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Policy and Practice in the Classroom

Series Editors
Richard Race
School of Education
University of Roehampton
London, United Kingdom

Barbara Read
School of Education
University of Glasgow
Glasgow, United Kingdom

Alaster Scott Douglas

School of Education
University of Roehampton
London, United Kingdom
This series will publish monographs exploring issues to do with education
policy and practice in relation to classroom settings, with each book exam-
ining the implications of its research findings for educational policy and
practice. Themes explored include teaching and learning; youth identities;
inclusive education; education policy-making; de-schooling; student
teachers; the primary classroom; and science teachers. If you have a propo-
sal for the series you would like to discuss please contact: Eleanor Christie,
eleanor.christie@palgrave.com

More information about this series at

http://www.springer.com/series/14548
 Kate Hoskins

Youth Identities,
Education
and Employment
Exploring Post-16 and Post-18 Opportunities,
Access and Policy
Kate Hoskins
School of Education
University of Roehampton
London, United Kingdom

Policy and Practice in the Classroom

ISBN 978-1-137-35291-0 ISBN 978-1-137-35292-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-35292-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017940473

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

The author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identified as the author(s) of this work in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
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publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to
the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institu-
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The registered company address is: The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW,
United Kingdom
For my family: Damien, Zachary and Dylan
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to thank the Centre for Education
Research in Equalities, Policy and Pedagogy (CEREPP) for funding the
research project that informs this book. I would like to express my sincere
gratitude to Professor Gill Crozier and Professor Penny Jane Burke for
their support.
I would also like to thank my student and teacher participants at
Parkfield School for their generosity in giving up their precious time to
take part in my research. I am indebted to them.
Thanks also to Dr Barbara Read, Dr Alaster Douglas and Dr Richard
Race for commissioning and reading drafts of this work. They have been
incredibly patient and supportive throughout the process. Thanks also to
Dr Sue Smedley who provided extremely useful comments on drafts of this
work.
Finally, thanks must go to my family for their constant loving support.
Sincere thanks to Damien, Zachary and Dylan. You are wonderful!

vii
 CONTENTS

1 The Changing Landscape of Opportunity for Young People 1

Graduation, Graduation, Graduation 1
Themes of the Book 3
Economic, Social and Policy Context 3
The Empirical Study 5
Theoretical Framework 11
Researching Identity 15
Overview of Chapters 18
Concluding Remarks 20
Notes 20

2 The Changing Context of Further and Higher Education

and Youth Employment 23
Introduction 23
The Changing Policy Context in England: The Influence
of Neoliberalism 24
Neoliberalism and Further Education: Cuts to Financial Support 25
Neoliberalism and Higher Education: University Tuition Fees 28
The Widening Higher Education Participation Agenda 33
Higher Education Tuition Fees: The Situation in Greece
and Spain 36
Youth Un/Employment in England 39
Youth Un/Employment in Greece and Spain 42

ix
x CONTENTS

Concluding Remarks: The Changing Content of Further

Education, Higher Education and the Youth Employment Market 43
Note 45

3 Post-16 Educational Choices and Decision-Making:

The Role of Policy and Identity 47
Introduction 47
The Changing Further Education Policy Landscape: Removal
of EMA 49
Removal of EMA: The Teachers’ Perspectives 54
Gender and Post-16 Subject Choice: ‘Stats Is the Girlie Version
of Maths’ 59
Ethnicity and Post-16 Subject Choices 72
Concluding Remarks: Policy, Identity and Post-16 Pathways 76

4 Post-18 Educational Choices: ‘Our Students Need

to Avoid the easyJet Version of Universities’ 79
Introduction 79
Planning University: The Role of the School and Teachers 80
Planning to Attend an Elite University: Value for Money? 87
Planning University: Costs and Concerns 90
Planning University: Family Expectations and Influences 92
Planning University: Doing It for Yourself 94
Identity and University Courses 96
Concluding Remarks: Choosing University: Widening
Participation and Social Justice Concerns 104
Note 107

5 Alternative Possibilities and Pathways: Youth Employment

and Apprenticeships in a Graduate World 109
Introduction 109
Employment Plans: Precarity and Uncertainty 110
Accessing Employment: Bonding and Bridging Social Capital 116
Narrowing of Post-18 Options: The Teachers’ Perceptions
of Non-graduate Employment Possibilities and Pathways 116
Apprenticeships 121
Concluding Remarks: The Need for an Alternative Vision
of Education 123
 CONTENTS xi

6 The Contemporary Context of Youth Participation

and Identities: Challenging the Status Quo 125
Introduction 125
Post-16 and Post-18 Pathways – The Enduring Influence
of Identity 126
Post-16 and Post-18 Pathways – The Role of Parents and Teachers 131
Youth Un/Employment 132
The Potential of a Multi-dimensional Social Justice Approach
to Equalise Youth Opportunities 133

