英国社会的七个阶级
-
Multiplying the Old Divisions of Class in
Britain
英国社会的七个阶级
LONDON
—
Class in
Britain used to be a relatively simple matter, or
at least it used to be treated
that
way. It came in three flavors
—
upper, middle and working
—
and people supposedly knew
by
some
mysterious
native
sixth
sense
exactly
where
they
stood.
As
the
very
tall
John
Cleese
declared
to
the
less-tall
Ronnie
Corbett
in
the
famous
1966
satirical
television
sketch
meant
to
illustrate class
attitudes in Britain
—
or,
possibly, attitudes toward class attitudes
—
“I look down
on him, because I am upper
class.”
伦敦
——
英国的阶级问题过去曾经是一个相对简单的事情，
或者至少曾经被当做简单
的事情
对待。
那时英国分为三个阶级，
上层阶级、中产阶级以及工人阶级，人们仿佛具备某种神秘
的、与生俱来的第六感，清楚
地知道自己属于哪个阶级。就像个子很高的约翰
·
克里斯
(John
Cleese)
在
1966
年一部非常著名的
电视讽刺短剧
中，
向个子较矮的罗尼
·
科比特
(Ronnie Corbett)
公开表示的那样，<
/p>
“
我看不起他，因为我是上层阶级。
”<
/p>
这部短剧旨在展示英国的阶级态度，
或者说是人们对阶级态度的态
度。
It is not as easy as all
that, obviously. The 2010 election was enlivened
at one point by a perfectly
serious
discussion
of
whether
David
Cameron,
now
the
prime
minister,
counted
as
upper
upper-middle
class,
or
lower
upper-
middle
class.
But
on
Wednesday,
along
came
the
BBC,
muddying the waters
with a whole new set of definitions.
很明
显，
事情并没有那么简单。
2010
年
的选举因为一场非常严肃的辩论而一度富有生气，
辩
论的主题是
，应该将戴维
·
卡梅伦
(David
Cameron)
，也就是现任首相，算作地位较高的中上
阶层呢，还是地位较低的中上阶层。但在周四，
BBC
也投身其中，给出了一套全新的定义，
让事情变得更复杂。
< br>
Having commissioned what it called
The Great British Class
Survey
, an online questionnaire filled
out by more than 161,000 people, the
BBC concluded that in today‟s complicated world,
there are
now
seven
different
social
classes.
(“As
if
three
weren‟t
annoying
enough,”
a
woman
named
Laura Phelps said on Twitter.) These
range
from the “elite” at the top,
distinguished by
money,
connections and rarefied cultural
interests, to the “precariat” at the bottom,
characterized by lack
of money, lack of
connections and unrarefied cultural interests.
在委托开展了所谓的
“
英国阶级大型调查
”(
The Great British Class Surv
ey
)
，
并有超过
16.1
万人
填写了一份在线问卷后，
BBC
得出了如下结论：在复杂的当今世界，现在有七种不同的社
< br>会阶级。
（
“
好像有三种还不够
烦人似的，
”Twitter
上一位名叫劳拉
< br>·
菲尔普斯
[Laura Phelps]
的
女子说。
）这些阶级中，处于顶端的是
“
精英
”(elite)
，他们的财富、社会关系和高端的文化兴
趣都引人注目。
而位于
底端的
“
无业游民
”(precari
at)
，
特征则是没有钱、
没有社会关
系，
也没
有高端的文化趣味。
That might sound kind of familiar, but
Fiona Devine
, a sociologist
who helped devise the study,
said,
“It‟s what‟s in the middle which is really
interesting and exciting.”
这
两个阶层听起来可能并不陌生，但帮助设计研究的社会学家菲奥娜
·
迪瓦恩
(Fiona
Devine)
说，
“
真正有趣和激动人心的是社会的中层。
”
The middle
categories, as the study defines them,
include the “technical middle class,” a
group
that
has
a
lot
of
money
but
few
superior
social
connections
or
cultural
activity;
the
“em
ergent
service
workers,”
a
young,
urban
group
that
has
little
money
but
a
high
amount
of
social
and
cultural capital; and the “new affluent
workers,” who score high on social and cultural
activity, but
have only a middling
amount of money.
