Class Strategies and the Education Market: The Middle Classes and Social Advantage

224 Pages·2003·0.82 MB·English

by  Stephen J. Ball

Class Strategies and the Education
Market
Modern state education was essentially formed around the needs and interests
of the middle class. The middle classes are currently very much at the centre
of all politicians’ electoral concerns. Nevertheless sociological and educa-
tional research has tended to neglect the middle class. Class Strategies and
the Education Marketexamines the ways in which the middle classes main-
tain and improve their social advantages in and through education.
Drawing on an extensive series of interviews with parents and children,
this book identifies key moments of decision-making in the construction of
the educational trajectories of middle-class children. Stephen J. Ball organizes
his analysis around the key concepts of social closure, social capital, values
and principles and risk, while bringing a broad range of up-to-date socio-
logical theory to bear upon his subject. From this thorough analysis,
valuable and thought-provoking insights into the assiduous care and con-
siderable effort and expenditure, which go into ensuring the educational
success of the middle-class child, emerge.
The middle classes are a sociological enigma, presenting the social
researcher with considerable analytic and theoretical difficulties. Class
Strategies and the Education Market provides a set of working tools for
class analysis and the examination of class practices. Above all, it offers
new ways of thinking about class theory and the relationships between
classes in late modern society.
Stephen J. Ball is Karl Mannheim Professor of Sociology of Education and
Director of the Education Policy Research Unit at the Institute of
Education, University of London.

Class Strategies and the
Education Market
The middle classes and social advantage
Stephen J. Ball
First published 2003 by RoutledgeFalmer
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by RoutledgeFalmer
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.
RoutledgeFalmer is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
 2003 Stephen J. Ball
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library in Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-203-21895-7 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-27422-9 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-27277-7 (pbk)
ISBN 0-415-27276-9 (hbk)
For John Ball 1381/1994
When Adam delved
and Eve span
Who was then
a gentleman?
From The Peasant’s Revolt of 1381
Contents
List of illustrations viii
Acknowledgements ix
1 Introduction: between structure and hermeneutics 1
2 Class and strategy 14
3 Class and policy 25
4 Social class as social closure: a strategic approach 53
5 Social capital, social class and choice 79
6 Values and principles: social justice in the head 111
7 Risk, uncertainty and fear 148
8 Class practices and inequality 167
Appendix I 181
Appendix II 188
Notes 189
Bibliography 194
Index 211
Illustrations
Figures
1.1 Structure, class and state: an analytical framework for
education policy and practices 9
6.1 An heuristic map of choice of school 118
Tables
2.1 Three levels of analysis as a unified system 19
6.1 Parents’ employment and choice of school 136
6.2 Parents’ schooling and choice of school 136
A1.1 Parents’ occupational sector (school choice sample) 186
A1.2 Parents’ education (school choice sample) 186
A1.3 Parents’ employment (school choice sample) 187
A1.4 Parents’ occupational sector (higher education sample) 187
A1.5 Parents’ employment (higher education sample) 187
Acknowledgements
A lot of people have helped me with this book, in many different ways.
Most important among them is Trinidad without whom it would never
have got started and would certainly not have been finished – I cannot say
enough.
Richard Bowe, Miki David, Jackie Davies, Sharon Gewirtz, Sheila
Macrae, Meg Maguire, Diane Reay and Carol Vincent were the main pro-
tagonists in fieldwork and interviewing and many extracts from interviews
they conducted are quoted in the text. Agnes van Zanten commented on
chapters and the work we did together on several comparisons of education
in England and France was very useful to me. Carol Vincent had the
patience and stamina to read and comment on everything, for which I am
very grateful. Harry Brighouse and Alan Cribb undertook my philosophical
education and made me think differently, especially about Chapter 6. Meg
Maguire gave me the usual hard time, especially over Chapter 8. Val Hey,
Hugh Lauder, Philip Noden and Tim Butler also read parts of the book. Jim
Scheurich fed me relevant research from the US. Thank you to Caroline Gill
for her multi-tasking and Anjali Kothari who made the diagrams for me. I
also thank Annie and Rebecca for helping me cope and Geraldine for the
house. Whatever weaknesses remain are down to me.