There is a recurring neoliberal myth that argues that every individual can become what is proposed; to want is power; that, in this world of infinite opportunities, being a winner is in each other's hands, regardless of their origins. But is this really the case?
This bright and enlightening book shows how the social and cultural coercive elements operated on the youth of the British working class. Seeking to understand why young people from working-class backgrounds left school at the first exchange and were engaged in low-skilled jobs, Paul Willis analyzed the trajectory of a group of boys from their last two school years to their first months at work. His adventures, decisions and paths, curiously, do not seem very different from those of today's youth of humble origins. Is it not, perhaps, that little or nothing has changed?
Forty years after its original publication, Learning to Work stands as the classic and enduring study of resistance to schooling.