I. Linking Culture and Class

A. Culture opposes or resists spread of capitalism

1. Scott: moral economy
2. Taussig: symbolism of devil critiques colonialism, capitalism
3. Ong: possession by hantu speaks to danger and dislocation in factory

B. Culture assists capitalism

1. Weber
2. Mintz: desire for sugar fuels production, rise of industry

C. Link between culture seems unintentional by-product
D. What about Marx's superstructure as mystification?

1. Re-interpret Ong: "resistance" reinforces subjugation of factory women
2. Willis: schooling as system of discipline which working class youths resist, but resistance reproduces low class status

 

II. Culture of Poverty

A. Oscar Lewis: 1960s research among poor in Mexico City and Puerto Rico
B. Question: Why does poverty exist in industrializing countries?
C. Answer: Poverty has a cultural component

1. Society marginalizes certain groups
2. These groups reject dominant culture, form oppositional subculture

a. Drop out of school
b. Apathy
c. Abuse of drugs and alcohol
d. Criminal behavior
e. Hate politics, police, government, church = dominant culture

3. Social characteristics of culture of poverty

a. Matrifocal households
b. Mothers work, children unsupervised
c. Children take to streets ==> sex, drugs, gangs

 

III. The Impact of Lewis: Institutional Approaches to Breaking the Culture of Poverty

A. 1960s: Johnson's war on poverty
B. Moynihan Report, "The Negro Family: A Case for National Action" (1965)

1. 25% of fathers in African-American families absent
2. Matrifocality leads to juvenile delinquency, arrests, and imprisonment, poor school performance and high drop out
3. Government should provide structures to help single mothers and prepare kids for educational success

C. Head Start, Kennedy administration: get kids in school earlier, counteract negative effects of home
D. Culture of poverty blames the victim

1. Lewis: culture of poverty was a dysfunctional adaptation to a hostile environment
2. Use of Lewis: the problem of the poor is their culture

 

IV. Alternative to Culture of Poverty

A. Carol Stack: All Our Kin (1974)

1. Student of Lewis, but bothered by interpretation of culture of poverty
2. Studied African-American families in Midwestern town
3. Black male unemployment makes women heads of household
4. Women's coping strategies: work, welfare, and barter; kin and non-kin social networks
5. Matrifocality isn't a pathology, but a by-product of economic and social forces
6. Social fatherhood: siblings, friends, grandparents
7. Elastic boundaries of households

B. Matrifocality reproduces poverty because it reflects underlying economic inequalities; it is coping strategy, not culture

 

V. The Rise of Public Schooling

A. Family formations are result of racism and poverty, not a cause
B. Culture of poverty as Marxist mystification
C. Universal Education in England

1. Social and economic background

a. commercialism
b. middle-class
c. technological change

2. Citizens' rights, progress
3. Education as key to master world and self
4. 18th and 19th centuries: education is broader in scope, provided by state

a. Religious institutions and British schooling
b. 1833: government gives building grant, beginning of state intervention
c. 1839: Privy Council was established to administer grants, inspect schools, establish central education department which later becomes ministry of education
d. Public debate: who should be served by public education, role of public funding and taxation
e. Urbanization puts pressure on religious schools
f. 1870: Elementary Education Act, dual system of voluntary (religious) and local-authority schools
g. 1880: Compulsory elementary education in England and Wales
h. 1891: most school fees abolished

5. 20th century expansion of public education

a. Curricula promote not literacy, mental discipline, good moral character AND citizenship, job preparation, individual development
b. Division of students into grades
c. 1900: 1/7 children enters secondary school
d. Increasing local power over education to develop secondary and technical schools
e. Education Act of 1918 (The Fisher Act): "national system of public education available for all persons capable of profiting thereby"
f. School-leaving age raised to 14, local authorities could make it 15
g. Education Act of 1944

i. free secondary education for all
ii. 3 types: grammar school (elite, intellectual), secondary modern schools (less intellectually rigorous), and technical schools
iii. Testing at age 11 to enter appropriate secondary school

h. Turn away from testing toward free choice, based on family preference and student aptitude
i. Comprehensive schools: offer all three curricula, like US high school
j. 1975: legislation hastens transition to comprehensive system

6. Goals of education: child-focused, create democratic and egalitarian society, possibility for upward mobility

 

For more information, contact:  aleshkow@holycross.edu