DOI•
Learning to Labour: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs
01 Dec 2011-Iss: 32, pp 5-8
About: The article was published on 2011-12-01 and is currently open access. It has received 1252 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Working class.
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Dissertation•
01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the influences of unemployment upon senses of identity and involvement in crime in Stoke-on-Trent and explore the lives and experiences of a group of men living in some of the most deprived parts of the city between 2010 and 2014.
Abstract: This thesis sets out to explore the influences of unemployment upon senses of identity and involvement in crime in Stoke-on-Trent. It draws upon the Free Association Interview method to explore the lives and experiences of a group of men living in some of the most deprived parts of the city between 2010 and 2014. It looks at experiences of unemployment, underemployment and insecure employment upon the lives and narratives of these men and their perceptions of the world around them. It aims to understand the effect of their experiences and how they have come to reconcile their position in society. The thesis strives to outline how people construct and maintain an identity which makes sense to them in the face of the significant challenges posed by the deindustrialisation and prolonged decline of the city of Stoke-on-Trent. It seeks to reveal how their evolving sense of self is influenced by the communities in which they live, whether that is an urban, social housing estate, a hostel or on the streets. The thesis looks to challenge existing hegemonic depictions of what it is to be part of the homogenously branded socially excluded and the manner in which senses of social order which, although they may not be seen as ‘normal’ or acceptable to wider society, are formed. It argues that the people deemed socially excluded are active and engaged actors seeking to find senses of security, belonging and unity in an increasingly atomised, insecure and fragmented world.
11 citations
Cites background from "Learning to Labour: How Working Cla..."
...The ‘Hallway Hangers’ attitudes are indicative of the nature of many working-class subcultures (see for example Hall, 1976; Willis, 1977; Downes and Rock, 2011) and their construction, through inverting social norms and values, of new norms in attempts to empower themselves in the light of growing adversity and accepting that they are unlikely to succeed via conventional means....
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TL;DR: In this article, the unintended consequences of relentless transformania through three examples of duality: organisation-institution, bureaucracy-professionality, and the culture of teaching-the culture of managerialism.
Abstract: One social science base for educational administration proposed in the Baron and Taylor collection was organisation theory. In the event this expectation turned out to be over-optimistic. Organisation theory was much too contested and insufficiently pragmatic for the British taste. Major developments in this field occurred mainly in the USA. Nevertheless, the more general approach of organisational studies continues to enhance our understanding of schools where a ‘both-and’ perspective is adopted towards organisational dualities, particularly in the face of what we have provocatively termed ‘transformania’. The article explores the unintended consequences of relentless transformania through three examples of duality: organisation–institution, bureaucracy–professionality, and the culture of teaching–the culture of managerialism. Finally, it is suggested that a revival of an interest in the somewhat dormant theory of ambiguity would be timely.
11 citations
Cites background from "Learning to Labour: How Working Cla..."
...The problems faced by teachers in exercising sufficient control to teach effectively have been given sustained attention both in such early American studies of student cultures and in the UK (Willis 1977, Woods 1979)....
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TL;DR: This is the first paper to situate smoking cessation itself as a classed and cultural practice and theorise smoking cessation as a symbolic practice in relation to the affective experience of class and social mobility.
Abstract: Smoking in high-income countries is now concentrated in poor communities whose relatively high smoking prevalence is explained by greater uptake but above all by lower quit rates. Whilst a number of barriers to smoking cessation have been identified, this is the first paper to situate cessation itself as a classed and cultural practice. Drawing on ethnographic research carried out in a working-class community in the North of England between 2012 and 2015, I theorise smoking cessation as a symbolic practice in relation to the affective experience of class and social mobility. I show that ambivalence about upward mobility as separation and loss translated into ambivalence about smoking cessation. The reason for this was that the social gradient in smoking operated dynamically at the level of the individual life course, i.e. smoking cessation followed upward mobility. A serious health problem was an appropriate reason to quit but older women continued to smoke despite serious health problems. This was linked to historical gender roles leading to women placing a low priority on their own health as well as the intergenerational reproduction of smoking through close affective links with smoking parents.
11 citations
Cites background from "Learning to Labour: How Working Cla..."
...The ‘injuries of class’ (Sennett and Cobb 1972) produce mixed emotions: resentment at the undeserved and valuable advantages conferred by an accident of birth, suspicion that some dominant values and behaviours have no intrinsic worth beyond signposting middle-class status, and temptation to refuse to acknowledge any value to the goods monopolised by the dominant class, leading to self-exclusion from potential advantages (Sayer 2002); this is described by Willis in relation to working-class boys resisting their schooling (Willis 1977)....
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...…signposting middle-class status, and temptation to refuse to acknowledge any value to the goods monopolised by the dominant class, leading to self-exclusion from potential advantages (Sayer 2002); this is described by Willis in relation to working-class boys resisting their schooling (Willis 1977)....
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...I am not characterising the maintenance of unhealthy behaviours as a form of resistance to middle-class norms (Eakin et al. 1996, Factor et al. 2011, Poland and Holmes 2015) or a reversal of values consequent on being found wanting by the middle-class (Skeggs 1997, Willis 1977)....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that media representation itself plays an active role in the invention, maintenance or modification of gendered representation in mixed martial arts, and that if a kind of "MMA toxic masculinity" is regarded as being a problem, then the solution may not simply be to change MMA.
