Skip to main content

A Working-Class Academic Identity

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Higher Education and Working-Class Academics
  • 768 Accesses

Abstract

Despite the renewed sociological ‘conversation’ about social class, it can still be a difficult subject to discuss. Some interviewees talked of negative reactions from colleagues prior to interviews. This chapter discusses a ‘working class academic’ identity, elements of which included: family background, an uneven access to capital, a conflicted habitus, and a lack of a safety net to manage academic precarity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

eBook
USD 18.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abrahams, J., & Ingram, N. (2013). The Chameleon Habitus: Exploring Local Students’ Negotiations of Multiple Fields. Sociological Research Online, 18(4), 1–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Acker, S., & Armenti, C. (2004). Sleepless in Academia. Gender and Education, 16(1), 3–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Advance HE. (2018). Equality + higher education. Staff statistical report 2018. Online. Retrieved 18th June 2020. https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2019-05/2018-06-ECU_HE-stats-report_staff_v5-compressed.pdf

  • Ardoin, S., & martinez, b. (2019). Straddling Class in the Academy: 26 Stories of Students, Administrators, and Faculty from Poor and Working-Class Backgrounds and Their Compelling Lessons for Higher Education Policy and Practice. Sterling: Stylus.

    Google Scholar 

  • Atzmüller, C., & Steiner, P. M. (2010). Experimental Vignette Studies in Survey Research. Methodology: European Journal of Research Methods for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, 6(3), 128–138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bach, A (2019). The Supportive husband – Change and Continuity among Men who partner Women with career jobs. Discover Society. Online. Retrieved 5th June 2019 https://discoversociety.org/2019/06/05/the-supportive-husband-change-and-continuity-among-men-who-partner-women-with-career-jobs/

  • Bentley, L. (2020). Jackie Goes Home, Young Working-Class Women: Higher Education, Employment and Social (Re)Alignment. Thesis, University of the West of England. Online. Retrieved March 12, 2020, from https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/3292642/jackie-goes-home-young-working-class-women-higher-education-employment-and-social-realignment

  • Binns, C. (2019). Experiences of Academics from a Working-Class Heritage: Ghosts of Childhood Habitus. UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (2000). Pascalian Meditations. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burns, S. (2019). On Passing (As Middle Class). Meanjin. Online. Retrieved February 14, 2020, from https://meanjin.com.au/blog/on-passing-as-middle-class/

  • Burrows, R. (2003). Poverty and Home Ownership in Contemporary Britain. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burt, R. (2005). Brokerage and Closure. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, S. (2013). Universities twice as likely to use zero-hour contracts than other employers. The Guardian. 5 September.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cavanagh, C. (2018). Stop Telling Me I’m Not Working Class Anymore Just Because I Go to University. The Edinburgh Tab. Online. Retrieved April 12, 2019, from https://thetab.com/uk/edinburgh/2018/01/26/stop-telling-me-im-not-working-class-anymore-just-because-i-go-to-university-41057

  • Collingwood, A. (2015). In-work Poverty is Keeping Poverty Rates in Wales High. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Online. Retrieved April 20, 2020, from https://www.jrf.org.uk/blog/work-poverty-keeping-poverty-rates-wales-high

  • Connolly, N. (2017). Knowing Your Place: Essays on the Working Class by the Working Class. Liverpool: Dead Ink Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Courtois, A., & O’Keefe, T. (2019). ‘Not One of the Family’: Gender and Precarious Work in the Neoliberal University. Gender Work and Organization, 26(4), 463–479.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davies, A. (2013). ‘Right to Buy’: The Development of a Conservative Housing Policy, 1945–1980. Contemporary British History, 27(4), 421–444.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dews, B., & Law, L. (1995). This Fine Place So Far From Home: Voices of Academics from the Working Class. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donnelly, M., & Gamsu, S. (2018). Regional Structures of Feeling? A Spatially and Socially Differentiated Analysis of UK Student Im/mobility. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 39(7), 961–981.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans, D. (2019). Welshness in ‘British Wales’: Negotiating National Identity at the Margins. Nations and Nationalism, 25(1), 167–190.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finn, K. (2015). Personal Life, Young Women and Higher Education: A Relational Approach to Student and Graduate Experiences. Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Folke, O., & Rickne, J. (2020). All the Single Ladies: Job Promotions and the Durability of Marriage. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 12(1), 260–287.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, S. (2016). Habitus Clivé and the Emotional Imprint of Social Mobility. The Sociological Review, 64(1), 129–147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, S., & Laurison, D. (2019). The Class Ceiling: Why It Pays to be Privileged. Bristol: Policy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gabriel, D., & Tate, S. (2017). Inside the Ivory Tower: Narratives of Women of Colour Surviving and Thriving in British Academia. London: Trentham Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerrard, M. (2019, February 17). Working Class Britain: Hold Your Head High for Not “Making It”. The Platform. Online. Retrieved December 27, 2019, from https://www.the-platform.org.uk/2019/02/17/working-class-britain-hold-your-head-high-for-not-making-it/