Bibliography 137

Index 155
 LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1 Student participant demographic table 8

Table 1.2 Teacher participant demographic table 11
Table 4.1 Application rate (to March deadline) of 18-year-olds
domiciled in England 86

xiii
 CHAPTER 1

The Changing Landscape of Opportunity

for Young People

At a recent family gathering, my 17-year-old nephew and I spent a lot of

time talking about his plans for the coming year. His exams were looming,
followed by an anxious wait for the results and important and economic-
ally loaded decisions about which higher education course to pursue. The
pressure he was experiencing to make the grade was clear to all the family
and no amount of time spent studying could relieve the strain, such was
the weight of expectation. His experiences are not uncommon; according
to research, pressure to achieve exam and university participation has
become the norm for 17–18-year-olds (Hoskins and Barker 2014;
Brown et al. 2011; Stobart 2008).

GRADUATION, GRADUATION, GRADUATION1

A review of graduate employment rates in England reflects the relative
benefits experienced by graduates. According to the Labour Force
Survey (2013) since 1992 the number of graduates has increased from
17% to 38%. In 1992 the graduate unemployment rate was 10% and in
2013 had fallen to 9%. The non-graduate unemployment rate was 13% in
1992 and had increased to just over 14% by 2013. Additionally, in 2013,
the graduate employment rate stood at 87% and ‘graduates were much
more likely to work in high skill jobs than non-graduates’ (Labour Force

© The Author(s) 2017 1

K. Hoskins, Youth Identities, Education and Employment,
Policy and Practice in the Classroom,
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-35292-7_1
2 1 THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

Survey 2013: 13). These figures illustrate the relative employment

advantages experienced by graduates compared with non-graduates.
Indeed, in 2013 the Skills and Employment Survey found that degree-
level jobs have overtaken jobs that require no formal qualifications
(Coughlan 2013). But why has there been such an increase in graduate
employment? Changes in the labour market, particularly the credentialisa-
tion of work, have played a central role in driving the expansion of higher
education so that the volume of suitably skilled young people will match
national and global workforce demands. Blue-collar,2 white-collar and
vocational jobs that might have required vocational qualifications in the
1980s and 1990s now require graduate educated employees, for example,
administrative office workers, shop workers and childcare professionals
(Ainley and Allen 2010). The increased pressure for young people to
gain a degree has raised questions about who can study, where they can
study and the sort of courses they should pursue to maximise their
graduate employability potential.
Yet opportunities and outcomes for young people are unequal
and complexly shaped by identity, geography and policy. Those from
working-class backgrounds are still more likely to pursue blue-collar or
vocational employment whilst middle-class young people tend to pur-
sue white-collar or professional employment (Crozier et al. 2010).
Gender still exerts a considerable impact on forms of work, working
patterns and earning opportunities (Devine 2004; McDowell 2011).
Ethnicity similarly influences education and employment possibilities
and outcomes for many young people (Wadsworth et al. 2007). Thus,
not all young people are equally positioned to access higher education
or employment opportunities upon leaving school or further education
aged 16, despite numerous widening participation policy initiatives
aimed at improving inclusive education opportunities for all, but par-
ticularly non-traditional students.3
An additional pressure facing young people pursuing further and higher
education is meeting the associated costs. The removal of the Educational
Maintenance Allowance (EMA) for 16–17-year-olds in England has
impacted on some young people’s opportunities to participate in further
education (McCrone et al. 2010). In terms of higher education, since
2010, undergraduates in England could expect to pay up to £9,000 in
annual course tuition fees. Whilst not all degrees lead to commensurate
salaries and employment status, all undergraduate degree courses cost
approximately the same amount in annual tuition fees (Wilkins et al.
 ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND POLICY CONTEXT 3

2013). The expectations for young people to take on high levels of

personal debt from the age of 18 has contributed to the stress and pressure
experienced by many.

