"Ain;t No Makin' It"
“Ain’t No Makin’ It”
Structure Agency Subculture Cultural Capital Habitus
Key Concepts
1. Structure: The relatively permanent components of our social environment.
(a) What structural forces might you implicate in explaining why the HHs and Brothers were unable to achieve their American Dreams?
2. Agency: The choices me make -and the consequences of those preferences and actions- implicated in a social world where “free” individuals are making rational decisions.
(a) By way of agency, can you point to specific examples of choices made by the HHs and Brothers that may have adversely affected their lives?
3. Subculture: The culture of groups whose values, worldviews, and norms of behavior are slightly different from those of the dominant culture.
(a) What was the subculture of the Clarendon Heights neighborhood like? Did the values of this subculture mirror the values of mainstream American culture? Was Clarendon Heights an Institutional Ghetto or a Jobless Ghetto?
4. Cultural Capital: As defined in your text, cultural resources that are socially designated as being worthy (such as knowledge of elite culture) and that give advantages to groups (or persons) possessing such capital.
(a) Did any of the HHs or Brothers have an opportunity to possess cultural capital? Is yes, can you cite some examples?
(b) Did the HHs and Brothers possess “Street Capital,” or what Elijah Anderson refers to as the “Code of the Streets”?
5. Habitus: As defined in your text, a set of acquired patterns of thought, behavior, and taste that constitutes the link between social structure and social action (agency).
(a) Describe and provide examples of the Bothers’ and Hallway Hangers’ Habitus.
Structure Agency Subculture Cultural Capital Habitus
Key Concepts
1. Structure: The relatively permanent components of our social environment.
(a) What structural forces might you implicate in explaining why the HHs and Brothers were unable to achieve their American Dreams?
2. Agency: The choices me make -and the consequences of those preferences and actions- implicated in a social world where “free” individuals are making rational decisions.
(a) By way of agency, can you point to specific examples of choices made by the HHs and Brothers that may have adversely affected their lives?
3. Subculture: The culture of groups whose values, worldviews, and norms of behavior are slightly different from those of the dominant culture.
(a) What was the subculture of the Clarendon Heights neighborhood like? Did the values of this subculture mirror the values of mainstream American culture? Was Clarendon Heights an Institutional Ghetto or a Jobless Ghetto?
4. Cultural Capital: As defined in your text, cultural resources that are socially designated as being worthy (such as knowledge of elite culture) and that give advantages to groups (or persons) possessing such capital.
(a) Did any of the HHs or Brothers have an opportunity to possess cultural capital? Is yes, can you cite some examples?
(b) Did the HHs and Brothers possess “Street Capital,” or what Elijah Anderson refers to as the “Code of the Streets”?
5. Habitus: As defined in your text, a set of acquired patterns of thought, behavior, and taste that constitutes the link between social structure and social action (agency).
(a) Describe and provide examples of the Bothers’ and Hallway Hangers’ Habitus.