Between Authenticity and Pretension

Parents', Pupils' and Young Professionals' Negotiations of Minority Ethnic Middle-Class Identity

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3299609
AutoresLouise Archer (0000-0002-0254-4234, King's College London, autor correspondente)
Ano2012
Volume60
Fascículo1
Páginas129-148
Data de publicação2012-02-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0038-0261 • E-ISSN: 1467-954X
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-954x.2011.02042.x
OpenAlexW2171369467
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas19
Referências citadas34

Despite an increasing sociological interest in the middle classes and their educational practices, research has largely concentrated on the white middle classes. This paper considers the case of the minority ethnic (ME) middle classes through empirical data from a small, exploratory study conducted in England with 36 minority ethnic, 'middle-class' individuals (parents, pupils and young professionals) from a range of ME backgrounds. It is argued that participants experienced ME middle-class identity as a profoundly conflictual and precarious space, negotiated through a matrix of relational classed and racialized positionings. 'Authentic' middle-classness remains the preserve of white society due to racial inequalities and the dominance of whiteness as the popularly legitimated marker of middle classness. Moreover, attempts to define an acceptable, legitimate and principled ME middle-class identity are compromised by the discursive threats of 'inauthenticity', 'pretension' and 'misrecognition

Aesthetics · Dominance (genetics) · Ethnic group · Identity (music) · Middle class · Negotiation · Political science · Race (biology) · Social science · Sociology · White (mutation) · Anthropology · Critical Race Theory in Education · Gender Studies · Global Education and Multiculturalism · Law · Psychology · School Choice and Performance · Social Psychology