Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.2 / 5.0

How a Cultural Study Should Be Done:

This book is apparently a classic in the fields of cultural studies and ethnography, and I agree that it's certainly one of the stronger examples of the form. This study by Paul Willis, which was conducted in the 70s, is certainly free of the political correctness and obsession with romanticizing other cultures that later polluted the field and drained its credibility. Willis' study on working class kids in England and the issues they face in joining the workforce can be seen as interesting in itself, as... more info

A landmark effort at synthesizing theoretical frameworks:

I use Willis' work every semester in my graduate level educational research methods class. It is one of first and
most influential efforts to bring together a marxist focus on macro-social dynamics, a symbolic interactionist focus on micro-social interactions, and a phenomenological focus on individual consicousness into a single study of class reproduction. It is a classic in every sense.

Still The Best Ethnography in Sociology:

I came to Dr. Willis's Learning To Labor as a Ph.D. student at York University, Toronto. I was profoundly moved both theoretically and personally. Willis gives us a theoretical way of articulating macro and micro perspectives which shows how the two arise in dialectical fashion, e.g. class determines the working class lives of the lads through the very choices of the lads themselves! It was, and still is, a brilliant insight and contribution in relation to ongoing discussions of structure/agency and the... more info

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