Clara Gutleben, M.A.

Clara Gutleben studied Sociology and Cultural Studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, before joining the Doing Transition research group as a doctoral fellow. Since her master’s degree, she has focussed on the symbolic violence produced by the classificatory schemes inherent in the division into classes (particularly social classes). Other research interests include feminist theory, gender studies, cultural studies, sociology of food, and materialist and neo-materialist approaches. Her sociological dissertation project examines the process of social mobility, drawing on cultural/eating studies.

Clara Gutleben is currently doing a research stay at the EHESS in Paris, under the supervision of Séverine Gojard.

Upward social mobility: How does it taste?

The PhD project presented here examines the process of upward social mobility from a praxeological perspective: what do the food practices of transclasses and their entourage reveal about class positioning, habitus conversion and symbolic barriers? The desired goal is thus to dialectically analyse how power structures operate in transitions and how transitions contribute to their reproduction.

In its empirical approach to individual and collective cultural practices (and in particular practices related to food), this study is rooted in the material dimension of the constitution of transitions as emphasised by the Graduate School: This concrete dimension focuses on the objects of taste and disgust, on the bodily behaviours prior to legitimate norms and customs that vary according to gender, and on the hierarchical and sexual division of the spaces in which cultural practices actually take place (Dussuet, 2004). Particular attention is also paid to interpersonal relationships, as they make it possible to observe the behaviour of individuals in relation to their gender and class towards interlocutors who are guarantors of the social norms they adhere to and who can influence social deviants through their verbal or non-verbal esteem and symbolic status (as models or counter-models).

Based on a qualitative survey of ten people working in different professional environments (political, artistic, economic) and making their debut in the social upper class, this study attempts to understand this transition in the life course ‘as it is experienced’ (Pagis, Pasquali, 2016). Paying particular attention to the diversity of individual and collective experiences, which can be more or less happy or unhappy, ordinary or spectacular, we aim to (re)think social ascent in the plural. Several complementary methods are combined to collect material that can be both dense and of high quality, such as ethnographic interviews and document analyses. These methods allow for a methodic comparison of how material circumstances and perceptions of self and others evolve over a period of time.

Publications

• Mariia Bakhareva, Vera Ghio, Clara Gutleben, Anne Lhuissier, Nicolau Pessanha, et al.. Les restaurants solidaires du CASVP. Journal d’enquête mai 2021-avril 2022. 2022, 231 p. ⟨hal-03945996⟩
• Mariia Bakhareva, Vera Ghio, Clara Gutleben, Anne Lhuissier, Nicolau Pessanha, et al.. Un dispositif public de distribution de repas chauds : les Restaurants solidaires de la Ville de Paris. 2022. ⟨hal-04001034⟩
• Mariia Bakhareva, Vera Ghio, Clara Gutleben, Anne Lhuissier, Nicolau Pessanha, et al.. Enquête collective et exploratoire auprès deux Restaurants solidaires du CASVP 2021-2022-Synthèse. EHESS
  Paris. 2022.

Conferences

As co-organiser :

• „Knowing what we eat“, AISLF (CR17), 10.03.2025.
• „Insights and reflexions on the concepts of Bifurcation and Doing Transitions“, 16-17.11.2023. Organised by C. Gutleben, C. Negroni, A. Pohl, E. Thevenot.

As speaker :

• ESA Conference (Porto) – 27-30.08.2024 – „Changing class, changing space: the geographical and symbolical significance of distance“.
• ESA Conference (Porto) – 27-30.08.2024 – „Age, pain and vulnerability: exploring the relation of age and painful experiences through the method of age-blinding“. K. Gosain, C. Gutleben, K. Ponthius, F. Schulte.
• AISLF Congress (Ottawa) – 8-2.07.2024 – „Manger c’est exprimer son genre de vie: le cas des transclasses“ (Eating is expressing your lifestyle: the case of transclasses).
• „Insights and reflexions on the concepts of Bifurcation and Doing Transitions“ (Tübingen) – 16-17.11.2023 – „Climbing up the social ladder: how does it taste?“
• 9th Ethnography and Qualitative Research International Conference (Trento) – 7-10.06.2023 – „On the relevance of an ethnography of food-related practices to address vulnerability.“
• Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences 2022, Fédération des Sciences Humaines — 12-20.10.2022 – „De la faute de goût au goût de la faute“