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This article explore how a psychosocial approach to class can shed light on the ways in which neoliberal governmentality works through moral judgments and how different emotions within a "regime of judgments" are rooted in class relations. I work on two tracks: firstly, to synthesize health sociological arguments about the risk logic of healthism and theories about neoliberal imperatives of moral value display in order to build up a theoretical framework on a key feature of neoliberalism: the field of moral judgments. Secondly, using psychosocially oriented class theories, that address morality and respectability as key features of class I then illustrate the theoretical points through two empirical cases consisting of two very different mothers, involved in their six-year-old children's start in the final preschool class. I show how for the privileged middle class mother, judging is associated with a feeling of entitlement and moral superiority while the less privileged mother seems to feel a judgmental gaze, and is thus uncomfortable and nervous in relation to moral judgments of respectability. The article concludes that the psychosocial potential lies in exploring both how class morals currently shape subjectivity and how the emotional implications of this are drivers of the ways in which neoliberal governmentality rely on moral judgments related to healthism, risk and responsibilisation.

Class, Mothering and the Values of Food:The data analysed in this empirical paper stems from ethnographic fieldwork among new school parents at three Danish primary schools. I draw on empirically grounded theories on the cultural and subjective dimensions of class, inspired by the 'English School' of poststructuralist informed, feminist scholars, to explore how class matters. Using the values ascribed to food at social arrangements as a lens, I explore different ways of doing class and mothering: through the exchange values of the food, through its use value and through its healthiness. I conclude by arguingthat food studies hold a huge potential for the development of empirically grounded theories on class in Scandinavian society, where class hitherto has been ascribed as a thing of the past.

In diesem Beitrag befasse ich mich mit der Produktion Klassenzugehörigkeit als einer moralischen Größe in Forschungsbegegnungen. Ausgehend von unterschiedlichen klassenbezogenen Perspektiven versuche ich zu veranschaulichen, dass Klasse heute auf subtile Weise als moralische Autorisierung im Rahmen von Bewertungs- und Aushandlungsprozessen agiert wird. Ich nutze hierzu Erfahrungen im Verlauf einer sechsmonatigen ethnografischen Feldforschung mit Angehörigen der Mittel- und Arbeiterklasse, deren sechs Jahre alte Kinder das letzte Jahr in dänischen Vorschulen verbrachten. Ausgehend von methodologischen Problemen, denen ich beim Versuch, vertrauensvolle Beziehungen aufzubauen, begegnete, wurde mir zunehmend klar, dass die Eltern mich als moralische Instanz erachteten. Diese Einschätzung teilten alle Eltern, wobei sie sich selbst in sehr unterschiedlicher Weise in Bezug auf mich als Forscherin und "Richterin" positionierten: Sie bemühten sich intensiv um meine positive Bewertung; sie erachteten sich und mich als "im gleichen Boot sitzend" oder sie wehrten sich gegen eine mögliche Beurteilung durch mich. Diese Haltungen verweisen -so meine Einschätzung- auf unterliegende Klassenbeziehungen in neoliberalen Gesellschaften. Indem ich mich mit ihnen auseinandersetze, möchte ich einen Beitrag zur kritischen Reflexion von Machtbeziehungen innerhalb qualitativer Sozialforschung leisten. Unter einer weiteren methodologischen Perspektive plädiere ich dafür, den Einfluss von Klassenzugehörigkeit in soziologischen Untersuchungen genauer in den Blick zu nehmen, um deren Einfluss auf Forschungsarbeiten nachvollziehen zu können.

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to explore social inequity in palliative care in Denmark, a country that is seen as a stronghold of universal health care. Using data stemming from 2 years of research, we have selected two cases for analysis. They consist of palliative conversations with two quite different patients. Drawing on sociocultural class theory, we find that the conversations involve social exclusion processes due to discourses of active ageing. We find that one privileged patient performs in line with an entrepreneurial self and is supported by the nurse. The other, disadvantaged patient performs in a passive way, and the conversation mainly alleviates the disrespect he has experienced in healthcare encounters. We conclude that palliative care reinforces classifying practices and distinctions between "good" and "bad" patients, when active ageing becomes a dominant factor. We suggest improving the quality and sensitivity of medical training and call for increased reflexivity among professionals on the unequal situation of patients in order to reduce inequity in access to health care when close to death.

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to explore how parents of children with higher weights are represented in policy documents constituted by health authorities in the Danish welfare state. It focuses on how discourses of moral judgements might play a role in child rearing, by framing child obesity as a parental problem in health professionals' practical guidelines. The article is based on a discursive analysis of cases from three guidelines published by two respected Danish health bodies. The cases describe how health professionals should perceive families with obesity when providing interventions. Using sociocultural class theories, we find that the cases in the guidelines display a middle‐class hegemony, which implies a preoccupation with moral judgements. Combining this with a post‐structuralist concept of discursive subject positions and representations, we reveal how mothers of obese children are subject to these judgements, either as passive and irresponsible lower‐class citizens or as morally worthwhile and responsible middle‐class citizens because of shame and fear of being judged. We conclude that the ways obesity is discursively constructed by the Danish health authorities is concerning because they build on outdated and stigmatising views on obesity. The moral implications of this might increase inequity in access to health by distributing stigma and thereby legitimating welfare retrenchment with reference to economic necessities and irresponsibility among the less privileged groups.