“a Prole with Class”: Fashion, Pop Culture and Social Inequalities Among Young Men in Berlin

Colloquial talk of ‘being a prole’ shows how everyday comments on dress styles, postures and hair-styles are also a means of negotiating the mutual disrespect between social groups. How is the self-stylisation as a ‘prole’ connected with hostile or sneering acts of labelling by others? What does it mean if someone refers to himself as a ‘just a prole, but a prole with class’. Based on ethnographic research, Moritz Ege offers insights into ‘classification struggles’ und into the reality of life of young men whose stylistic practices as ‘proles’ is conceived by others as a threat and a provocation. In his book, young adults have a say for the first time who are usually the objects of debates on social issues.