Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs

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Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs

3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 · rating details · 133 ratings · 11 reviews

Hailed by the "New Society" as the "best book on male working class youth," this classic work, first published in 1977, has been translated into several foreign languages and remains the authority in ethnographical studies.

Paperback, 226 pages

Published December 22nd 1981 by Columbia University Press

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Nov 30, 2008 Jared added it

Bad boys in industrial Britian. Are they really free to change their socieonomic status? Using a case study, Willis would argue that, through thier perceptions of the world and the subsequent choices they make, these lads appeare to be predestined for manual labor. Willis's jargon is a lot to plough trough and his psycoanalysis is sometimes questionsable, but it certinley is an eye opener for those of us who think we can change the world through education.

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Oct 20, 2010 Meiver rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The central question at stake in this book is an exploration of the how and why people create and reproduce cultural identities for themselves that are politically and socially subordinate. This ethnography looks at schools as a key place where counter-cultures develop that lead to the trans-generational reproduction of class status within the members of a particular ethnic, geographical, gender, and cultural group.
The adoption of an ethnographic method allows the researcher to conduct an analy...more The central question at stake in this book is an exploration of the how and why people create and reproduce cultural identities for themselves that are politically and socially subordinate. This ethnography looks at schools as a key place where counter-cultures develop that lead to the trans-generational reproduction of class status within the members of a particular ethnic, geographical, gender, and cultural group.
The adoption of an ethnographic method allows the researcher to conduct an analysis of small pockets of culture (sub-cultures, counter-cultures) separate from official policy and discourse (p. 201). This means the researcher can step away from models that look at the big picture (geographical, economic, political statistics used in predicting educational and labor outcomes for whatever social groups under scrutiny,) and instead focus on points of agency and creativity within the processes of culture-making, and cultural and political identity formation and reproduction– as emerging from inside everyday life experience. This method allows for “the symbolic and material, lived relations” (p. 201) to be presented at their own scale, without being reduced to social determinisms. It also allows for the highlighting of complexities and contradictions in the workings of structures of power, as they are applied onto certain groups. For example, the subjects of this ethnography, ‘The lads,’ are figuring out how to live in the real world, and how to adjust for their future lives in manual labor – while the school system, and subjects put before them seems to lack awareness of the future they see as imminent. This disconnect turns the school into a battlefield or site of cultural conflict, where the counter-school culture of ‘The lads’ emerges.
In proving that “schools cannot produce “classless, standardized packages of labour power”(p. 171) the ethnographer opens a critical debate on the role of universal public education as a solution for class disparity, and a tool for social mobility. Willis shows how, despite being inside that system, ‘The lads’ exist within their own subculture of resistance to the school system. This subculture and its ideologies subjugates and liberates them at the same time. This contradiction felt familiar to my own life experience and the counter cultures in which me and my loved ones exist. When he says:
“…there is an element of self-damnation in the taking on of subordinate roles in Western capitalism. However this damnation is experienced, paradoxically, as true learning, affirmation, appropriation, and as a form of resistance.” (Willis, p.3)
…my thought process goes from a clear recognition of this self-damnation, to questioning how these is my experience different and why, or more specifically, to thinking back as to how one learns to adopt a culture of academic success despite being part of low income communities where cultures of failure are routinely adopted as affirmations and acts of resistance. It was fascinating to see in this ethnography how Willis is able to extract specific moments where he illustrates how these damnations become ways to get acceptance, respect, and a sense of belonging. He goes through numerous examples, from the engagement of ‘The lads’ with common trappings of capitalism (alcohol, cigarettes, clothing), to the violent ways they deal with each other, with minority groups and women – and how these attitudes within their world are ways to exercise power and cement a sense of belonging that they don’t find in the broader society. At the same time it is interesting to note how many of these behaviors are in fact borrowed from mainstream ideologies, and support the broader politics and values of the class that oppresses ‘The lads’ – in the broader sense. The author discloses this relationship between ideas of resistance and mainstream values (p.166) when he speaks of the silences of ideology, and how these counter cultures are unaware of their own set of rules that create the common culture of informality that they all agree to share, explaining how this resistance is also molded by the mainstream.

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Feb 20, 2011 Erin Reilly-Sanders rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult, non-fiction

The first part about the research is readable and reveals a generous amount of actual transcripts of conversation so that you can get a good feel for the research. the only problem is that the culture that it describes feels a little too much like the greasers in The Outsiders to make comfortable parralells across 40 years and the Atlantic Ocean. The second part labeled "anaylsis" is rather dry and unreadable while trying to relate ideas in the text to other theorists. The commentary inbetween t...more

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Apr 23, 2010 Kirk Kittell marked it as to-read

Recommended by Seth Godin in Linchpin .

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May 09, 2009 Jessica Fure rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you want to be an ethnographer, this is the book to start with. Willis stays away from the hyper-excitement and gee-wowism that most fandom studies authors do (learn from him, please!) while still remaining respectful of his subjects.

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Jul 03, 2012 Noora rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: tietokirjat

Mielenkiintoinen tenttkirja.

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Aug 13, 2007 laaaaames rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people writing research papers

I was fascinated by what this book was about but it's pretty textbookly-written. I enjoyed the ideas in it far more than the actual writing, sadly.

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Jul 26, 2008 Leann rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: all-time-favorites

One of the all time best books I have ever read. Amongst non-fiction books, the book I probably recommend the most.

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Jul 13, 2007 Anna rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: doing-my-homework

not like Willis has an agenda or anything.

interesting, though.

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Nov 28, 2008 Matteo rated it 2 of 5 stars

not nearly as interesting as i thought it would be.

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Sep 08, 2008 Rex rated it 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely groundbreaking ethnographic work.

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Shelves: learning-to-labour

May 11, 2013 Grace marked it as to-read

Shelves: research

May 09, 2013 Beatrice rated it 3 of 5 stars

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May 04, 2013 Ingolf Erler rated it 5 of 5 stars

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Apr 28, 2013 Linh Chuong rated it 5 of 5 stars

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Shelves: social-science

Apr 15, 2013 Thomas added it

Shelves: in-my-office-library

Apr 10, 2013 Jenny marked it as to-read

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Shelves: nonfiction

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Shelves: working-class-studies, ethnographies

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Mar 25, 2013 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

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