This project analyzes French and American working class cultures by drawing on 200 in-depth interviews conducted with randomly sampled white and African-American working class men living the New York suburbs and with white and French Algerian working class men living in the Paris suburbs. It examines the criteria that these men use to define, and to discriminate between, worthy and less worthy persons. Drawing on available data on French and American upper-middle class cultures, the study will explore issues such as the extent of working class resistance to upper-middle class culture, the decline of working class cultural distinctiveness, and cultural difference between majority and minority working class men. This study will make a significant contribution to the understanding of national cultures and of racial differences within these cultures.
