Expressions of High Status

This book is an unprecedented effort to compare representations and practices of social distinction worldwide and over the centuries. It is based on years of observation in many countries and on the consultation of more than 2 500 multi-disciplinary publications dealing directly or indirectly with this theme. In two previous theoretical volumes on the topic (The Sociology of Elite Distinction and Rethinking Social Distinction) welcomed as major breakthroughs, Jean-Pascal Daloz has established himself as the foremost scholar of symbolic social superiority from a comparative perspective. After having rigorously shown the limits of the main analytical frameworks available and outlined a much more inductive approach, his new empirical book continues this intellectual journey. 

Taking into consideration all sorts of cases and patterns of meaning, it offers an impressive synthesis demonstrating how diverse the expressions of high status can be. This comparative work is intended to be a crucial reference point and an important source of inspiration for researchers and students across many fields.

“In many ways instructive, it will introduce readers to the diverse, sometimes obscure, unlikely, contrary and contradictory, means by which status orders are governed and stabilised.” (Alan Warde, Consumption and Society, Vol. 3 (2), 2024)

“This book is an essential read for scholars of social distinction in any period or culture. The clear division into parts and chapters makes the volume easy to use as a reference work. They will discover illuminating and often gripping parallels with other human societies across time and space as well as a toolkit of potential questions and variables to guide their inquiry. A “little” encyclopaedia in this sense – but in substance a work of great synthesis.” (Giora Sternberg, Professor of Early Modern History, Hertford College, University of Oxford, UK)

“Long the premier analyst of elite distinction, Jean-Pascal Daloz now provides a comparative study of signs of high status from the Neolithic to the present. Skeptical of “grand theories”, he synthesizes a vast research literature and amplifies it with illustrations from his own investigations. Here is a definitive treatment of elites and social inequality.” (John Higley, Professor Emeritus of Government and Sociology, The University of Texas at Austin, USA, author of “Elites, Non-Elites, and Political Realism”)

 

Jean-Pascal Daloz is a CNRS Research Professor at the University of Strasbourg and Faculty Fellow at the Yale Center for Cultural Sociology. He previously held positions in several universities, including that of Oxford. From 2008–2018, he chaired the International Sociological Association’s Research Committee on Comparative Sociology. He has published 16 books so far.