols of social position has diminished due to their accessibility. As a result, the aspirational class has altered its consumer habits away from overt materialism to more subtle expenditures that reveal status and knowledge. And these transformations influence how we all make choices. With a rich narrative and extensive interviews and research, The Sum of Small Things illustrates how cultural capital leads to lifestyle shifts and what this forecasts, not just for the aspirational class but for everyone.

In his new collection of quirky, bittersweet stories, Carlson observes the men and women of the middle class, people who find themselves settling uneasily into lives they never envisioned for themselves. Carlson uncannily captures the complexity of his characters' inner lives.

How can recent developments in post-structuralist, post-Marxist, and psychoanalytical theory actually inform ongoing empirical research? What are the appropriate methods and research strategies for conducting research in discourse theory and analysis? How can concepts such as hegemony, identity, the imaginary, dislocation, and empty signifiers illuminate key aspects of contemporary society and politics? This pathbreaking and multi-focal book contains a clear introductory statement of the theoretical approach used, and concludes with an assessment of the future directions of discourse theory in the social sciences.