Scant sociological attention has been given to the role of luck within social mobility/reproduction. This paper helps address this conceptual gap, drawing on insights from over 200 longitudinal interviews conducted with 20 working-class young people and 22 of their parents over an 11-year period, from age 10-21. We explore the potential…

This paper draws on Judith Butler's concepts of "intelligibility" and "identity as performance" to make sense of enactments of 'subaltern' (that is, subordinated) urban students within secondary school science. Understanding classrooms as constituted by complex power struggles for voice, authenticity and recognition, the paper…

"Setting" is a widespread practice in the UK, despite little evidence of its efficacy and substantial evidence of its detrimental impact on those allocated to the lowest sets. Taking a Bourdieusian approach, we propose that setting can be understood as a practice through which the social and cultural reproduction of dominant power…

In spite of the relative success of the Widening Participation policy and strategies to increase the numbers of students from Black and Minority and White working-class backgrounds going to university, universities in Britain continue to be White and middle-class-dominated institutions. We found, in our two-year qualitative Higher Education…

There is widespread international concern about post-16 participation rates in science, with women's under-representation constituting a particular issue. This paper contributes to these debates through a novel, critical examination of the role of masculinity within boys' negotiations of science aspirations. Drawing on a UK longitudinal study of…

Discussion groups with diverse working class men who were predominantly non-participants in higher education examined how they used various discourses of masculinity when arguing for and against higher education participation. Discusses potential implications of these discourses for their continued underrepresentation in higher education.…

This paper discusses the ways in which inner-city, ethnically diverse, working-class girls' constructions of hetero-femininities mediate and shape their dis/engagement with education and schooling. Drawing on data from a study conducted with 89 urban, working-class young people in London, attention is drawn to three main ways through which young…

Introduces a special issue that is positioned against the backdrop of the current "boys in crisis" debate. It focuses on how the articles address embodied identities and material inequalities; social mobility and working class femininities; resisting individualism and rationality; power and responsibility; masculinity and the middle class; and…

This paper considers how urban, ethnically diverse working class girls' constructions of femininities mediate and shape their dis/engagement with education and schooling. We discuss how girls generated a sense of identity value/worth through practices such as "speaking my mind"--which prioritized notions of agency and visibility and…

Uses data collected from London school to explore processes through which inner-city, working-class students leave school at the age of 16. Draws attention to issues of identity and inequality. Highlights the ways in which the young people viewed themselves as "not good enough" and "knew their limits" in relation to…

Argues that higher education is a difficult choice for English working-class students and that the advantages and disadvantages of higher education are unequally distributed among members of different social classes. Presents a study of non-participant Londoners (n=109), ages 16-30, from a range of working-class backgrounds. Includes references.…