Ain't No Makin' It : Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood

This classic text addresses one of the most important issues in modern social theory and policy: how social inequality is reproduced from one generation to the next. With the original 1987 publication ofAinrs"t No Makinrs" ItJay MacLeod brought us to the Clarendon Heights housing project where we met the "Brothers" and the "Hallway Hangers." Their story of poverty, race, and defeatism moved readers and challenged ethnic stereotypes. MacLeodrs"s return eight years later, and the resulting 1995 revision, revealed little improvement in the lives of these men as they struggled in the labor market and crime-ridden underground economy. The third edition of this classic ethnography of social reproduction brings the story of inequality and social mobility into todayrs"s dialogue. Now fully updated with thirteen new interviews from the original Hallway Hangers and Brothers, as well as new theoretical analysis and comparison to the original conclusions,Ainrs"t No Makinrs" Itremains an admired and invaluable text. Contents Part One: The Hallway Hangers and the Brothers as Teenagers 1. Social Immobility in the Land of Opportunity 2. Social Reproduction in Theoretical Perspective 3. Teenagers in Clarendon Heights: The Hallway Hangers and the Brothers 4. The Influence of the Family 5. The World of Work: Aspirations of the Hangers and Brothers 6. School: Preparing for the Competition 7. Leveled Aspirations: Social Reproduction Takes Its Toll 8. Reproduction Theory ReconsideredPart Two: Eight Years Later: Low Income, Low Outcome 9. The Hallway Hangers: Dealing in Despair 10. The Brothers: Dreams Deferred 11. Conclusion: Outclassed and Outcast(e)Part Three: Ainrs"t No Makinrs" It? 12. The Hallway Hangers: Fighting for a Foothold at Forty 13. The Brothers: Barely Making It 14. Making Sense of the Stories, by Katherine McClelland and David Karen

A Rhodes scholar, Jay MacLeod holds degrees in social studies and theology. He and his wife, Sally Asher, spent four years in Mississippi, where their work with local teenagers led to the publication of Minds Stayed on Freedom: The Civil Rights Struggle in the Rural South, An Oral History (WestviewPress). MacLeod is now an Anglican priest in Chesterfield, a declining mining and market town in Asher's native England.