Crm110 - Ain\'T No Makin\' It - Book Summary For Douban Book - Required Reading PDF

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Required reading for the final exam. Includes chaper summaries and book notes, ...

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Ch. 1 ●

Freddie, low income kid with low occupational aspirations

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Image and reputations of public housing projects = has great influence on their residents

2 kinds of groups in public housing: The Brothers

Hallway Hangers

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Black youngsters

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White youngsters

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Positive and optimistic about the

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Pessimistic and don't see a proper

future

future

Ch. 2 ●

Bowles and Gintis

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“Schools train the wealthy to take over the economy while conditioning the poor to accept their lowly status” (pg. 12)

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School relations reflect on capitalist views

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Major structural differences b/w schools

Low income

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More student electives and participation

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Middle class

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Focuses on authority

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Creativity and openness

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Rules and behavior control

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Less supervision

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Socializing

Wealthier income ●

Schools influence kids to follow the same working structure as their parents!

Boreudio: ●

Schools devalue the lower class of class interest and ideologies of culture

4 point theory: 1. Distinctive cultural capital is transmitted by each social class 2. School systematically valorizes the upper class cultural capital and depreciates the lower classes’ form of cultural capital 3. Differential academic achievement -> goes back into economic wealth * only superior academic achievement = jobs mostly set for “upper class” 4. School legitimizes this process by making social hierarchies based on skills, trades = social hierarchies = academic hierarchies ●

Bourdieu argues that children’s academic performance ties back strongly to their

parents’ education history rather than their parents’ occupational status ●

Class based differences in cultural capital tend to have a decreasing importance as one ascends on the educational ladder

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The habitus = attitudes, beliefs, and experiences of those inhabiting one’s social world

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Serves as a regulator b/w individuals and their external world b/w human agency and social structures

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Success or failure in school is determined largely by social class

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School-mediated exclusion: it implants in those it marginalizes a set of cognitive and evaluative categories that lead them to see themselves as the causal agents of a process that is institutionally determined

Bernstein and Brice Heath: ●

Important link in the process of social reproduction - language patterns

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Looks specifically at the educational ramifications of divergent linguistic patterns among children of different social strata

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Class membership generates distinctive forms of speech patterns thru family socialization.

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Working class children use “restricted” linguistic codes (blunt and short)

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Middle class children use “elaborated” codes (explaining experience and being specific, I over we)

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Linguistic codes = underlying, regulative principles that govern the selection and combination of different syntactic and lexical constructions

Heath: ●

Looks at race as well in her sensitive ethnography of schooling

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Roadville (working class white community) students are asked to label and name objects, identify features vs. Trackton (black working class community) students are less questioned, comparative and analogical questions asked

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Black working class students are not socialized to cope with the language patterns used in school and fall into academic failure

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The mismatch between language used at home and the language demanded at school is a serious stumbling block for working class and nonwhite pupils.

Willis: ●

Believes boys’ class background, location, local opportunity (job market) and education influence their job choice.

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“Ear oles” middle class, smart students vs. “lads” rejects school ideology, mock and disrupt “ear oles” (lads believe they have no chance to move up socially)

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Unconscious realization: schooling will not enable them to go further than they already have

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Willis believes this type of insight into the nature of capitalism has the potential to catalyze class solidarity and collective action

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“Lads” associate manual labor with masculinity, and mental labor is more like femininity

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Prevents the lads from seeing that those low-paying jobs are a form of class domination

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Willis insists that the cultural attitudes and practices of working-class groups are not necessarily reflective of to structural determination or dominant ideologies.

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Mode of production wields a powerful influence on the attitudes and actions of individuals, but people do not simply respond to the socioeconomic pressures bearing down on them.

Giroux: ●

Student resistance to school

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Contends that the separation of human agency and structural analysis either suppresses the significance of individual autonomy or ignores structural determination that lie outside the human experience.

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Insists on: wider structural and ideological determinations while recognizing that human beings never represent simply a reflex of such constraints.

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Structuralists stress that history is made behind the backs of the members of society and it overlooks the significance and relative autonomy of the cultural level and the human experiences of domination and resistance.

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Culturalists pay little attention to how structurally embedded material and economic forces weigh down and shape human experience

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Giroux’s theory of resistance - children don't act out unless you give them a reason to?

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^ oppositional behavior should be scrutinized and studied and that its resistance be minded for its broader significance

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Student resistance represents fertile area for academic study because it offers the possibility of transcending the structure agency dualism.

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Resistance theory examines the ongoing, active experiences of individuals while simultaneously perceiving in oppositional attitudes and practices a response to structure constraint and domination.

