Dissertations@Portsmouth - Details for item no. 14485
Bibliographic details and abstracts are available to all. Downloads of full-text dissertations are restricted to University of Portsmouth members who
must login. MPhils may be accessed by all.
Joyce, Aimee (2024) Investigation of social class barriers that impact senior positions in the Navy being occupied by the middle classes: Introducing conceptual ideas and analysis of the Habitus Clive.”. (unpublished BSc dissertation), University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth
Abstract
This research explores the promotion experiences of 7 Naval recruits in the UK to understand how their social class impacts their Naval experience. This dissertation aims to fill the sizeable gap in sociology concerning the psychological impact of social mobility and the UK military. It does this by applying Bourdieusan theorists like Friedman (2012, 2014, 2016) and Skeggs (1997) sociological ideas regarding upward social mobility to the Navy’s stratification system. Bourdieu (2000), Friedman (2016) and Clarke et al (2022) form the theoretical framework from which I will argue that the underrepresentation of working classes in senior ranks results in the promoted working classes experiencing hysteresis. Thus, this thesis has a dual focus, the first focusing on the social barriers experienced by the working classes in the Royal Navy (the Navy) and then shifting to investigating the working-class promotion experiences of hysteresis and Habitus Clive.
The data gathered through semi-structured interviews and made sense of, using thematic analysis establishes the Navy as a non-meritocratic institution in which status/rank is ascribed to individuals rather than demonstratively achieved. Despite this being a uniting feature in accounts gathered from the promoted working classes and becoming a key finding in this research project, everyone interviewed expressed cynicism concerning new Naval policy reforms aimed at increasing diversity. This research shows participants’ apprehension regarding the imminent policy reforms as resulting from ambivalence caused by the experience of hysteresis. Consequently, in the conclusion space for further conceptualisation of the hysteresis experience is explored and the argument made for further research in 5-10 years investigating the success of these new policies and whether the participant’s concern regarding these changes has subsided.
Course: Sociology - BSc (Hons) - C0315
Date Deposited: 2024-11-07
URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14485.html