Archive: John Russo
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WCP: Class, Politics, and the Return of Roseanne
The reboot of 1990s sitcom Roseanne brought with it a staggering number of viewers, indicating a strong demand for working-class representation in television and media. In Working-Class Perspectives, Kathy Newman highlights the need for shows like Roseanne while critiquing the disconnect between the people the show is meant to portray and the public actions of its lead actress, Roseanne Barr.
Category: Visiting Scholars
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WCP: Becky and the Grind
Working one’s way out of poverty, once an attainable ambition for the working-class, has now become a practical impossibility. In this week’s Working-Class Perspectives, Jack Metzgar details the story of Becky, a working-class single mother who struggled to do all she could just to not fall deeper into poverty, and the complex social dynamics of a family trying to support her.
Category: Visiting Scholars
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WCP: The Home Maintenance of Working-Class Identity After Deindustrialization
Children of working-class families are often encouraged to both stay true to their familial roots while simultaneously pursuing white collar careers. In Working-Class Perspectives, George Karl Ackers
Category: Visiting Scholars
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WCP: Going Public with Working-Class Studies
Discussions on the working-class in media and economics often neglect the depth and nuances of the working-class many academics have become familiar with. In this week’s Working-Class Perspectives, Sherry Linkon addresses the need for working-class studies to be more integrated with lay understandings of the working-class.
Category: Visiting Scholars
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WCP: Scabby the Rat Down Under
In Australia, as in the U.S., increasing restrictions on unions have forced the labor movement to come up with new and creative methods of communication. In this week’s Working-Class Perspectives, Ruth Barton explores the roll of large inflatable animals in Australian labor protests, and how activists have struggled to keep them inflated.
Category: Visiting Scholars
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WCP: Know Your Place: A New Generation of Working-Class Voices
The stories from younger generations of the working-class are becoming increasingly distinct from previous generations. In Working-Class Perspectives, Tim Strangleman reviews Know Your Place, a collection of reflections from young working-class writers, and compares the reflections in the book with his own working-class experiences.
Category: Visiting Scholars
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WCP: Billy Graham and the Evangelical Origins of Organized Labor
Evangelicals and labor unions find themselves on opposite sides of the U.S. political spectrum, but it wasn’t always that way. In this week’s Working-Class Perspective, Ken Estey reflects on Billy Graham’s outreach to working-class people and his understanding that the labor movement had roots in 18th century religious revivals.
Category: Visiting Scholars
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WCP: Have Ohio Democrats Learned Anything About the Working Class?
Although some white working-class voters in swing states like Ohio are growing disillusioned with President Trump, that in itself will not be enough to win their votes come November. In this week’s Working-Class Perspective, John Russo writes that Democrats must offer a strong vision of economic justice to hope for a different outcome this election cycle.
Category: Visiting Scholars
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WCP: Working-Class People on the Snowfields: Class at the Winter Olympics
As stories about the Winter Olympics focus on athletes’ performance and training, the reality is that sports such as skiing, snowboarding, and figure skating are prohibitively expensive for most working-class families. In this week’s Working-Class Perspective, Sarah Attfield examines the unseen but powerful impact of class at these games.
Category: Visiting Scholars
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WCP: Low Cotton: A Class on Class
Students will only understand class politics and working-class culture if it is part of their college curriculum. In this week’s Working-Class Perspective, Helen Diana Eidson describes how she creatively engaged her students at the University of Alabama on the issue of class through the history of Alabama cotton sharecroppers.
Category: Visiting Scholars