Nutshell Studies: Archer et al. (2010)

The latest Nutshell Study digests the work of Archer, Hollingworth and Mendick: “Urban Youth and Schooling” (2010), so you don’t have to. Think of it as a handy way to expand your knowledge of a wide-range of sociological studies in as short a space of time as possible.

Something that’s either a brilliant way to develop a strong academic background over the course of two years of study or a last desperate attempt to make something stick before the exams because, if you’re being honest, two years of partying wasn’t actually conducive to learning in the way you’d hoped…

Archer, Hollingworth and Mendick: “Urban Youth and Schooling” (2010)

Illustration: “Style, Status and Schooling at Hillside Academy”

At Hillside Academy a small group of Year 10 students have achieved some small level of notoriety for their bold fashion choices, confident attitudes and strong social media presence on channels like Instagram and TikTok. One of the group, a design-student called Leah, posts videos about her fashion choices and how they are received by other students at the school. Her friend and co-conspirator in a number of “filmed happenings”, Tymon, frequently jokes about “getting rich without needing school” while his best friend Khali lives by the mantra  “You’ve got to have style – that’s how people rate you.”

Teachers tend to interpret their behaviour as “distracted” “image-obsessed” and “lacking ambition”, but these students are deeply engaged in identity work – they are navigating status, aspiration and belonging in a context where academic success feels disconnected from their lived realities. Their rejection of conventional school norms isn’t about being pro-or-anti school, it’s a strategic negotiation of identity in a rapidly-changing world where success is increasingly defined differently to how it’s been defined by previous generations.

Insights

Performative Identity: Many young people actively construct identities through their conscious adoption of different styles and consumption patterns. Performative identity, therefore, refers to the idea that our sense of self (“who we believe ourselves to be”) is neither natural nor not fixed. Rather, identities are continuously constructed and expressed through how we act and interact with others. Identity is something we do rather than something we are. The construction of performative identities frequently brought students into tension and conflict with school expectations.

Symbolic Capital: This type of capital – closely related to the cultural type – is normally associated, in an educational context, with things like academic qualifications. It can, however, also relate to social status earned, in this instance, through something like style and social media following. While meaningful within the context of youth culture, it’s not particularly valued by schools.

Classed and Gendered Aspirations: While student aspirations are shaped by social class, gender and cultural narratives, late modernity opens up different routes to “success”, for working class and female students in particular, than the conventional academic route. While “class, gender and ethnicity continue to shape opportunities in education and work, this happens in an increasingly hidden way…”

Misrecognition by Schools: Teachers often misinterpret behaviour as simple disengagement from school, but often fail to see the complex identity work and alternative aspirations at play in their students’ behaviour.

Challenge to Meritocracy: The study questions the inability of schools and teachers to both recognise and respond to diverse forms of ambition and success, particularly among working-class and minority youth, in ways that embrace and encourage difference.

Implications

Perspective	Implication
Interactionism	Highlights how identity is negotiated through peer culture, teacher feedback, and symbolic expression.
Cultural Capital (Bourdieu)	Expands the concept to show how symbolic forms of capital (especially those related to style and self-confidence) are hugely important in the lives of many young people while being ignored or devalued by schools.
Feminism / Intersectionality	Explores how categories like class, age, gender and ethnicity intersect (overlap and combine) to shape aspirations and identity performances.
Postmodernism	Emphasises the fluidity and fragmentation of identity and holds that official definitions of “success” no longer hold in postmodernity. There are many more ways to achieve success than the single route (academic achievement) promoted by schools.
Education Policy	Raises interesting questions about social inclusion, the meaningful recognition of diverse aspirations and the organisation and purpose of schooling in the 21st century.