Ain 'T No Makin' It By Jay Macleod Analysis
Jay MacLeod’s book Ain’t No Making’ It is a treatise on social reproduction theory, that is, the ways in which class inequality is reproduced across generations, and is equally relevant and informative to understanding the cycle of poverty today as it was in 1987 when it was first published. The explanations of the life trajectories of the men studied in this book are especially important in light of the inflamed rhetoric and intense debate that characterize the interactions between the two distinct ideologies that have bifurcated the theorists of educational reform: Economically deterministic theories and the theories emphising the autonomy of the cultural level. Though the attempt of the author is to provide a perspective which allows for the simultaneous existence of the two theories. We will see that neither perspective can be said to be entirely endorsed by the conclusions found in Ain’t No Makin’ It. Building off previous scholarship of Bowles and Gintis, Bourdieu, Bernstein and Heath, Willis and Giroux, McLeod seeks to investigate the tension between personal agency and structural barriers to social mobility, or in his words, how “class based institutional mechanisms set limits on mobility, thereby ensuring social reproduction, while cultural innovations can be at once both functional and dysfunctional for …show more content…
Unlike the Hallway Hangers, the Brothers have higher aspirations for their future, aspirations that include finding stable employment and sustaining a middle class life style. Viewing ability and hard work as integral to educational and occupational attainment the Brothers committed themselves to school and engaged in extracurricular activities, rather than substance use. These differences in aspirations provided the foundation for MacLeod to fashion his own social reproduction
Summary Of Ain 'T No Makin' It By Jay Macleod
1422 Words | 6 PagesSocial mobility is within the grasp of each person so long as they earnestly invest themselves. There exists, however, a dissonance between the achievement ideology and reality as discussed in Jay Macleod’s Ain’t No Makin’ It. In his book, Macleod perfors a longitudinal study over a group of young black men, the Brothers, living in the projects of Clarendon Heights and reveals the insidious social factors that
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Of Nickel And Dimed: On Getting By In America By Barbara Ehrenreich
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East London And Youngstown Summary
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Sapa Inca Persian Chart Essay
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Rhetorical Analysis Of Serving In Florida By Gregory Mantsios
1318 Words | 6 PagesThe American dream is a dream of a land in which one can prosper with ambition and hard work. This idea has created many illusions for some because in reality the American dream is proven to be something that is rarely achieved. No individual is guaranteed success or destined for failure, but it is apparent that women, people of color, and those born into poverty will face greater obstacles than others, despite being a greater part of the American population. An author that tackles the issue of class in the United States is Gregory Mantsios. In his essay, “Class in America-2009”, Mantsios aims to prove that class affects people’s lives in drastic ways.
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271 Words | 2 PagesGrowing up every one hears about the story of the two brothers. The older brother was smarter than the younger one mainly, because he was older, and he had more school experience. Their lives were so different that it made the younger brother feel left out, because his big brother was an athlete and he had a large amount of popularity. On the other hand, the younger brother was a loner who didn’t really socialize with anyone. He was considered an outcast, and this was coming from all of his peers.
Social Reproduction: Speech By Dr. Elizabeth Tailby
272 Words | 2 PagesSocial reproduction can be defined as the continuance of social life and institutions in an unchanged way (REFERENCE). An example of social reproduction is children from a lower class falling into a cycle of poverty, homelessness, and unemployment as that was what their parents experienced. Social reproduction has a powerful impact upon life and educational pathways. It can be proven that schools are not foundations of equal opportunity, but frameworks for proliferating social disparity (REFERENCE). The impact of social reproduction was illustrated by the speech by Dr. Elizabeth Tailby.
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721 Words | 3 Pages1984 Synthesis Essay Poverty negatively influences how the minds of people work in the world. The fact that poverty exists itself, obstructs people from changing their circumstances in what is known as “the cycle of poverty.” The lower class is incredibly disadvantaged in that it lacks the necessary social and economic resources needed to increase chances of social mobility. In return, the absence of these resources may increase poverty. Therefore, the lower class is unable to change its situation because the majority believes that any efforts to climb the social ladder is highly inefficient.
Garth Brooks's Song Analysis
603 Words | 3 PagesRight now you're probably thinking, "Wait a minute, that doesn't sound right. How can rejection be a form of protection?" But I'm not talking about rejecting by God. The Lord will never reject you - He will always love and accept you! The rejection I'm talking about is the rejection you sometimes face in your own life.
Blau And Duncan's Characteristics
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