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Giroux = oppositional cultural patterns draw on elements of working class culture in a

creative and potentially transformative fashion. ●

Oppositional behavior linked with subjects’ own explanations of their behavior and contextualized within their peers, family and work relations in which resistance emerges

Bourdieu and Willis = emphasize the importance of aspiration Ch. 3 - Teenagers in Clarendon Heights ●

The Hallway Hangers and the Brothers

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The Hallway Hangers

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Core of 8 youths, including loosely attached 10 others

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Boo-Boo is black, Chris is mixed and the rest is white boys of Italian and Irish descent

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Frankie: leader of the Hallway Hangers, good fighting ability, brothers have criminal history (physical strength and mental acuity)

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Slick: smart, scored highest, quick wit and sharp tongue but dropped out of school

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Shorty: toughness, small but well built

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Under the influence, short temper

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Masochistic machismo ^ stabs himself in the head

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Chris: alcohol and drugs, gets roasted by his friends but is loyal and funny (follower)

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Boo-boo: follower and black

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stoney : longer, has a job at pizza place, labeled a “pussy”, has stable income and girlfriend

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Steve: is loud but is not elegant like brother Slick

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Jinx: sensitive and shy boy, dependent on weed, only white guy not racist in the group

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Good grades in school can lead to ostracism, whereas time in prison = respect

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Fighting ability is the deciding factor for status demarcation within the group, and compensation for it through aggressive and tenacity

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The Brothers

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Mostly black, have one only white member

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Attend school on the regular, not associated with drugs or drinking

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Craig: tall and quiet, plays basketball, attended grammar school, tight knit family, leadership in Brothers

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Super: fiery, loud, struggles in class but great athlete, home life is bad, father bad temper

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Juan: originally from Dominican Republic, only brother to have finished school, loyal and friendly

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Monkey: impatient, full of energy but gets bored easily

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James: very small junior, had rough start to school but makes up for it, tough and funny

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Derek: Boo-Boo’s half brother, smart boy got separated from Boo-Boo because of his acceptance into prestigious school, academic success

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Mike: white member, strong football player

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Behavior generally conforms to societal expectations

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Drinking in moderation

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Like to stay active

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Basketball and boyfriends

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Suffer from racial abuse

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Brothers vs. HH : they have no pecking order based on fighting ability

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No verbally or physically abuse | Brothers: peer group vs. HH: cohesive unit with subculture

Ch. 4: The Influence of the Family ●

Family = focal socializing agency in early childhood, crucial role in process of social reproduction

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Family of 4: income must not exceed $14,000 in order to qualify for projects

HH households: ●

Chris: white mother and 2 younger sisters (one is secretary) brother with manual labor, mother is nice and babysits

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Boo-Boo: mother has stable employment, brother Blade dropped out but is getting GED and army (brother and him have different fathers, who both live out of state)

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Stoney: mother got GED, supervisor of department worked her way up, mother was super strict and has influence on him

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Frankie: mother and father grew in a separate working class neighborhoods, most siblings did not graduate, jobs at local pubs and stuff

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Slick and Steve: recently moved six years ago, no father bad vibes, mother is nurses aid but is always sick

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Jinx: parents employed in the city, no family graduated but majority have employment

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Shorty: same situation but larger family, sketchy, military service

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Educational attainment is low, menial employment with low pay

The Brothers’ family: ●

Super: been living in public housing for 18 years, parents didn't graduate, and father works in construction, 2 younger sisters in catholic high school, parents are strict, physically abused by father

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Mokey: father is heavy drinker, custodian, mother part time daycare job, younger siblings

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James: mother unemployed due to injury, but usually a nursing aide, father graduated and works in factory - comes and goes

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Craig: came from Haiti 11 years ago, parents have equivalent of hs diploma, mother is homemaker for elderly, father is janitor for company and supervisor, supportive atmosphere for academic achievement, siblings are mostly all in school or college

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Juan: West Indies/Dominican Republic, parents were divorced, moved out with mom and stepfather who is unemployed, other brothers still in west indies

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Mike: lives with unmarried mom and grandmother, father not around but was a professional wrestler, lived in public housing since age 2, mother works in hotel or aide for elderly, grandmother is retired, uncle is veteran and blue-collar worker, disciplines Mike

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“Mostly broken homes”

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Most Brothers have a male authority figure living with them

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Half of their parents have graduated from high school

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Have good sibling role models

