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Ain't No Makin' It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood.
GIC Collection at Penn Libraries
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- MacLeod, Jay.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Literature: Non-Fiction.
- Local Subjects:
- Literature: Non-Fiction.
- Edition:
- Third edition.
- Summary:
- Jay MacLeod brought us to the Clarendon Heights public housing development and introduced us to Jinx and Mokey and their teenage friends-the Hallway Hangers and the Brothers-in 1987 with the first edition of Ain't No Makin' It. The dreams of one peer group and the defeatism of the other moved readers, challenged ethnic stereotypes, and suggested how poverty is perpetuated. Eight years later MacLeod returned to Clarendon Heights, and the 1995 revision revealed how the young men struggled in the labor market and crime-ridden underground economy. This third edition chronicles the lives of the Brothers and Hallway Hangers into middle age. Having renewed relationships with the men, MacLeod allows them to speak for themselves in thirteen new interviews that are by turns heartbreaking and uplifting. Sociologists Katherine McClelland and David Karen analyze these stories in a concluding chapter, ensuring that Ain't No Makin' It remains an admired and invaluable testament to how social inequality is reproduced from one generation to the next.
- Contents:
- Part 1 The Hallway Hangers and the Brothers as Teenagers
- 1 Social Immobility in the Land of Opportunity 3
- 2 Social Reproduction in Theoretical Perspective 11
- Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis: Schooled by Social Class 12
- Pierre Bourdieu: Cultural Capital and Habitus 13
- Basil Bernstein and Shirley Brice Heath: Linguistic Cultural Capital 16
- Paul Willis: The Lads and the Ear'oles 18
- Henry Giroux: Student Resistance to School 20
- Social Reproduction in Clarendon Heights 22
- 3 Teenagers in Clarendon Heights: The Hallway Hangers and the Brothers 25
- The Hallway Hangers: "You Gotta Be Bad" 25
- The Brothers: Conspicuous by Their Conventionality 45
- 4 The Influence of the Family 51
- The Hallway Hangers' Households 51
- The Brothers' Families 54
- 5 The World of Work: Aspirations of the Hangers and Brothers 62
- The Hallway Hangers: Keeping a Lid on Hope 62
- The Brothers: Ready at the Starting Line 75
- 6 School: Preparing for the Competition 84
- The Brothers: Conformity and Compliance 89
- The Hallway Hangers: Teacher's Nightmare 93
- The Underlying Logic of Student Behavior 98
- 7 Leveled Aspirations: Social Reproduction Takes Its Toll 113
- The Hallway Hangers: Internalizing Probabilities, Rescuing Self-Esteem 114
- The Brothers: Internalizing Failure, Shorn of Self-Esteem 126
- The Sources of Variation 129
- 8 Reproduction Theory Reconsidered 137
- Building on Bourdieu 137
- From Ethnography to Theory 140
- Individuals in the Social Landscape 146
- Cultural Autonomy within Structural Constraints 149
- Part 2 Eight Years Later: Low Income, Low Outcome
- 9 The Hallway Hangers: Dealing in Despair 157
- On the Job 162
- Working the Street 172
- Producing Themselves 184
- 10 The Brothers: Dreams Deferred 198
- Shortchanged on the Labor Market 198
- Sold on School 213
- Aspiration and Outcome: What Went Wrong? 219
- Groping for the Good Life 233
- 11 Conclusion: Outclassed and Outcast(E) 241
- Poverty: A Class Issue 243
- Racial Domination: Invidious but Invisible 245
- Race Versus Class: Can They Be Untangled? 249
- Structure Versus Agency: "No One to Blame but Me" 252
- What Is to Be Done? 261
- Class Dismissed 267
- Part 3 Ain't no Makin' It? The Men at Midlife 273
- 12 The Hallway Hangers: Weeble, Wobble, But We Don't Fall Down 277
- Frankie: Connected 278
- Jinx: Stuck Around 292
- Shorty: All Bull Work 300
- Steve: My Life Sucks 311
- Stoney: Saved by the Drum 317
- Chris: Back Down at the Bottom 328
- Slick: Head Up High 335
- 13 The Brothers: Finally Finding a Foothold 350
- Mokey: Manager 351
- Super: Hustler 360
- Mike: Buyer and Broker 370
- Juan: Mechanic 376
- James: Programmer 386
- Derek: Trainer 396
- 14 Reproduction, Redemption, and Respect 407
- Analysis / Katherine McClelland, David Karen 409
- So ... Have They Made It? 412
- Capital on the Labor Market 418
- The Path to Down and Out: Drugs, Alcohol, and Crime 427
- Race and Racism 431
- Family: Settling Down and Moving Out 435
- The Meaning of (Im)Mobility 439
- Class Consciousness? 445
- Seeking Redemption 448
- The Next Generation 451
- Afterword: Freddie's Final Say 465
- Appendix 1 On the Making of Ain't No Makin' It 467
- Fieldwork: Doubts, Dilemmas, and Discoveries 467
- Second Harvest: Notes on the 1991 Field Experience 488
- Confessions: Clarendon Heights Revisited 496
- Appendix 2 Biographical Sketches of the Hallway Hangers and the Brothers in 2006 505
- The Hallway Hangers 505
- The Brothers 508.
- ISBN:
- 9780813343587
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