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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15 Jan 2016
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focused on the differences in reputation between general and selective classes across and within schools, the constructed urban spaces of school choice, and families choices, and the ways in which the educational trajectories of the pupils diversify and differentiate in basic education.
Abstract: This dissertation is positioned in the fields of sociology of education, urban sociology and family studies. The focus of the study is on schools and families lower-secondary school choices in 2010s urban Finland. The study consists of four academic articles and an introductory part, in which the results of the four original articles are presented and discussed in relation to each other. The first sub-study (I) is a literature review, in which the application and transmission of concepts in school choice research in five European countries is examined. The three empirical sub-studies (II−IV) concentrate on how the reputations and prestige of schools and their general and selective classes in the case city of Espoo are constructed in the parental discourse, what sorts of lower-secondary school choices the families conduct in relation to those hierarchies of symbolic prestige, and which factors seem to be interrelated to the success in the competition over certain study positions. The analysis concentrates on the differences in reputation between general and selective classes across and within schools, the constructed urban spaces of school choice, and families choices. The ways in which the educational trajectories of the pupils diversify and differentiate in basic education were analysed.
The data consists of 96 semi-structured thematic interviews with parents of 6th graders. The interviews were conducted during the spring of 2011 in the research project Parents and School Choice. Family Strategies, Segregation and School Policies in Chilean and Finnish Basic Schooling (PASC). The data includes parents from all school catchment areas. The interviews were analysed by applying theory-informed qualitative content analysis. The theoretical framework leans strongly on Pierre Bourdieu s theory and conceptualisations of distinction. The analysis focuses on how the conducted school choices relate to families possession of different forms and combinations of cultural, social and economic capital and how these processes relate to the symbolically differentiated space of school choice. The study deals with who chooses, what is chosen, and especially with how and why. The parental discourse on school choice has been contrasted with the noted worry concerning the increase in urban segregation in the metropolitan area, the social and academic school differentiation, and the general condition of the Finnish comprehensive school.
The space of school choice in the city of Espoo was divided into two separate spaces of school choice in the parental discourse: the local space of school choice and the selective space of school choice. The central divide was the pupil selection conducted by some of the schools to their selective classes. The local space of school choice consisted of general classes in schools within the catchment area. In some of the local spaces the symbolic hierarchy of the general classes was non-existent, but in some local areas the general classes across schools had a strict hierarchy. The general class in the…
27 citations
Cites background from "Learning to Labour: How Working Cla..."
...11 studies (e.g. Dryler 1998; Nori 2011; Willis 1977)....
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...In general, there also seems to be a tendency in Finland to inherit educational and occupational positions (Antikainen et al. 2003; Kivinen & Rinne 1995), as Paul Willis (1977) found in the English context....
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...My sister Paula and her partner Romain, thank you, guys, for being there no matter where and what for....
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TL;DR: This article examined the narratives of men who purchase sex from street level providers in a mid-sized city in Western Canada and found that their purchase of street-level sex is motivated by a sense of failure to successfully align with classed and gendered norms of hegemonic masculinity.
Abstract: This paper examines the narratives of men who purchase sex from street level providers in a mid-sized city in Western Canada. We explore what men’s stories tell us about how masculinity is constructed in relation to street sex work. These men narrated their purchase of sex as attempts to exercise or lay claim to male power, privilege, and authority; at the same time, research reveals how tenuous this arrangement is for men. Study participants drew on conventional heterosexual masculine scripts to rationalize their actions and behaviors. Their stories reveal that their purchase of street-level sex is motivated by a sense of failure to successfully align with classed and gendered norms of hegemonic masculinity in which the purchase of sex was an attempt to “feel like a man again”. In this paper we move beyond the notion that static “types” of men purchase sex, highlighting instead that sex work customers are complex social actors with multifaceted reasons for purchasing sex but that are nonetheless inseparable from socially valorized forms of masculine comportment. We conclude that hegemonic masculinity is not only injurious to some men, but also to the sex workers on whom it is enacted.
27 citations
Cites background from "Learning to Labour: How Working Cla..."
