ABSTRACT
In Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids, Second Edition, award-winning sociologist Murray Milner tries to understand why teenagers behave the way they do. The first edition drew upon two years of intensive fieldwork in one high school and 300 written interviews about high schools across the country, where he argued that consumer culture greatly impacts the way our youth relate to one another and understand themselves and society. Milner now expands on that concept with a new year of fieldwork fifteen years after he began. He has uncovered in teens a move away from consumerism and towards the cultural capital of information in a time of social media and standardized tests.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |3 pages
Introduction: Fifteen Years Later
part I|41 pages
The Puzzle and The Tools
chapter |9 pages
Introduction
chapter |19 pages
Why Do They Behave Like That?
chapter |9 pages
The Tools for Understanding
part |60 pages
Explaining Teens' Behavior
chapter |22 pages
Fitting In, Standing Out, and Keeping Up
chapter |20 pages
Steering Clear, Hanging Out, and Hooking Up
chapter |16 pages
Exchanges, Labels, and Put-Downs
part |56 pages
Why Schools Vary
chapter |32 pages
The Pluralistic High School*
chapter |22 pages
Other Kinds of Schools
part |52 pages
Teen Status Systems and Consumerism
chapter |16 pages
Creating Consumers
chapter |11 pages
Consuming Life
chapter |23 pages
Conclusions and Implications
part |34 pages
Fifteen Years Later