Presented by Rachel Sherman, Michael E. Gellert Professor of Sociology.

Most rich people don’t seem to have a problem with massive economic inequality, justifying their wealth with reference to their hard work and moral character. But some wealthy people don’t buy these justifications, because they recognize that they have had "unearned" advantages, and see themselves as beneficiaries of an unfair and unjust system. They want to use their social advantages—money, connections, and influence—to dismantle those same advantages and the social conditions that produce them.

Though they are relatively few in number, these “class traitors” merit study because—like white antiracists working against white supremacy, but unlike most social movement actors—they are challenging systems that have benefitted them. Based on over 100 interviews with these rich redistributors and their non-wealthy movement partners, as well as ethnographic fieldwork among them, Class Traitors investigates this process of using power to give up power. In so doing, I argue, these wealthy confront deeply taken-for-granted cultural narratives about accumulation as the basis for worthy personhood and parenthood. In partnership with non-wealthy activists, they offer a vision of the common good that re-conceptualizes their own self-interest and challenges dominant ideas of who deserves what and why.

This event is part of The New School for Social Research's General Seminar event series.

Refreshments will be served.

Open to New School community members only. Must have an @newschool.edu email address to register.