Fear of Falling Fear of Fading: The Emotional Dynamics of Positional and Personalised Individualism
This article explores the emotional dynamics involved in the shaping of middle class subjectivities, aiming to move beyond the 'fear of falling' thesis and the attendant emphasis on the quest for positional advantage. I argue that this thesis offers a one dimensional notion of what it is that drives middle class perceptions, values and motivations, unsuitable for explaining current tensions between symbolic and economic fractions. Drawing on a comparative narrative interview study of managerial and professional parents in Norway, I describe the emotionally charged investments 'fear of falling' and 'fear of fading' as well as the excitements that drive different modes of socialisation in these groups. Further developing the phenomenological and psychosocial trajectories in Bourdieu's practice theory yields a productive tool for exploring these modes of socialisation, contributing to an enhanced conception of emotional dynamics of different middle class subjectivities.