Middle Class Fractions, Childcare and the ‘Relational’ and ‘Normative’ Aspects of Class Practices

Abstract

The emphasis in class research remains on the structural aspects of class, class processes are neglected. This paper focuses upon some relational and normative aspects of class through an examination of social divisions produced and constructed within middle class families' choices of childcare. Working with data from two contrasting settings in London (Battersea and Stoke Newington) three issues are addressed in the paper; the extent to which childcare arrangements both substantively and structurally position children differently within long term educational careers; the ways in which the use of choice in a market system of child care and education, works to produce patterns of social closure that quietly discriminate via the collectivist criterion of class and racial membership; and the ways in which child care choices also point-up and perpetuate subtle distinctions and tensions of values and lifestyle within the middle class, between class factions. Concepts drawn from the work of Bourdieu are deployed throughout. This paper draws from an ESRC-funded study of middle-class, or more precisely, service class (Goldthorpe, 1995) families in London, choosing childcare. 1 Through the lens of childcare arrangements, and the planning of children's educational careers, we engage with some of the recent developments in class theory and class research (Crompton, 1998;Savage, 2000; Robson, 2002, see also Vincent, Ball and Kemp, 2004). More substantively the focus on pre-school care enables us to begin to demonstrate the ways in which middle-class educational strategies are constructed from a very early age, but also to show how these strategies vary within the middle-class not only by household but by the habitus within which the household is spatially located. Here then we address both the differentiation of class fractional values and life-styles within our middle-class samples, and the ways in which these differentiations are enacted to produce and reproduce boundaries within the middle-class and between this class and class 'others'. That is to say, following Bourdieu our analysis is relational, the class and class fractional

Preferencias e ideas de las familias españolas sobre los centros públicos, privados y concertados.

“…En esta línea, estudios precedentes han observado que una cuestión central para estas familias es elegir un centro "prestigioso" que mantenga un "buen nivel" académico, para lo que se considera crucial un aceptable desempeño académico de los compañeros de colegio (Olmedo Reinoso y Santa Cruz Grau, 2011: 526;Pérez-Díaz et al, 2011). Como ha sido observado en estudios previos, las familias de clase media utilizan la escuela privada y concertada como un "proceso de cierre social" (Ball, Vincent, Kemp y Pietikainen, 2004), es decir, como un mecanismo para garantizar la selección de los alumnos y controlar las relaciones sociales de sus hijos (Olmedo Reinoso y Santa Cruz Grau, 2011). El nivel de exigencia formaría parte de ese filtro social.…”

“…Sus defensores afirman que la libertad de elección otorga mayor eficacia al sistema en términos de calidad e incluso equidad, por mor de una beneficiosa competitividad que obligaría a los centros a mejorar su desempeño (Prieto Egido y Villamor Manero, 2012). Estos argumentos han sido contestados por otro cuerpo de estudios que apunta que la introducción de estas lógicas de mercado o mecanismos de privatización endógena (Bernal Agudo y Lorenzo Lacruz, 2012), basadas fundamentalmente en fomentar la competitividad entre las familias para elegir centro (liberalización de la demanda) y entre los centros para seleccionar a su alumnado (liberalización de la oferta) (Alegre Canosa y Benito Pérez, 2012), tienen como consecuencia la segregación de los alumnos según origen social (Ball, Vincent, Kemp y Pietikainen, 2004) y, en última instancia, la reproducción de las desigualdades educativas.…”

Middle-Class Poverty Politics: Making Place, Making People

“…The failure of social mix strategies to foster meaningful everyday interactions or mutually supportive relationships between middle-class and poorer residents is well documented (Davidson 2010;Joseph and Chaskin 2011;Bridge, Butler, and Lees 2012). Other scholars have examined how various fractions of the middle class might respond differently to gentrification or social mix, most often comparing a "traditional" and a "new" middle class that selfidentify through (respectively) their workforce position versus lifestyle practices (Butler and Robson 2003;Ball et al 2004;Savage, Bagnall, and Longhurst 2005). We share in common with these literatures an empirical focus on mixed-income neighborhoods and a concern with the "nonclass" status of the middle class.…”

Education, Class Fractions and the Local Rules of Spatial Relations

“…There is a tendency towards exclusivity in Battersea and towards diversity and mix in Stoke Newington (these choices are examined in detail in Ball et al, 2004). One example will have to serve as an illustration here However, not only were there different patterns of use and choice of childcare facilities in Battersea and Stoke Newington, but our interviews with parents and providers also offered circumstantial evidence of differences in the pedagogical regimes of the nursery schools in the two localities; although the differences are again only tendential.…”