How to Negotiate Class Ambiguity: A Boundary Work Approach

Abstract

Abstract Research indicates that actors increasingly engage in practices that do not match their class background. This contribution explores how actors negotiate class ambiguity through boundary work. Studying Argentinean middle-class actors participating in Pentecostalism, the article draws attention to boundary conversion as a strategy to manage class ambiguity. Deviating from the middle class with their religious affiliation, the studied Pentecostals convert existing boundaries between the Argentinean middle class and Pentecostalism into internal boundaries within Pentecostalism, creating trenches between “highbrow” middle-class and “lowbrow” mass Pentecostalism. The boundary processes point to the ongoing relevance of class distinction even among those actors that freely engage in practices at odds with their class background. As such, the results underpin the need to study not only what type of dissonant practices actors perform, but equally what boundary strategies they employ to negotiate their class belonging.