Transclass

Becoming transclass follows a significant passing in social space, meaning for an individual to permeate the boundaries that differentiate social classes.^[3] This passing can occur following marriage, employment, studies, etc. Whether upward or downward, passing necessitates substantial social mobility. The existence of defectors is therefore partly linked to the possibility for individuals to radically change their social environment.^[3]

The upward change of social class encounters not only sociological difficulties (see in particular the theses of Pierre Bourdieu), but also psychological difficulties, which were discovered by Vincent de Gaulejac through the concept of class neurosis (French: La Névrose de classe, book published in 1987; re-edited in 1991).^[5]

The concept of transclass was put forward by the philosopher Chantal Jaquet, who herself experienced a transclass trajectory.^[1][6] Chantal Jaquet published her theory in the book titled "The Transclasses or the non-reproduction" in 2014 (French: Les Transclasses ou la non-reproduction) followed by a collective work "The Transclass Factory" (French: La fabrique des transclasses) published in 2018 and edited with philosopher Gérard Bras. The first book was translated into English by Gregory Elliot titled Transclasses – A Theory of Social Non-reproduction and published in 2023.^[3] According to Chantal Jaquet, her conceptual model supplements Bourdieu's work on exceptions to social reproduction (non-reproduction) within a class by using the "logic of the contrary" (rather than the logic of contradiction).^[7] The concept of transclass discusses possible causes of these exceptional life paths (social advancement) without resorting to the "ideology of the self-made man."^[7]

The concept was the subject of the French documentary "Infrared – The Transclass Challenge" (French: Infrarouge - Le défi des transclasses) broadcast in May 2020.^[8] It was also featured in the French weekly radio program "Obstacle Course" (French: Parcours de combattants), which aired during the France Inter summer schedule in 2021.^[9] In Philonomist, an independent online publication exploring business, work, and economic trends through philosophy and the human sciences, Chantal Jaquet and French sociologist Gérald Bronner discussed a potential miserabilist discourse on transclass identity published in March 2023. Jaquet cautioned against "any moralization of transclass people," advocating that "a free being needn’t be ashamed nor proud of their origins."^[10]

According to Laélia Véron and Karine Abiven, class passing has become a “'screen term' that artificially popularizes the idea of social mobility in a world where real opportunities for mobility are limited and where the reversal of hierarchies does not seem likely to happen anytime soon”,^[11] and a “mythical category” rather than a sociological one.^[12] In their book "Betray and avenge. Paradoxes in stories of class defection" (French: Trahir et venger. Paradoxes des récits de transfuge de classe, 2024), they explain that the defector or passing narrative, after enjoying great success, is currently experiencing a “backlash” and they question its future.^[13]

Sociologist Cédric Hugrée, a researcher at the CNRS specializing in social classes and the sociology of education, explains that there are several discrepancies between the most well-known stories of upward passing and the state of social mobility in France today: "The emphasis is on achieving significant social and geographical mobility, essentially through education bias, and therefore intended for cultural fractions of the upper classes. Finally, for many, these are stories about men. (...) However, upward mobility tends to be small-scale social mobility, which more often involves women. And while degrees play a major role in accessing skilled jobs, there are also other ways of accessing dominant positions (through money, sport, politics, the arts, etc.) that are less widely reported, or are not published in literary collections. From this point of view, we could say that the transclass (French sic.: "transfuge") narrative as a genre is far from having exhausted the reality of social mobility, whereas, according to you, it seems to have exhausted the novelistic."^[14]