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Most parents work of theirs

➔ Hallway hangers: respect their parents’ views, but parents are not big role in their lives, parents and hallway hanger agree on a mutually accepted limitation of their parent role (due to being on the street and on their own at young age) ➔ Their parents do not get in the way of the Hallway Hanger’s occupational or future goals ➔ A substantial portion of both black and white parents on lower occupational levels want their children to have professional careers. ➔ Brothers: parents’ exercise good deal of authority over kids, early curfew, stay on top of school, no drugs/drinking, they can get grounded for a month if not ➔ Parents project their own frustrated educational and occupational ambitions on him ➔ Parents are very motivational about career and college - Ex: Mokey’s mother: “sky’s the limit” ➔ Brothers’ parents wield a substantial degree of authority in present and in shaping their children's’ futures. Want to project their own unfilled ambitions on their children, for higher hopes

Ch.5: The World of Work: Aspirations of the Hangers and Brothers ●

Previous employment records, their general impressions of work, aspirations and

expectations and perceptions of the job opportunity are considered ●

In articulating one’s aspirations, and individual weights in their preferences more heavily; expectations are tempered by perceived capabilities and available opportunities

Hallway Hangers: Keeping a Lid on Hope ●

Hesitant when asked about their aspirations and expectations, see little choice involved in getting a job

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Want to take “whatever they can get”

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Believe their preferences will have almost no bearing on the work they actually will do

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Do not mention work in their future ever, when asked

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Steve and Jinx only ones that see employment in future

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Work for only money basically

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Boo-Boo worked as security guard to make up for the stolen car, wants to be auto mechanic, in youth employment program, expelled from auto-mechanics class from racial fight, has slight ambition to work

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Stoney wants to own a store (pizza)

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Quit school to get full-time job which was originally work-study

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Most of HH boys had odd jobs in manual labor or construction

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Always end up quitting and wanting to enlist in army

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Slick wants to be a lawyer (confession), knows/admits it's a high goal but has an aspiration for a professional career

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Chris drug dealer but is a risky job

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They do not have low perceptions of their own abilities, claimed if they actually tried and had the money, they would be “smarter”

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Are generally willing to work, but because of family history with unstable jobs, they see job opportunity structure not open for them

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Always unemployed, not stable at all, menial-dead end jobs with minimum wage

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Personal experience and family experience = taught the HH that job market does not reward based off effort

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Slick and Shorty question the problems of trying to find a job: reputation being bad or family being bad and how richer people have better chance of getting jobs than them

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Believe “connections” are the key to success (pull and hookups of rich kids)

The Brothers: Ready at the Starting Line: ●

Positive viewpoint of their future in the next twenty years (nice car, wife, job)

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Articulate specific occupational aspirations (subject to change due to revision)

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Super: wants to be doctor, but believes business is more realistic for him or computer work

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Mokey: college for now, job is not in picture yet, has no idea

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James: interested and loves computer field, confident in this future, did a lot of summer government jobs

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Derek: went to Barnes Academy, wants to work as a pilot and with electronics, navy is another option for him (last resort usually but is very interested either way) (has the best chance out of all the boys for academic credentials and high-status employment)

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Tendency to express contingency plans in case of failure * evident in Mike (if i get a big break, maybe a professional athlete or service)

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Craig and Mike see sports as way to get education

➔ Brothers aspire for middle-class jobs, only few of the Brothers have modest goals ➔ HH are cocky about their capabilities,but don’t “channel that intelligence into school” ➔ Brothers believe HH are lazy and immature, and they have potential but are lazy ➔ Leads to dominant ideology in America of barriers to success are seen as personal rather than social ➔ Brothers focus on intelligence, effort and ingenuity for the chance of good future, same of a rich upper class kid Ch. 6: School: Preparing for the Competition ●

All project kids go to Lincoln HS= 4 regular, academic house

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School has “house” system designed to create smaller setting for better communication and accountability, strong student-family and faculty relationship

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Occupational Education program: HS diploma and marketable skills for future occupation

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Different houses/schools, each accommodating to individual types of students

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Counseling services for disturbed/emotional students

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Racial tension: white boy stabbed, brought in more black staff to rectify the problem Wallace claimed that white kids are mad that black kids had somewhere to go (academic wise)

➔ The Brothers: Conformity and Compliance ●

Super: involved in sports and academics, success in both

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Mokey: although not as successful academically, still has positive approach to school

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James: school involvement and academics fluctuated, had bad sophomore year and is now president of science club

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Derek: went to prestigious school, but chose LHS and chose easier house (maintains Baverage and honor roll)

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Craig: self-disciplined and conscientious

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Brothe...