THEMES OF THE BOOK

The social context influencing young people’s post-16 choices is influ-
enced by national education and employment policies alongside more
individualised factors including social identity and family background.
Thus, the central aims of this book are to investigate how policy, family
background, social class, gender and ethnicity influence young people’s
post-16 and post-18 employment and education access and opportunities.
I draw on existing literature alongside empirical data gathered for a small,
qualitative semi-structured interview study with 22 young people in a case
study state secondary school, to explore how policy changes to the finan-
cial arrangements for further and higher education and the changing
youth employment landscape have impacted on young people’s choices
and pathways. I then explore how certain social identities provide some
young people with the skills, knowledge and confidence required to
navigate the current context of uncertainty and risk to achieve more secure
education and employment outcomes. I investigate if/whether young
people from more economically and culturally disadvantaged backgrounds
are disproportionately affected by recent policy and economy changes. In
Chapters 2 and 6 of the book, I provide comparative discussion of the
influence of ongoing financial crises on young people located in other
European Union countries – Greece and Spain – as these countries have
experienced similar pressures on their further and higher education sys-
tems and have high levels of youth unemployment.
In the remainder of this introductory chapter I outline the economic,
social and policy context of the book, introduce the empirical work under-
pinning the book and outline my theoretical and conceptual approach
before finally outlining the chapters to follow.

ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND POLICY CONTEXT

Since the spectacular failure of the financial markets in 2007 in the
global north, austerity has been the maxim of governments around the
world as they attempt to limit the effects of prolonged recession. Times
are tough, particularly for young people considering higher education
4 1 THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

or seeking employment. In 2012, England’s Conservative and Liberal

Democrat Coalition government implemented several radical changes
to the funding arrangements for further and higher education, which
included cutting ‘most ongoing direct public funding for tuition’
(House of Commons Library 2016: 2) and increasing undergraduate
university tuition fees from a maximum of £3,290 per annum to a
maximum of £9,000 per annum. The government’s intention was that
fees over £6,000 would be the exception rather than the norm.
However, the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) figures for 2012/13
indicate that ‘91 of 124 universities with access agreements will charge
£9,000 for at least one course, and 42 will charge this figure as
standard’ (Office for Fair Access (OFFA) 2014: 1). Despite significant
earning differences between forms of work, all undergraduate courses
cost approximately the same.
Owing to the Coalition government’s decision in 2010 to remove the
£30 per week EMA in England available to teenagers from low-income
families (defined as those families earning less than £30,810 p.a.), it
became more expensive to participate in further education between the
age of 16 and 18. Although contentious because of the differing views
about the equity of EMA allocation and concerns about how the money
was spent by some young people (McCrone et al. 2010), the EMA did
give the opportunity for many young people from disadvantaged back-
grounds to participate in further education (Chowdry et al. 2008). These
changes to the funding available for further and higher education were
deemed necessary by the Coalition government because of the wider
context of fiscal contraction as a consequence of the global recession of
2008/2009 and the repercussions of this period of extreme austerity
(Dorling 2014).
Policy changes to the financial structures underpinning further and
higher education are not the only consequence of the global recession.
Youth unemployment reached record highs in the period since 2007
across much of Europe and America and has contributed to a period of
intense uncertainty for young people (Dorling 2014). In England, the
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2010: 1 in Elliott 2010: 1) figures
show that

the number of 16- to 24-year-olds out of work increased by 28,000 to

9,43,000, one of the highest figures since records began in 1992, giving a
youth jobless rate of 19.8%.
 THE EMPIRICAL STUDY 5

Even those with degree-level qualifications have encountered problems

with obtaining graduate employment; in 2010/11, the graduate employ-
ment rate in England was 62% (HESA, Higher Education Statistics
Agency (HESA) 2012: 1). The ONS (2012: 5 in Osborne 2012: 1)
reported that the rate of unemployment for new graduates in England
was 18.9% in the final quarter of 2011. Although this figure is down from
20.7% in early 2010, it is more than four times the number for those
graduating in 2004–2005. This unemployment rate has contributed to a
situation in England where ‘25% of 21-year-olds who left university with a
degree in 2011 were unemployed compared with 26% of 16-year-olds
with GCSEs’ (Osborne 2012: 1).
Similarly, in Spain, the global recession has had a significant impact
on youth unemployment and it reached 50% among 15–29-year-olds
during the spring of 2013 (Buck 2014). It is difficult to disaggregate
the graduate and non-graduate unemployment rates in Spain, but at
present, the youth unemployment rate in Spain is closer to 55% and
rising (Buck 2014). Indeed, the youth unemployment rate in Spain is
currently only second in the European Union to Greece, which
recently reported that 62.9% of its young people were out of work
(Burgen 2013).
In England, Spain and Greece, high youth unemployment has raised
questions about the market value of a degree for securing employment in
some sectors of the economy. The graduate employment rate raises ques-
tions about the viability of higher education, particularly in the generally
less economically rewarding disciplines of social science, arts and huma-
nities. In the current highly competitive employment market the intrinsic
value of participating in education is impacted by the costs associated with
gaining a degree. This issue is explored more fully in Chapter 5.

