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Bourdieu, subcultural capital and risky girlhood Bullen, Elizabeth and Kenway, Jane 2005, Bourdieu, subcultural capital and risky girlhood, Theory and research in education, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 47-61. Title Bourdieu, subcultural capital and risky girlhood Author(s) Bullen, Elizabeth Kenway, Jane Journal name Theory and research in education Volume number 3 Issue number 1 Start page 47 End page 61 Publisher Sage Place of publication London, England Publication date 2005 ISSN 1477-8785 Keyword(s) Bourdieu daughters mothers school subcultural capitals Summary It is a contention of the culturalist strand of underclass theory that the growth of the underclass is not a function of social and economic change, but of features intrinsic to underclass culture. Children born into disadvantaged communities, it is argued, are socialized into the ‘deviant’ culture of their families, families typically headed by single mothers. According to the underclass thesis, daughters of such families will face a heightened risk of leaving school early and teenage pregnancy. An unanticipated correlation between claims of the underclass thesis and the cohort of mothers and daughters with whom we are working on a current project has led us to ask, ‘how do we acknowledge the culture of disadvantaged communities and their generational synergies, whilst avoiding the pernicious implications of the underclass thesis?’ To answer this question, this article assesses the merits of bringing Bourdieu’s ideas on cultural capital together with Sarah Thornton’s concept of subcultural capital. The article concludes with two examples of how we might draw on these ideas as a way of exploring the means by which girls in difficult economic circumstances understand and pursue their school lives. Notes The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Theory and Research in Education, 3/1, 2005, © Sage Publications by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Theory and Research in Education page: http://tre.sagepub.com/ on SAGE Journals Online: http://online.sagepub.com/ Language eng Field of Research 160809 Sociology of Education HERDC Research category C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal ERA Research output type C Journal article Copyright notice ©2005, Sage Publications Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30013292 Document type: Journal Article Collections: School of Communication and Creative Arts Higher Education Research Group Related Links Link Description Connected to published version (restricted access) Go to link with your DU access privileges     Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Versions Version Filter Type Tue, 21 Oct 2008, 11:15:42 EST Thu, 09 Apr 2009, 15:05:47 EST Thu, 09 Apr 2009, 15:17:09 EST Thu, 01 Apr 2010, 12:26:21 EST Sat, 17 Apr 2010, 21:46:44 EST Mon, 26 Jul 2010, 09:27:45 EST Mon, 26 Jul 2010, 09:28:46 EST Filtered Full Access Statistics: 514 Abstract Views, 55 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics Created: Tue, 21 Oct 2008, 11:15:42 EST

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