posted on 2018-01-08, 16:52authored byBeverley Hill, Ai-Ling Lai
This article explores how social class is linguistically negotiated and contested in parental narratives of school choice in the British education marketplace. Our study reveals prevalent yet obscured vestiges of ‘class talk’, and in doing so, unmasks ‘micro-political’ acts of status claiming. Using interactional narrative interviewing with 30 parents, we explore how inter- and intra-class differences are emotionally expressed, thus exposing the embodied dispositions of parents’ habitus and its’ subtle influence on school choice. The parental narratives also unveil a moral and political tension between the neoliberal ideal of entrepreneurial self-advancement and an egalitarian sentiment for social equality. Our study therefore challenges the neoliberal educational policy of market choice in closing the attainment gap.
History
Citation
Journal of Marketing Management, 2016, 32 (13-14), pp. 1284-1307
Author affiliation
/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, ARTS AND HUMANITIES/School of Management
Version
AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Published in
Journal of Marketing Management
Publisher
Taylor & Francis (Routledge) for Academy of Marketing