Privilege at Play

The central paradox of the book is the contrast between the invisibility of privilege to most city dwellers and the hypervisibility of privilege to those engaged in numerous struggles over who gets to play when and with whom inside. Drawing on 58 interviews and ethnographic observations of golf clubs, tournaments, shooting ranges, nd upper-class homes, this book makes a unique contribution to the study of the upper class by providing a nuanced example of the inequalities structuring the spaces and practices through which the privileged monopolize resources at the top of the social structure. * Ana Villarreal, Boston University, American Journal of Sociology *
I found Privilege at Play an enjoyable and informative read. ..I closed this book a satisfied and better educated general reader * Will Trinkwon, Golfshake *
Opening the gates to the hidden world of golf clubs in Mexico, Hugo Cerón-Anaya expands our understanding of elites and inequality by shedding light on the hidden interrelationship of race, class, and gender in privileged spaces." -Shamus Khan, Chair and Professor of Sociology, Columbia University
This fascinating, insightful, and compelling book on the Mexican ruling class at play starts with the invisibility of elite golf clubs to the ordinary people who walk by them every day and then proceeds through revealing interviews and astute observations to show the importance of social clubs in creating the shared world view and social cohesion that helps the wealthy golfers to cement their grip on power." -G. William Domhoff, author of The Corporate Rich and the Power Elite in the Twentieth Century: How They Won, Why Labor and Liberals Lost
Hugo Ceron-Anaya makes an important contribution to studies of upper class sociability and leisure, using his well-informed ethnography to illuminate the reproduction of class, gender, and racial inequalities in the golf clubs of Mexico City. Inspired by Bourdieu and using a rich ethnography, he shows that the golf clubs * built by globalising Mexican economic capitalestablish an exclusive spatial locale where those with the requisite social capital can establish informal relations of trust and cultural capital that enhance their ability to reconvert their resources into economic capital. This study breathes new life into studies of class and stratification." -John Scott, Universities of Essex and Exeter, UK *