Class Practices: How Parents Help Their Children Get Good Jobs

299 Pages·2004·1.23 MB·English

by  Fiona Devine

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Class Practices
This important new book is a comparative study of social mobility
based on qualitative interviews with middle-class parents in America
andBritain.Itaddressesthekeyissueinstratificationresearch,namely,
thestabilityofclassrelationsandmiddle-classreproduction.Drawing
on interviewee accounts of how parents mobilised economic, cultural
and social resources to help them into professional careers, it then
considershowtheinterviewees,asparents,seektoincreasetheirchil-
dren’s chances of educational success and occupational advancement.
Middle-class parents may try to secure their children’s social position
but it isnot an easy or straightforward affair. With the decline in the
quality of state education and increased job insecurity in the labour
market since the 1970s and 1980s, the reproduction of advantage is
moredifficultthanintheaffluentdecadesofthe1950sand1960s.The
implications for public policy, especially public investment in higher
education,areconsidered.
  is Professor of Sociology at Manchester University
andhasbeenaVisitingFellowattheKennedySchoolofGovernment,
HarvardUniversity.SheistheauthorofAffluentWorkersRevisited(1992)
andSocialClassinAmericaandBritain(1997).

Class Practices
How Parents Help Their Children Get Good Jobs
Fiona Devine
UniversityofManchester
cambridge university press
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 2ru, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521809412
© Fiona Devine 2004
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of
relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place
without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published in print format 2004
isbn-13 978-0-511-21154-6 eBook (EBL)
isbn-10 0-511-21331-x
eBook (EBL)
isbn-13 978-0-521-80941-2 hardback
isbn-10 0-521-80941-x hardback
isbn-13 978-0-521-00653-8 paperback
isbn-10 0-521-00653-8 paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls
for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not
guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
For Jim

Contents
Listoftables page viii
Acknowledgements ix
1 Introduction 1
2 Materialhelpwitheducationandtraining 18
3 Financialchoicesandsacrificesforchildren 44
4 Expectationsandhopesforeducationalsuccess 69
5 Fulfillingpotentialandsecuringhappiness 95
6 Contacts,luckandcareersuccess 120
7 Friendsandnetworksinschoolandbeyond 146
8 Conclusion 171
AppendixA:Theinterviewees 190
AppendixB:Doingcomparativeresearch 194
Notes 214
Listofreferences 265
Authorindex 276
Subjectindex 279
vii
Tables
1.1 ThesampleofBritishandAmericaninterviewees page12
A.1 Americanphysicians,partners’occupationandchildren 190
A.2 Americaneducators,partners’occupationandchildren 191
A.3 Britishdoctors,partners’occupationandchildren 192
A.4 Britishteachers,partners’occupationandchildren 193
viii