...For many occupying this class position, “manual labour [was seen as] imbued with a masculine tone and nature that rends it positively expressive of more than its intrinsic focus in work” (Willis, 1977, 148 as quoted in Nixon, 2009, 309)....
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TL;DR: In this article, Wacquant's sociology of advanced marginality is combined with Norbert Elias' concept of civilising and decivilising processes and applied to the dilemma of young offenders in a typical UK city.
Abstract: The contradiction emerging between the lived experience of a minority of marginalised urban youth and the punitive operant conditioning of antisocial behaviour legislation is illustrative of the increasing gap between society's expectations of behaviour and the coming reality. In this paper, Loic Wacquant's sociology of advanced marginality is combined with Norbert Elias' concept of civilising and decivilising processes and applied to the dilemma of young offenders in a typical UK city. It identifies increasing educational exclusion and institutional abandonment in affected ‘neighbourhoods of relegation’. This process is part of a general trend towards the desocialisation of labour, which ushers in a reactionary, violent decivilising process among the minority most affected, where use of violence becomes the foundation of repute for otherwise powerless individuals, or for gangs in their control of small urban spaces. By analysing this dilemma from the perspective of the ‘perpetrators’ rather than the vict...
27 citations
TL;DR: Attainment data on England's school pupils are more extensive in coverage, detail, quantity, accessibility and of higher quality than monitoring statistics routinely available in other European cou... as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Attainment data on England’s school pupils are more extensive in coverage, detail, quantity, accessibility and of higher quality than monitoring statistics routinely available in other European cou...
27 citations
Cites background from "Learning to Labour: How Working Cla..."
...23 areas and their engagement with education has been documented (Willis, 1977; Corrigan, 1979; Thomson, 2002; Parsons, 2012)....
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...Poor communities suffer from a range of social ills in inner cities, coastal areas, ex-mining and other deindustrialised areas, and their engagement with education has been documented (Willis, 1977; Corrigan, 1979; Thomson, 2002; Parsons, 2012)....
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TL;DR: A third vision of critical-historical theory is proposed, committed to deep interdisciplinarity and historical validity claims—understanding individual and group experiences as part of historically contingent forces.
Abstract: The mainstream epistemology of social psychology is markedly ahistorical, prioritizing the quantification of processes assumed to be lawful and generalizable. Social psychologists often consider theory to be either a practical tool for summarizing what is known about a problem area and making predictions or a torch that illuminates the counterintuitive causal force underlying a variety of disparate phenomena. I propose a third vision of critical-historical theory. From this perspective, theories should be committed to deep interdisciplinarity and historical validity claims-understanding individual and group experiences as part of historically contingent forces. Theories also should be critical, containing an awareness of the researcher as implicated in the social process and committed to actively improving society. To demonstrate its viability, I review classic works from the history of the discipline that exemplify critical-historical theory and offer concrete implications for theorists interested in employing this approach in their own work.
27 citations
Cites background from "Learning to Labour: How Working Cla..."
...Examples from the reviewed studies would be The Polish Peasant in Europe and America, Social Character in a Mexican Village, Learning to Labor, Culture of Honor, and Narrative and the Politics of Identity....
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...Learning to Labor (Willis, 1978) - Ethnographic and interview-based study of working class British youth transitioning from school to employment Observes how school counter-culture prepares youth for factory work by instilling antiintellectual values, then ratchets up to a broader theory of false consciousness Longitudinal observation of the youth’s transition from school to workforce serves as a model for intergenerational cultural transmission processes Two-pronged approach of (a) reducing bias through “crossgridding” of evidence by mixed methods, and (b) recognizing bias by extracting creative advances from “breakdowns” in technical understanding Advocates particular tactics, based on the data, that educators may employ to encourage in working class youth an ability to psychologically “penetrate” cultural false consciousness...
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...Indeed, when reading all of the works reviewed in Table 1, one encounters a surprisingly complete chronological account of the slow emergence of neoliberal culture, economics, and politics over the course of the 20th century, from the early transformation of U.S. townships to industrial centers around 1900 (Middletown) through the consolidation of ideologies justifying income inequality in 1970s Britain (Learning to Labor) all the way up to Bhatia’s (2018) documentation of the disparate impact of globalization in contemporary India....
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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