ABSTRACT
Why is it that children from disadvantaged backgrounds find it so difficult – and often impossible – to achieve? Few questions are of such fundamental importance to the functioning of a fair and effective society than this one, yet the academic and political narratives that exist to explain the problem are fundamentally contradictory: some say the root of the problem lies in racial prejudice; others that the key factor is class; others again argue that we should look first at laziness, government's commitment to provide demotivating ‘safety nets,’ and to the appeal of easy money earned from a criminal lifestyle.
Jay Macleod's seminal work of anthropology is one of the most influential studies to address this issue, and – in suggesting that problems of class, above all, help to fuel continued social inequality, Macleod is engaging in an important piece of problem-solving. He asks the right questions, basing his study on two different working class subcultures, one white and largely devoid of aspiration and the other black and much more ambitious and conformist. By showing that the members of both groups find it equally hard to achieve their dreams – that there really ‘Ain't no makin' it,’ as his title proposes – Macleod issues a direct challenge to the ideology of the American Dream, and by extension to the social contract that underpinned American society and politics for the duration of the twentieth century. His work – robustly structured and well-reasoned – is now frequently studied in universities, and it offers a sharp corrective to those who insist that the poor could control their own destinies if they choose to do so.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
section 1|21 pages
Influences
module 1|5 pages
The Author and the Historical Context
module 2|6 pages
Academic Context
module 3|5 pages
The Problem
module 4|4 pages
The Author’s Contribution
section 2|20 pages
Ideas
module 5|5 pages
Main Ideas
module 6|5 pages
Secondary Ideas
module 7|5 pages
Achievement
module 8|4 pages
Place in the Author’s Work
section 3|20 pages
Impact
module 9|4 pages
The First Responses
module 10|5 pages
The Evolving Debate
module 11|5 pages
Impact and Influence Today
module 12|5 pages
Where Next?