"Protests often occur not in the worst of times economically, but when times are booming as people feel that only certain people are benefiting […] they feel ‘relative deprivation’ comparing themselves to others." Inequality by @seamusapower.bsky.social @lsepbs.bsky.social Review by Michael Jindra
Can a pluralistic perspective on inequality help us to solve it? - LSE Review of Books
Inequality by Séamus Power explores pluralistic perspectives on inequality, capitalism & social mobility through the lens of anthropology & cultural psychology.
blogs.lse.ac.uk
![Ideology as a Luxury Good in Occupational Choice
Turgut Keskintürk
Duke University
July, 2026
[link to the latest version]
Abstract:
Career aspirations are formed long before people enter the labor market, but whether and how political ideology is part of that formative process remains poorly understood. Using yearly surveys of 9.5 million college freshmen entering U.S. institutions between 1976 and 2010, I show that ideology systematically structures occupational aspirations. This pattern is two to three times larger among students from the highest socioeconomic backgrounds than among those from the lowest. To explain this difference, I propose a luxury-good mechanism: ideological congruence, the match between one's politics and an occupation's perceived ideological orientation, constitutes an occupational amenity whose importance increases with material security. This, I theorize, makes ideology an expressive resource for life choices, though one that is unequally distributed.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:pqyqajvwhjfywv2tbq2sjxfz/bafkreialljl76yxvv6c7y5e7vkgcrjjthece7mw7thfxy6ouxwvggr3fxu)
![Comic. [A person and a second person with a ponytail sitting at a table with a screen showing a soccer game behind them.] PERSON 1: They could be in trouble. Over the last 36 years, they’ve gone 0 for 2 when they’ve scored in the 37th minute to lead 2-1 against a team whose country comes before theirs alphabetically. [caption] I wish sports commentators hadn’t discovered p-hacking.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreia7nj3d2xiski77uifyleeowddz6c24e5tgcxrk4jy5j6o3i2wryu)