按照这次研究的定义，
社
会中层的分类包括
“
严格意义上的中产阶级
”(technical middle class)
，
这个群体有很多钱，
但几乎没有优越的社会关系或文化活动；
“
新兴服务业工作者
”(emergent
service workers)
，
他们年轻、
居住在城市中，
没什么钱但有大量的社会资本和文化
资本；
“
新
富工作者
< br>”(new affluent workers)
，他们的社交和文化活动层次
较高，但财富积累仅处在中间
程度。
“There‟s a much more fuzzy area between
the traditional workin
g class and the
traditional middle
class,”
Ms.
Devine,
a
professor
of
sociology
at
Manchester
University,
said
in
remarks
accompanying the research. “The survey
has really allowed us to drill down and get a much
more
complete picture of class in
modern Bri
tain.”
迪瓦恩是曼彻斯特大学
(Manchester
University)
社会学教授。
“
传统的工人阶级和传统的中产
阶级之间，
有了一个
更加模糊的区域，
”
她在研究结果发布时表示。
“
实际上这项研究让我们
能够深入问题，对现代英国阶
级的整体情况有一个远更全面的了解。
”
Not everyone sees it that way. In a
country that is not sure whether it is (a.)
obsessed with class, or
(b.) merely
obsessed with whether it is as obsessed about
class as it used to be (if it ever really
was),
the
survey
got
widespread
attention.
But
some
Britons
thought
the
researchers
had
not
considered the correct
criteria.
并不是所有人都这样觉得。在英国这个不知道该说是沉迷于阶级问
题，还是只是纠结于
“
今
天是否像过去
一样沉迷于阶级问题
”
的国家（如果说英国的确曾经沉迷于阶级
问题的话）
，
BBC
的调查引起了广泛
的关注。不过一些英国人认为，研究人员没有考虑正确的标准。
“There are only two classes: those with
tattoos, and those without,” said one Daily Mail
reader,
commenting on the paper‟s
article about the new categories.
《每日邮报》
(Daily Mail)
的一位读者，对该报关于新分类的报道发表评论说，
“
只有两
个阶
级：有纹身的和没有纹身的。
”
Another
wrote:
“What
are
they
called
in
„Brave
New
World‟?
Alphas,
Betas,
Gammas
and
Epsilons?
That‟s
well
on
the
way
to
becoming
a
factual
book.
We
already
have
most
of
the
population on „Soma,‟ ” a reference to
the antide
pressant in the book.
另一位读者写道：
“
在《美丽新世界》
(Brave New World)
里是怎么叫的？阿尔法、贝塔、伽
马、
伊普西龙？这书里讲的事情，
恐怕正在慢
慢地变成事实。
我们当中已经有多数人在嗑
„
< br>唆
麻
‟(Soma)
了。
”
唆麻是书中描写的一种抗抑郁药物。
The study was published in the journal
Sociology
and conducted by
Ms. Devine in conjunction
with Mike
Savage, a professor of sociology at the London
School of Economics, and the
BBC Lab
UK
.
这项研究是迪瓦恩与伦敦政治经济学院
(London
School
of
Economi
cs)
社会学教授迈克
·
萨维
奇
(Mike
Savage)
，以及
BBC
Lab
UK
共同开展的。研究结果发
表在了学术期刊《社会学》
(Sociology)
上。
Throwing
out
the
old
formula
by
which
class
was
defined
according
to
occupation,
wealth
and
education,
it
created
in
its
place
a
definition
calculated
according
to
“economic
capital,”
which
includes
income and savings; “social capital,”
which refers to whom one knows from among 37
different occupations; and “cultural
capital,” which is defined as the sorts of
cultural interests one
pursues, from a
list of 27.
这项研究摒弃了根据职业、
财富和教
育程度决定阶级的旧公式，
而是建立了一种新的定义方
式。新方
式根据三个因素进行计算，分别是
“
经济资本
< br>”
，包括收入和储蓄；
“
社会资
本
”
，指