Autore: Delpierre, Alizée
Titolo: Dominant elites, dominated subalterns, nothing more? Analyzing the ambivalence of domination
Periodico: Rassegna italiana di sociologia
Anno: 2025 - Fascicolo: 1 - Pagina iniziale: 171 - Pagina finale: 193

Analyzing the ambivalence of domination The power that money confers is undeniable: because they hold almost all economic capital, and often the social, symbolic and cultural capital that goes with it, the super-rich are structurally in a position of domination in the social arena. When it comes to analyzing situations of social confrontation in the context of a service relationship involving the super-rich, the results of the research seem to have already been announced: because they accumulate capital, the super-rich seem to make the most of this confrontation, to the detriment of their subordinates. Is this really the case? And if so, what can the sociologist detect beyond confirming the supremacy of the super-rich, without falling, conversely, into relativism? This article looks at how sociology can grasp the ambivalence of relations of domination, and what this implies, both from a theoretical and empirical point of view, and from a social and political one. The discussion is based on long-term research about a specific social confrontation between the super-rich and their domestic workers. Using this case as a starting point, it shows the analytical advantages combining the viewpoints of the super-rich and their subordinates. The article invites us to explore three major results of this approach. The first is the interdependence that the super-rich and their domestic workers describe in their relationship, through the expression of a reciprocal «need», which supports a subaltern relationship as a source of social inequality. The second is their intersecting socializations, under the same roof, to their respective gendered, racial and class roles, experienced as vectors of social ascension through the maintenance of social order. The third are the similarities between the domesticity relationships of the super-rich and other relationships – whether of service, work, friendship or intra-family. Finally, studying the super-rich and those around them is also a way of providing much broader insights into the workings of more universal social relations and relations of domination.




SICI: 0486-0349(2025)1<171:DEDSNM>2.0.ZU;2-4
Testo completo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/download/article/10.1423/116436
Testo completo alternativo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.1423/116436

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