The emotional experience of class : interpreting working-class kid's street racing in helsinki
By: VAARANEN, Heli
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ArticlePublisher: Thousand Oaks : SAGE, September 2004The Annals of The American Academy of Political and Social Science 595, p. 91-107Abstract: Reproduction of social class through culture has puzzled social scientists especially in the Nordic, advanced welfare states where social equality has been the official policy of governments for most of the postwar period. In the following article, I adress this issue through the emotional experience of class that culminates in the weekend excess of youths and even the stret-racing scenes of Helsinki. Based on ethnographic fieldwork with eighteen to twenty-four-year-old male street racers of Helsinki, I argue that stagnant class locations build on stunted ambition and feelings of injustice. The cultural performances and camaraderie of these like-minded racers support these youths' public, carefree identities and subcultural careers. Instead of resisting exclusion, they conform to it, celebrating "a room of his own" where shared risk, craftsmanship, driving skill, and disregard of education prevail
Reproduction of social class through culture has puzzled social scientists especially in the Nordic, advanced welfare states where social equality has been the official policy of governments for most of the postwar period. In the following article, I adress this issue through the emotional experience of class that culminates in the weekend excess of youths and even the stret-racing scenes of Helsinki. Based on ethnographic fieldwork with eighteen to twenty-four-year-old male street racers of Helsinki, I argue that stagnant class locations build on stunted ambition and feelings of injustice. The cultural performances and camaraderie of these like-minded racers support these youths' public, carefree identities and subcultural careers. Instead of resisting exclusion, they conform to it, celebrating "a room of his own" where shared risk, craftsmanship, driving skill, and disregard of education prevail
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