Ain't No Makin' It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood, Third Edition / Edition 3

by Jay MacLeod

Overview

This classic text addresses one of the most important issues in modern social theory and policy: how social inequality is reproduced from one generation to the next. With the original 1987 publication of Ain't No Makin' It, Jay MacLeod brought us to the Clarendon Heights housing project where we met the 'Brothers' and the 'Hallway Hangers'. Their story of poverty, race, and defeatism moved readers and challenged ethnic stereotypes. MacLeod's return eight years later, and the resulting 1995 revision, revealed little improvement in the lives of these men as they struggled in the labor market and crime-ridden underground economy. The third edition of this classic ethnography of social reproduction brings the story of inequality and social mobility into today's dialogue. Now fully updated with thirteen new interviews from the original Hallway Hangers and Brothers, as well as new theoretical analysis and comparison to the original conclusions, Ain't No Makin' It remains an admired and invaluable text.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813343587
Publisher:	Westview Press
Publication date:	07/29/2008
Edition description:	Third Edition
Pages:	552
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Jay MacLeod

Table of Contents

Preface (new, from the author); Acknowledgements; Part One The Hallway Hangers and the Brothers as Teenagers; 1 Social Immobility in the Land of Opportunity; 2 Social Reproduction in Theoretical Perspective; Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis: Schooled by Social Class; Pierre Bourdieu: Cultural Capital and Habitus; Basil Bernstein and Shirley Brice Heath: Linguistic Cultural Capital; Paul Willis: The Lads and the Ear'oles; Henry Giroux: Student Resistance to School; Social Reproduction in Clarendon Heights; 3 Teenagers in Clarendon Heights: The Hallway Hangers and the Brothers; The Hallway Hangers: "You Gotta Be Bad"; The Brothers: Conspicuous by Their Conventionality; 4 The Influence of the Family; The Hallway Hangers' Households; The Brothers' Families; 5 The World of Work: Aspirations of the Hangers and Brothers; The Hallway Hangers: Keeping a Lid on Hope; The Brothers: Ready at the Starting Line; 6 School: Preparing for the Competition; The Brothers: Conformity and Compliance; The Hallway Hangers: Teacher's Nightmare; The Underlying Logic of Student Behavior; 7 Leveled Aspirations: Social Reproduction Takes Its Toll; The Hallway Hangers: Internalizing Probabilities, Rescuing Self-Esteem; The Brothers: Internalizing Failure, Shorn of Self-Esteem; The Sources of Variation; 8 Reproduction Theory Reconsidered; Building on Bourdieu; From Ethnography to Theory; Individuals in the Social Landscape; Cultural Autonomy Within Structural Constraints; Part Two Eight Years Later: Low Income, Low Outcome; 9 The Hallway Hangers: Dealing in Despair; On the Job; Working the Street; Producing Themselves; 10 The Brothers: Dreams Deferred; Shortchanged on the Labor Market; Sold on School; Aspiration and Outcome: What Went Wrong?; Groping for the Good Life; 11 Conclusion: Outclassed and Outcast(e); Poverty: A Class Issue; Racial Domination: Invidious but Invisible; Race Versus Class: Can They Be Untangled?; Structure Versus Agency: "No One to Blame but Me"; What Is to Be Done?; Class Dismissed; Part Three: Ain't No Makin' It? Returning to the Hallway Hangers and Brothers; Introduction from Jay MacLeod: The Hangers and Brothers revisited; 12 The Hallway Hangers: Fighting for a Foothold at Forty; Chris; Shorty; Stoney; Frankie; Slick; Jinx; Steve; 13 The Brothers: Barely Making It; Each will have a brief intro from Jay; Derek; Mokey; Juan; James; Mike; Super; 14 Making Sense of the Stories, by Katherine McClelland (Franklin & Marshall College) and David Karen (Bryn Mawr College); The Family Trees; Appendix A: On the Making of Ain't No Makin' It?; Fieldwork: Doubts, Dilemmas, and Discoveries; Second Harvest: Notes on the 1991 Field Experience; Part Three Fieldwork: Return to Clarendon Heights; Appendix B: Biographical Sketches; Bibliography; About the Book and Author; Index.

Editorial Reviews

MacLeod documents the lack of aspirations of a low-level income groupa neighborhood gang he calls the Hallway Hangersfor upward socioeconomic mobility. This predominantly white group is contrasted to the Brothers, a rival gang composed of blacks. MacLeod collected significant primary data while living among these inner city youths. His work centers on social reproduction theory, i.e., the factors ``that contribute to an intergenerational transmission of social inequality,'' which result is the status quo outlook of the Hallway Hangers. MacLeod's descriptive narrative includes vivid and graphic examples of conversations and interviews with gang members. With its first-hand perspective and sociological theory, this book is recommended for academic and larger public libraries. Boyd Childress, Auburn Univ. Lib., Ala.

Library Journal