Agencies and Identities

• Gender: family

  Parsons:

  Structural differentiation

  Two basic and irreducible functions: primary soc and the stabilisation of adult personalities through the controlling of sex drive

  Sex role theory: segregated conjugal roles of male breadwinner who performs the instrumental (survival needs) and the female homemaker who performs the expressive (emotional needs) which are biologically appropriate

  Canalisation: where these gender roles are imitated by children and passed down into next generation
• Gender: Family

  Oakley (mf):

  homemaker and breadwinner

  Segregated conjugal roles

  Verbal appellations: rewarding children in sticking to their gender-

  Gendered activities and canalisation (encouraging h and b roles)
• Gender: Religion

  Woodhead:

  Muslim girls wearing veil (niqab) for religious purposes

  It provided the girls with a collective conscience or a shared identity and status, helped them to feel a sense of social solidarity

  PASSIVE FEMININITY
• Gender: Religion


  Watson:

  Muslim Chic- wearing the veil for as more of a fashion statement and is the expression of liberation and strength

  ASSERTIVE FEMININITY
• Gender: Workplace

  Hakim 1970s:

  Dual labour market theory- male and female workforces in the UK were segregated (seen as two different labour forces with different kinds of jobs and positions)

  Two types of segregation: horizontal segregation where men and women collect in different types of occupation in different sectors of the economy and vertical segregation, where women collect in lower levels of pay and status in specific occupations and industries whilst men occupy the more powerful and higher paid jobs

  PASSIVE FEMININITY
• Gender: Workplace

  Hakim 1990s:

  Unequal market positions were subjected to the personal choice of women

  Gender inequalities stemmed from differential attitudes and behaviours of men and women

  Two types of women in the workplace: career women who invest in and seek to develop their skills and job conditions as a priority and domestic women, who prioritise their marriage and transfer into part time and undemanding jobs as soon as their breadwinner husband allows them to.

  ASSERTIVE FEMININITY
• Agencies and Identities:

  • Gender—>family, religion, work
  • Class—>peer, education, media
  • Ethnicity—>family, education, peers, work
  • Nationality—>religion, media, work
• Class: Peers


  Willis:

  12 working class (wc) lads study in 1970s

  The lads created a counter school culture that was heavily racist, sexist and disregarded any authority

  Deliberate underachievement to be socially reproduced into manual labour jobs, maintaining their status
• 39 young lower class people (20 girls and 19 boys) leaving school with no qualifications all from what was known as an area of unemployment and deteriorating housing ‘the jungle’
• Types of transition

  • Traditional
  • Protracted
  • Cyclical
• Traditional transition


  Young person moves straight to family life and employment
• Protracted transition


  Young person moves between employment to unemployment and government benefits for around 4-7 years before finding a permanent career
• Cyclical transition


  Young person becomes trapped in a viscous cycle of unemployment
• Peer pressure leads to marginalised working class identity
• Class: Education

  Reay/Bourdieu

  Cultrual capital

  Interviews on middle class (mc) mothers in 1990s

  MC mothers influenced their children in ways WC mothers couldn’t

  WC mothers had less time to devote to their children due to having to balance triple shift= domestic, childcare and employment

  +less confidence and understanding of school system usually because of their own bad experiences in school themselves

  MARGINALISED WC IDENTITY+ENTITLED MC IDENTITY
• Class: Education

  Payne/Bourdieu

  Material deprivation+Cultural/Economic capital

  2000s interviews on mc A-level students

  Parents provided financial support (re-sits, personal tutors and sent their children to more prosperous, suburban schools known as selection by mortgage

  Parents spent 30% more on houses in catchment areas of schools that are high in the league tables

  MARGINALISED WC IDENTITY+ENTITLED MC IDENTITY
• Class: Media

  Hall et al (interactionist):

  Primary definers=powerful people in charge of news

  Moral panic and labelling young wc black men as ‘muggers’=scapegoated by the government

  Folk Devil

  Disproportionate Media Reaction

  Moral Panic

  Responsible vs Irresponsible Reactions

  Deviancy Amplification

  CRIMINALISED WC IDENTITY
• Ethnicity: Family

  Modood:

  South Asian families had undergone generational split/shift between old and young members

  Old members=traditional values and beliefs

  Young members= associated more with British therefore hybridised British-Asian identity
• Ethnicity: Education+Peers


  Gillborn:

  Racism in schools 1970s

  UK national curriculum is ethnocentric(disregarding of ethnic groups+empowers white groups)

  Notable subjects such as history revolved issues around UK’s past failing to cover areas of damage Britain had caused i.e. colonialism—> making ethnic children regard their own culture as less important

  MARGINALISED ETHNIC IDENTITY