Resources: Review - A reappraisal of the modern-day working class

The original book looked at a small group of young men - "the lads" - who epitomised an anti-school culture within which machismo was paramount.

Paradoxically, their resistance to conformity also helped to prepare them for their working-class futures on building sites and on the shop floor.

Willis's work has been subject to considerable criticism as well as widespread celebration. His empirical study was firmly located in a time and place - the Midlands - where there was still a largely homogenous White working class, and jobs to be had. But it was a disappearing world. He has been accused of romanticising working-class culture, of ignoring wider dimensions of young people's lives, and of failing to comment sufficiently on cultural forms of patriarchy and racism. On the other hand, his analysis demanded a reappraisal of the relationship between schooling and the economy. His approach to "critical ethnography" is one that has endured, for both its academic and political implications. This book explores, from a variety of perspectives, the extent to which Willis's methodology and ideas still have meaning in changing times.