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This book examines experiences and implications of ´against-the-grain´ school choices, where white middle class families choose ordinary and ´low performing´ secondary schools for their children. It offers a unique view of identity formation, taking in matters like family history, locality and whiteness.

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Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: The White Middle Classes in the Twenty-First Century - Identities Under Siege? 2. White Middle Class Identity Formation: Theory and Practice 3. Family History, Class Practices and Habitus 4. Habitus as a Sense of Place 5. Against-the-Grain School Choice in Neoliberal Times 6. A Darker Shade of Pale: Whiteness as Integral to Middle Class Identity 7. The Psychosocial: Ambivalences and Anxieties of Privilege 8. Young People and the Urban Comprehensive: Remaking Cosmopolitan Citizens or Reproducing Hegemonic White Middle Class 9. 9. Values? Reinvigorating Democracy: Middle Class Moralities in Neoliberal Times Conclusion: Appendix 1: Methods and Methodology Appendix 2: Parental Occupations and Sector Appendix 3: The Sample Families in Terms of ACORN Categories References

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Society for Education Studies Book Prize 2012 Winner - Runner-up

´The production of this beautifully crafted and important book adds to what we know of education policy in practice and brings complex and fresh evidence to the setting of school choice, class and lived social identity. This work will be a major reference point for sociological theory and policy in practice for some time to come.´ - Meg Maguire, Journal of Education Policy

´This book focuses on the persepctives of white middle-class parents who make ´against´-the-grain school choices for their children in urban England. It provides key insights into the dynamics of class practising that are played out in these choices and the multiple narratives and contexts that influence them.´ - Dympna Devine, British Journal of Sociology of Education

´This magnificent book...will command widespread interest.´ - Mike Savage, British Journal of Sociology of Education

´This book will be of interest to education and social policy researchers, sociologists, education professionals and indeed left-leaning white middle class parents.´ - Nicola Ingram, British Journal of Sociology of Education

´A thoughtful and very interesting analysis by a talented group of researchers.´ - Professor Annette Lareau, University of Pennsylvania, USA

´White Middle Class Identities and Urban Schooling is a very important book. Looking at class practices and habitus as linked to family and schooling, the authors unpack the ways in which choice of secondary school is increasingly linked to the forging of social structure. In so doing, they bring the ability of the middle class to erect boundaries both symbolically and geographically into a new era of social class construction, while instantiating increasingly widespread choice of secondary school for one´s children as a key and pivotal site for class formation and contestation. This is a ´must read´ for anyone interested in contemporary class formation.´ Professor Lois Weis, Graduate School of Education, University at Buffalo, USA

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