Whittle, Laura Anne;
(2022)
Narratives of Education, Family and Class in 1980s Essex.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
There has been much written over the last eighty years about working-class failure in school. This thesis sets out to examine the experience of being a working-class teenager from a retrospective perspective by interviewing adults who were teenagers in the 1980s. The thesis focuses on the location of Essex. The Essex Man (Heffer, 1990) was a cultural phenomenon during the 1980s, although he did not receive his label until 1990. He was seen as a member of the new working class (Crewe, 1983), rejecting working-class values in favour of a materialistic, individualistic lifestyle. He was also viewed as an expression of bad taste, uneducated and devoid of culture as well as ‘breath takingly right-wing’ (Heffer, 1990). This thesis is twofold in nature. Firstly, it sets out to explore the experience of working-class teenagers during the 1980s and the significance of education, family and class on their lives. This is done by examining in depth the experience of eight participants who have provided accounts of being teenagers in 1980s Essex. The second strand of the thesis considers the identity of Essex Man and sets out to de-construct the myth. The thesis looks behind the phenomenon and stereotypes to the lived stories and the realities faced by the participants and their families. My aim is to gather a nuanced view about education, families and class in Essex. This research challenges the stereotypical view of Essex Man with regard to his political views and aspirations. Through narrative accounts it will show that class is not homogeneous and within families and individuals’ life stories social mobility can occur. It will also show that Essex did not necessarily buy into Thatcherism (Sandbrook, 2019) but Margaret Thatcher tapped into a belief that was already in place, a pioneering spirit which existed from an earlier time. It will also show that education was important to this group and that life-long learning is in fact an important aspect in the lives of the participants and their families. It will argue that within a neo-liberal society, those from the working class who exhibit the virtues which are seen as prescriptive by the elite in order to succeed, are kept in their place by, as Sennett and Cobb (1977) state, the ‘hidden injuries’ of class. These narratives are not tales of woe though, they celebrate the ordinary and the extraordinary in individuals’ lives; the hard work, resilience and the indefatigable nature of Essex Man and Woman, who continue to look for opportunities with the aim of having a better life.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Narratives of Education, Family and Class in 1980s Essex |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2022. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Education, Practice and Society UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10145552 |
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