ABSTRACT
Conceptualizing reproduction theory as a spectrum, with one end dominated by economically determinist theories and the other by theories asserting the autonomy of the cultural level, we reviewed the work of Bowles and Gintis on the determinist end of the spectrum and progressed through the theories of Bourdieu, Bernstein and Heath, and Willis and Giroux at the other end of the spectrum. Bowles and Gintis do give an excellent account of the hidden structural and ideological determinants that constrain working-class students and socialize them for positions at the bottom of the heap. The Brothers' social class origins are only marginally different from those of the Hallway Hangers. The higher occupational aspirations of the Brothers, on the other hand, indicate that the connection between objective structure and subjective attitudes is tenuous; ideology can cloud, distort, and conceal the mechanisms of social reproduction.
