Class Cultures and Social Mobility: The Hidden Strengths of Working-Class First-Generation Graduates

When working-class first-generation students enter college or the professional workplace, they often find themselves immersed in entirely new worlds. They must learn the unwritten rules for how to speak, dress, behave, and interact with new peers and colleagues. While striving to fit in and do well, they risk feeling imposter syndrome, a loss of identity, or broken ties with friends and family. 

Class Cultures and Social Mobility tells the stories of upwardly mobile first-gen graduates who flipped the script and turned their working-class roots into a strength. This accessible and highly engaging book reveals how first-gen graduates overcame hardship while leveraging unique skills—their working-class cultural capital—in college and their professional careers. It demonstrates there needn’t be a choice between economic success and maintaining authenticity to one’s roots—we can balance the competing demands of the two class worlds together. Whether you're an educator, student, working professional, or advocate, this book provides a powerful way to reimagine the transformations that accompany class mobility. 

1146925851
Class Cultures and Social Mobility: The Hidden Strengths of Working-Class First-Generation Graduates

When working-class first-generation students enter college or the professional workplace, they often find themselves immersed in entirely new worlds. They must learn the unwritten rules for how to speak, dress, behave, and interact with new peers and colleagues. While striving to fit in and do well, they risk feeling imposter syndrome, a loss of identity, or broken ties with friends and family. 

Class Cultures and Social Mobility tells the stories of upwardly mobile first-gen graduates who flipped the script and turned their working-class roots into a strength. This accessible and highly engaging book reveals how first-gen graduates overcame hardship while leveraging unique skills—their working-class cultural capital—in college and their professional careers. It demonstrates there needn’t be a choice between economic success and maintaining authenticity to one’s roots—we can balance the competing demands of the two class worlds together. Whether you're an educator, student, working professional, or advocate, this book provides a powerful way to reimagine the transformations that accompany class mobility. 

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Class Cultures and Social Mobility: The Hidden Strengths of Working-Class First-Generation Graduates

Class Cultures and Social Mobility: The Hidden Strengths of Working-Class First-Generation Graduates

by Paul Dean
Class Cultures and Social Mobility: The Hidden Strengths of Working-Class First-Generation Graduates

Class Cultures and Social Mobility: The Hidden Strengths of Working-Class First-Generation Graduates

by Paul Dean

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Overview

When working-class first-generation students enter college or the professional workplace, they often find themselves immersed in entirely new worlds. They must learn the unwritten rules for how to speak, dress, behave, and interact with new peers and colleagues. While striving to fit in and do well, they risk feeling imposter syndrome, a loss of identity, or broken ties with friends and family. 

Class Cultures and Social Mobility tells the stories of upwardly mobile first-gen graduates who flipped the script and turned their working-class roots into a strength. This accessible and highly engaging book reveals how first-gen graduates overcame hardship while leveraging unique skills—their working-class cultural capital—in college and their professional careers. It demonstrates there needn’t be a choice between economic success and maintaining authenticity to one’s roots—we can balance the competing demands of the two class worlds together. Whether you're an educator, student, working professional, or advocate, this book provides a powerful way to reimagine the transformations that accompany class mobility. 


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781978845824
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Publication date: 11/11/2025
Series: Critical Issues in American Education
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 196
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

PAUL DEAN is a professor of sociology and anthropology at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. He is coauthor of the book Globalization: A Basic Text.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Climbing the Class Ladder is an Emotional Journey

Part I: Class Cultures and Social Mobility

Chapter 1: The Differences Between Working-Class and Middle-Class Cultures

Chapter 2: Classism and Cultural Mismatches Faced by Upwardly Mobile Working-Class People

Part II: The Hidden Strengths of Working-Class Cultural Capital

Chapter 3: Cultural Empathy

Chapter 4: Working-Class Norms, Language, and Communication

Chapter 5: Translating, Codeswitching, Mediating, and Bridge-Building

Chapter 6: Working-Class Dispositions: Hard Work, Practicality, Authenticity, Resilience, and Ingenuity

Part III: Lessons Learned

Chapter 7: Managing the Threats of Assimilation, Complicity, and Cooptation

Chapter 8: Applying the Lessons to First-Gen Students, Working Straddlers, and Our Workplaces

Appendix: Research Methodology

Acknowledgements

Notes

Bibliography

Index


Introduction: Climbing the Class Ladder

Is an Emotional Journey 1

Part I Class Cultures and Social Mobility

1 The Differences Between Working-Class

and

Middle-Class

Cultures 19

2 Classism and Cultural Mismatches Faced by Upwardly

Mobile Working-Class

People

36

Part II The Hidden Strengths of Working-Class

Cultural Capital

3 Cultural Empathy 57

4 Working-Class

Norms, Language, and Communication 73

5 Translating, Code-Switching,

Mediating,

and Bridge-Building

86

6 Working-Class

Dispositions: Hard Work, Practicality,

Authenticity, Resilience, and Ingenuity 102

Part III Lessons Learned

7 Managing the Threats of Assimilation, Complicity,

and Co-Optation

117

8 Applying the Lessons to First-Gen

Students, Working

Straddlers, and Our Workplaces 133

Appendix: Research Methodology 147

Acknowledgments

153

Notes 157

References 165

Index 181

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