Title: White middle-class identities and urban schooling /
Authors: Reay, Diane.; Crozier, Gill.; James, David, 1956-
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan,
Year: 2011
Subjects: Middle class Great Britain.; Group identity Great Britain.; Urban schools Great Britain.; School choice Great Britain.; Education.; Group identity; Medelklassen.; Middle class; School choice; Schools.; Schools.; Skolval.; Social classes.; Social classes.; SOCIAL SCIENCE Social Classes.; Urban communities.; Urban communities.; Urban schools; Utbildning.
Abstract: Decades of neo-liberal reforms have established a market in secondary schooling, where 'choice' and 'diversity' are expected to drive up standards and maximize individual responsibility. This is known to favour middle class people. But what of those middle classes deliberately choosing ordinary and even 'low performing' secondary schools for their children? What are their motives, and how do they experience the choice? What is it like for the young people themselves? Where do they end up? And what does all this show us about contemporary white middle class identity and its formation? This groundbreaking study offers some answers to these questions. Based on detailed fieldwork with parents and children, it examines 'against-the-grain' school choices, looking in particular at family history, locality, the nature of 'choice' itself and associated anxieties, relationships to other ethnic groups and to whiteness, and the implications for democracy. The book highlights an inescapable acquisitiveness but also more hopeful dimensions of contemporary white middle class identity. --Back cover.
Contents: Introduction: the white middle-classes in the twenty-first century -- identities under siege? -- White middle-class identity formation: theory and practice -- Family history, class practices and habitus -- Habitus as a sense of place -- Against-the-grain school choice in neoliberal times -- A darker shade of pale: whiteness as integral to middle-class identity -- The psycho-social: ambivalences and anxieties of privilege -- Young people and the urban comprehensive: remaking cosmopolitan citizens or reproducing hegemonic white middle-class values? -- Reinvigorating democracy: middle-class moralities in neoliberal times -- Conclusion -- Appendices: 1: Methods and methodology -- 2: Parental occupations and sector -- 3: The sample families in terms of ACORN categories.