Synopses & Reviews
Based on qualitative interviews with middle-class parents in America and Britain, this comparative study addresses the key issue of the stability of class relations and middle-class reproduction of advantageous opportunities. It specifically questions how parents will continue to increase their children's chances of educational success and occupational advancement. Considering the decline in the quality of state education and increased job insecurity in the labor market since the 1970s-1980s, the study concludes that the reproduction of advantage is more difficult to maintain now than in the affluent decades of the 1950s-1960s.
Synopsis
This is an important new comparative study of social mobility based on qualitative interviews with middle-class parents in America and Britain. It addresses the key issue of the stability of class relations and middle-class reproduction and how parents seek to increase their children"s chances of educational success and occupational advancement.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction; 2. Material help with education and employment; 3. Financial choices and sacrifices for children; 4. Expectations and hopes for educational success; 5. Fulfilling potential and securing happiness; 6. Contacts, luck and career success; 7. Friends and networks in school and beyond; 8. Conclusion; Appendix A. The interviewees; Appendix B. Doing comparative research; Notes; Bibliography.