Abstract: This article begins by focusing on the presumed relation between the toughness fostered by mixed martial arts (MMA) and the maintenance of traditional ‘hard man’ forms of toxic masculinity. However, it adds an extra dimension to this discussion. It argues that (first) the UFC and (thereafter) MMA as a whole were in very tangible ways invented within and thanks to reality TV. As such, it contends that MMA’s often debated relation to ‘real’ fighting needs to be approached in full awareness to the implications of its indebtedness to media representation. Because of this debt, it argues that media representation itself ought to be understood as playing an active role in the invention, maintenance or modification of gendered representation. Finally, it proposes that if a kind of ‘MMA toxic masculinity’ is regarded as being a problem, then the solution may not simply be to ‘change MMA’. Rather, both the problem and the solution may more precisely be located in the kinds of media representations that circulate about MMA subjects and subjectivities.
11 citations
Cites background from "Learning to Labour: How Working Cla..."
...It bears a striking resemblance to both Weberian sociology and some of the key cultural and subcultural studies arguments produced during the 1970s.(26) Against this backdrop, Perry observes and interviews men among the ‘cage fighter’MMA community, asking them about their lives and their interests in MMA....
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DOI•
01 Jan 2019
11 citations
Cites background from "Learning to Labour: How Working Cla..."
...While working-class was once a foundational identity and cultural group (Willis, 1977), national trends show changes in class groups derived from increased importance of income and a decreased emphasis on occupational prestige (Cohen, Shin, Liu, Ondish, & Kraus, 2017)....
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...In a foundational study on social class and education, Willis’ (1977) Learning to Labor examined the formative role of class culture in individuals’ experiences....
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References
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01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: The concept of community of practice was not born in the systems theory tradition as discussed by the authors, but it has its roots in attempts to develop accounts of the social nature of human learning inspired by anthropology and social theory.
Abstract: The concept of community of practice was not born in the systems theory tradition. It has its roots in attempts to develop accounts of the social nature of human learning inspired by anthropology and social theory (Lave, 1988; Bourdieu, 1977; Giddens, 1984; Foucault, 1980; Vygotsky, 1978). But the concept of community of practice is well aligned with the perspective of systems traditions. A community of practice itself can be viewed as a simple social system. And a complex social system can be viewed as constituted by interrelated communities of practice. In this essay I first explore the systemic nature of the concept at these two levels. Then I use this foundation to look at the applications of the concept, some of its main critiques, and its potential for developing a social discipline of learning.
1,082 citations
Book•
27 Jun 2011
TL;DR: In this article, the Flatlands of Oakland and the Youth Control Complex are discussed. But the focus is on the role of black youth in the criminal justice system and community institutions.
Abstract: Preface Acknowledgments Part I Hypercriminalization 1 Dreams Deferred: The Patterns of Punishment in Oakland 2 The Flatlands of Oakland and the Youth Control Complex 3 The Labeling Hype: Coming of Age in the Era of Mass Incarceration 4 The Coupling of Criminal Justice and Community Institutions Part II Consequences 5 "Dummy Smart": Misrecognition, Acting Out, and "Going Dumb" 6 Proving Manhood: Masculinity as a Rehabilitative Tool 7 Guilty by Association: Acting White or Acting Lawful? Conclusion: Toward a Youth Support Complex Appendix: Beyond Jungle-Book Tropes Notes References Index About the Author
909 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines the transition to adulthood among 1.5-generation undocumented Latino young adults and finds that for them, the transition from K to adulthood involves exiting the legally protected status of K to...
Abstract: This article examines the transition to adulthood among 1.5-generation undocumented Latino young adults. For them, the transition to adulthood involves exiting the legally protected status of K to ...
663 citations
TL;DR: In this article, student engagement research, policy, and practice must become more nuanced and less formulaic, and the ensuing review is structured accordingly, guided in part by social-ecological analysis and social-cultural theory.
Abstract: Student engagement research, policy, and practice are even more important in today’s race-to-the top policy environment. With a priority goal of postsecondary completion with advanced competence, today’s students must be engaged longer and more deeply. This need is especially salient for students attending schools located in segregated, high-poverty neighborhoods and isolated rural communities. Here, engagement research, policy, and practice must become more nuanced and less formulaic, and the ensuing review is structured accordingly. Guided in part by social-ecological analysis and social-cultural theory, engagement is conceptualized as a dynamic system of social and psychological constructs as well as a synergistic process. This conceptualization invites researchers, policymakers, and school-community leaders to develop improvement models that provide a more expansive, engagement-focused reach into students’ family, peer, and neighborhood ecologies.
528 citations
TL;DR: The Longitudinal Immigrant Student Adaptation Study (LISA) as discussed by the authors used a mixed-methods approach, combining longitudinal, interdisciplinary, qualitative, and quantitative approaches to document adaptation patterns of 407 recently arrived immigrant youth from Central America, China, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Mexico over the course of five years.
Abstract: Background/Context: Newcomer immigrant students are entering schools in the United States in unprecedented numbers. As they enter new school contexts, they face a number of challenges in their adjustment. Previous literature suggested that relationships in school play a particularly crucial role in promoting socially competent behavior in the classroom and in fostering academic engagement and school performance. Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the role of school-based relationships in engagement and achievement in a population of newcomer immigrant students. Research Design: The Longitudinal Immigrant Student Adaptation Study (LISA) used a mixed-methods approach, combining longitudinal, interdisciplinary, qualitative, and quantitative approaches to document adaptation patterns of 407 recently arrived immigrant youth from Central America, China, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Mexico over the course of five years. Based on data from the last year of the study, we examine how the role of relationships mediates newcomers’ challenges with academic engagement and performance. We identify factors that account for patterns of academic engagement and achievement, including country of origin, gender, maternal education, English language proficiency, and school-based relationships. Findings: Multiple regression analyses suggest that supportive school-based relationships strongly contribute to both the academic engagement and the school performance of the par
356 citations