  • Gibson, M. (2006). Lesbian Academic Couples. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Given, L. (2008). Lived Experience. L. Given (Ed). In, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods. Volumes 1 & 2. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halle, D. (1993). Inside Culture: Art and Class in the American Home. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurst and Nenga. (2016). Working in Class: Recognizing How Social Class Shapes Our Academic Work. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ingram, N. (2018). Working-Class Boys and Educational Success: Teenage Identities, Masculinities and Urban Schooling. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ingram, N., & Abrahams, J. (2015). Stepping Outside of Oneself: How a Cleft-Habitus Can Lead to Greater Reflexivity through Occupying “The Third Space”. In J. Thatcher, N. Ingram, C. Burke, & J. Abrahams (Eds.), Bourdieu—The Next Generation: The Development of Bourdieu’s Intellectual Heritage in Contemporary UK Sociology. Oxon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kimber, M. (2003). The Tenured “Core” and the Tenuous “Periphery”: The Casualisation of Academic Work in Australian Universities. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 25(1), 41–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lawler, S. (1999). ‘Getting Out and Getting Away’: Women’s Narratives of Class Mobility. Feminist Review, 63, 3–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li, Y., Savage, M., & Warde, A. (2008). Social Mobility and Social Capital in Contemporary Britain. British Journal of Sociology, 59(3), 391–411.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lubrano, A. (2005). Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lyons, M. (2015, August 24). Young Academics: The Great Betrayal. History Today. Online. Retrieved February 12, 2020, from https://www.historytoday.com/young-academics-great-betrayal

  • Office of National Statistics. (2020). Income estimates for small areas, England and Wales: financial year ending 2018. Online. Retrieved September 18, 2020, from https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/bulletins/smallareamodelbasedincomeestimates/financialyearending2018

  • Martin, J. (2008). Pedagogy of the Alienated: Can Freirian Teaching Reach Working-Class Students? Equity and Excellence in Education, 41(1), 31–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGuinness, F. (2017, May 2017). Poverty in the UK: Statistics. House of Commons Library. HM Government.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKee, K., & Soaita, A. (2018). The ‘Frustrated’ Housing Aspirations of Generation Rent. UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKenzie, L. (2018). ‘We Don’t Exist to Them, Do We?’: Why Working-Class People Voted for Brexit. London School of Economics. Online. Retrieved May 28, 2019, from https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2018/01/15/we-dont-exist-to-them-do-we-why-working-class-people-voted-for-brexit/

  • Michell, D., Wilson, J. Z., & Archer, V. (Eds.). (2015). Bread and Roses: Voices of Australian Academics from the Working Class. Sense Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostrove, J. M., & Cole, E. R. (2003). Privileging Class: Toward a Critical Psychology of Social Class in the Context of Education. Journal of Social Issues, 59(4), 677–692.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pixley, J. E. (2008). Life Course Patterns of Career-Prioritizing Decisions and Occupational Attainment in Dual-Earner Couples. Work and Occupations, 35(2), 127–163.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, R. (2000). Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reay, D. (2004). Gendering Bourdieu’s Concepts of Capitals? Emotional Capital, Women and Social Class. The Sociological Review, 52(2), 57–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reay, D. (2013). Social Mobility, a Panacea for Austere Times: Tales of Emperors, Frogs, and Tadpoles. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 34(5–6), 660–666.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reay, D., Crozier, G., & Clayton, J. (2009). ‘Strangers in Paradise?’ Working-Class Students in Elite Universities. Sociology, 43(6), 1103–1121.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rollock, N. (2019). Staying Power. The Career Experiences and Strategies of UK Black Female Professors. University and College Union.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ryan, J., & Sackrey, C. (1984). ‘Strangers in Paradise’: Academics from The Working Class. Boston: South End Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schiebinger, L., Davies Henderson, A., & Gilmartin, S. K. (2008). Dual-Career Academic Couples: What Universities Need to Know. Stanford, CA: Stanford University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skeggs, B. (1997). Formations of Class and Gender: Becoming Respectable. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skeggs, B. (2004). Class, Self, Culture. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thatcher, J. (2019). Untitled presentation. Creating Space in Academia. The British Sociological Association Postgraduate Forum Autumn Event. 8 November 2019.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tokarczyk, M. M., & Fay, E. A. (Eds.). (1993). Working-Class Women in the Academy: Laborers in the Knowledge Factory. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Torres, S. (2009). Vignette Methodology and Culture-Relevance: Lessons Learned Through a Project on Successful Aging with Iranian Immigrants to Sweden. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 24(1), 93–114.

    Google Scholar 

  • University and College Union. (2016). Precarious Work in Higher Education: A Snapshot of Insecure Contracts and Institutional Attitudes. Online. Retrieved February 12, 2020, from https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/7995/Precarious-work-in-higher-education-a-snapshot-of-insecure-contracts-and-institutional-attitudes-Apr-16/pdf/ucu_precariouscontract_hereport_apr16.pdf

  • Wakeling, P. (2010). Is there such thing as a working-class academic? In Y, Taylor (Ed.), Classed Intersections: Spaces, Selves, Knowledges. Farham: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wyness, G. (2017). Rules of the Game. Disadvantaged students and the university admissions process. The Sutton Trust.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yosso, T. (2005). Whose Culture has Capital? A Critical Race Theory Discussion of Community Cultural Wealth. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 8(1), 69–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Teresa Crew .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Crew, T. (2020). A Working-Class Academic Identity. In: Higher Education and Working-Class Academics . Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58352-1_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58352-1_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-58351-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-58352-1

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics