Class Practices: How Parents Help Their Children Get Good Jobs PDF
Preview Class Practices: How Parents Help Their Children Get Good Jobs
This page intentionally left blank Class Practices This important new book is a comparative study of social mobility based on qualitative interviews with middle-class parents in America andBritain.Itaddressesthekeyissueinstratificationresearch,namely, thestabilityofclassrelationsandmiddle-classreproduction.Drawing on interviewee accounts of how parents mobilised economic, cultural and social resources to help them into professional careers, it then considershowtheinterviewees,asparents,seektoincreasetheirchil- dren’s chances of educational success and occupational advancement. Middle-class parents may try to secure their children’s social position but it isnot an easy or straightforward affair. With the decline in the quality of state education and increased job insecurity in the labour market since the 1970s and 1980s, the reproduction of advantage is moredifficultthanintheaffluentdecadesofthe1950sand1960s.The implications for public policy, especially public investment in higher education,areconsidered. is Professor of Sociology at Manchester University andhasbeenaVisitingFellowattheKennedySchoolofGovernment, HarvardUniversity.SheistheauthorofAffluentWorkersRevisited(1992) andSocialClassinAmericaandBritain(1997). Class Practices How Parents Help Their Children Get Good Jobs Fiona Devine UniversityofManchester cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 2ru, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521809412 © Fiona Devine 2004 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 2004 isbn-13 978-0-511-21154-6 eBook (EBL) isbn-10 0-511-21331-x eBook (EBL) isbn-13 978-0-521-80941-2 hardback isbn-10 0-521-80941-x hardback isbn-13 978-0-521-00653-8 paperback isbn-10 0-521-00653-8 paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. For Jim Contents Listoftables page viii Acknowledgements ix 1 Introduction 1 2 Materialhelpwitheducationandtraining 18 3 Financialchoicesandsacrificesforchildren 44 4 Expectationsandhopesforeducationalsuccess 69 5 Fulfillingpotentialandsecuringhappiness 95 6 Contacts,luckandcareersuccess 120 7 Friendsandnetworksinschoolandbeyond 146 8 Conclusion 171 AppendixA:Theinterviewees 190 AppendixB:Doingcomparativeresearch 194 Notes 214 Listofreferences 265 Authorindex 276 Subjectindex 279 vii Tables 1.1 ThesampleofBritishandAmericaninterviewees page12 A.1 Americanphysicians,partners’occupationandchildren 190 A.2 Americaneducators,partners’occupationandchildren 191 A.3 Britishdoctors,partners’occupationandchildren 192 A.4 Britishteachers,partners’occupationandchildren 193 viii
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