‘When you see a normal person …’: social class and friendship networks among teenage students

Abstract

This paper draws on social capital theory to discuss the way social class plays out in the friendships of teenage students. Based on data from individual interviews and focus groups with 75 students in four London secondary schools, it is suggested that students tend to form friendships with people who belong to the same social-class background as them. Social-class 'sameness' is considered to be an element that importantly exemplifies the quality of their friendships, hence, close, inter-class friendships were significantly less common than close, intra-class ones. In addition, class differentials were evident and often reproduced by students, even in the context of the rarer inter-class friendships. This paper concludes that social class is of continuous importance in teenagers' lives and despite some agentic negotiation of class boundaries, as in the case of omnivorousness, students' friendship networks are dynamically informed by class inequalities.

Children's Perceptions of Economic Groups in a Context of Limited Access to Opportunities

“…Along these same lines, understanding children's perceptions of economic groups, and especially children's stereotypes about high‐ and low‐wealth groups, may benefit from assessments of how such assumptions relate to children's decisions about peer relations and friendship in schools or other informal contexts. For example, older children and adolescents are selective in their friendship decisions, preferring to befriend peers of the same economic background (Kupersmidt, DeRosier, & Patterson, ; Papapolydorou, ) and teasing others based on their financial situation (Bradshaw, Jay, McNamara, Stevenson, & Muldoon, ; Bucchianeri, Eisenberg, & Neumark‐Sztainer, ). Some forms of interpersonal bullying have been shown to be related to group identity such as race (Mulvey et al., ) and may be related to identity based on wealth status.…”

To mix or not to mix? Exploring the dispositions to otherness in schools

“…The importance that families give to peer group has been documented by several studies in different countries such as the UK (e.g. Gewirtz et al, 1995;Hollingworth and Mansaray, 2012;Papapolydorou, 2014;Vowden, 2012), the Netherlands (e.g. Boterman, 2013), France (e.g.…”

Narratives in Reconstituting, Reaffirming, and (Re)traditionalizing Identities

“…The process of othering is a prominent practice of identity formation that has been noted in the fields of gender research (Mills and Lingard 1997; Renold 2004; Archer and Francis 2005; Francis 2006) and class-based work (Skeggs 2002; Sayer 2005; McCulloch, Stewart, and Lovegreen 2006; Weis 2008; Hollingworth and Williams 2009; Stahl 2017). Othering has also played a role in scholarship on friendship groups (Papapolydorou 2013), networks (Hey 2005), ethnicity/race (Phillips 2008; Preston 2010), sexuality (Brewis and Gavin 2010), and place (Gidley 2007). Weis argued that in the years between Working Class Without Work (1990) and Class Reunion (2004), neoliberal ideology introduced a more agentic and autonomous self that is increasingly deethnicized, declassed, and degendered (p. 293).…”