‘Maybe Life Can Become Easier Because of My Good Grades’: Children’s Conflicting Repertoires on Aspirations and Life Chances

Imane Kostet, Noel Clycq and Gert Verschraegen
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Imane Kostet: University of Antwerp, Belgium
Noel Clycq: University of Antwerp, Belgium
Gert Verschraegen: University of Antwerp, Belgium

Sociological Research Online, 2021, vol. 26, issue 3, 581-600

Abstract: In this article, we draw on interviews with pupils aged 11–13 years, to analyse children’s aspirations, expectations of the future, and reasonings about social inequality in the context of an early tracking education system. We highlight the conflicting yet creative ways in which children make sense of inequality in relation to life chances. Although our child-respondents prefer structural explanations for inequality, they strategically draw on repertoires of individual social mobility to express their faith in personal agency and meritocracy. In doing so, these children use narratives of upwards mobility that have arisen in very different socio-economic and political contexts to make sense of inequality in their own locality.

Keywords: aspirations; children; cultural repertoires; meritocratic beliefs; social inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socres:v:26:y:2021:i:3:p:581-600

DOI: 10.1177/1360780420975417

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