THE EMPIRICAL STUDY

Alongside reviewing existing research exploring youth employment and
education possibilities and opportunities in England, Spain and Greece,
I carried out qualitative research in one case study state school, which
I have renamed Parkfield School. The inclusion of empirical data has
enabled me to explore how young peoples’ identities influence their
post-16 and post-18 choices and pathways in complex and situated ways.
The research involved semi-structured focus groups with 22 young
6 1 THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

people, aged between 15 and 16 years. The following research questions

guided the content and focus of the semi-structured interviews:

1. How have aspects of the participants’ gender, social class and ethni-
city influenced their decisions about their post-16 and post-18
pathways?
2. How are the participants’ choices and experiences influenced by the
impact of cuts to EMA and the increase in university tuition fees?
3. How are the participants’ plans for their post-16 and post-18 path-
ways influenced by the current employment context?
4. How does the research cohort decide upon their post-16 and post-
18 pathways given the resources and support available to them from
their parents and teachers?

The themes of the book are addressed through analysis and discussion of
this empirical research alongside existing research. I also draw on
Bourdieu’s (1977) theoretical framework of habitus and field and Berger
and Luckmann (1966) theory of social constructionism, to analyse and
make sense of the young people’s stories about their post-16 plans.
In what follows, I briefly summarise the study design to provide context
and background information for the reader. The empirical research data
presented in the book was collected for a Centre for Educational Research
in Equalities, Policy and Pedagogy (CEREPP)-funded research project at
the University of Roehampton. In 2012–2013 I conducted in-depth semi-
structured focus groups with a group of 22 15–16-year-old students from
varied social-class and minority-ethnic backgrounds in one case study co-
educational state secondary academy school. The students were identified
with the help of the Head of Post-16 Study, who was fully briefed on the
aims of the project and the requirement for a diverse sample in terms of
social identity. The Head of Post 16 Study was aware that the research
aimed to explore the impact that changes to the financial arrangements for
further and higher education and widespread youth unemployment have
had on a small group of young people as they embark on their post-16
pathways.
The Head of Post 16 Study assisted me with locating potential partici-
pants for the study through a combination of purposive and convenience
sampling. Flyers were put up in the sixth form common room requesting
that potential participants contact me to express their interest. From the
42 young people who were interested in taking part in the project, I
 THE EMPIRICAL STUDY 7

selected 22 with the help of the Head of Post 16 Study who was aware of
the class, ethnic and gender balance I was hoping to achieve. However,
despite these best efforts to construct a purposive sample, which included
extensive email and telephone correspondence to confirm the dates and
times for the focus groups, on the day, there were 18 girls and 4 boys. The
gender skew was a result of several boys being unavailable at the last
minute because of change in timetable for a big sporting tournament. I
was unable to rearrange the date due to imminent examinations. The
challenges of constructing a diverse sample highlighted the problematic
nature of field research where even the best and most secure plans can be
disrupted by the demands of a school’s priorities.
The demographics of the locality in terms of population are typical for
the selected London suburb and reflect some of the diversity of the city in
social class and ethnicity terms. The suburbs of London, or outer London
as they are sometimes referred to, are geographically quite different from
inner London. The suburbs tend to have more space in terms of housing,
outside community spaces such as parks and woodland, and more spacious
town centres (Watt 2009). There is less traffic in the suburbs of London
compared with central London, lower rates of crime and fewer concentra-
tions of economic and social disadvantage (Watt 2009).
The 22 participants who participated in the case study are from varied
social class and minority-ethnic backgrounds. The following table provides
summary demographic information about the participants (Table 1.1):
Despite the initial challenges and changes, the sample has provided
diversity in terms of class, gender and ethnicity to yield data that reflects
a range of perspectives and helped me to explore how social class, gender
and ethnicity have shaped the participants’ future plans.
I selected the case study school carefully. I wanted to locate an
‘ordinary’ school, that is a school in the middle of the league tables,4
although I was aware of how problematic this would be to achieve. As
Maguire et al. (Maguire et al. 2011: 14) note ‘it is possible to identify
schools and for schools to be identified as “ordinary”. But no school
can possibly embrace this description for itself’ in performative times.
The school is located in a leafy London suburb that encompasses a
diverse range of ethnic and social class groups. The school’s Office for
Standards in Education (Ofsted) report describes it as good with some
outstanding features, and the A*-C GCSE5 pass rate tends to be
around 75/76% and with the high-status subjects of mathematics and
English included the pass rate is around 56/57%. The free school meals
 8

Table 1.1 Student participant demographic table

Pseudonym and Social class background (as Gender Ethnicity Planned next steps Course at
focus group articulated by participants university

Ann – focus Working class Female Black African- University Clinical

group 3 Caribbean Psychology
Claire – focus Working class Female White Irish University Not specified
group 2
Georgia – focus Working class Female White British Unsure N/A
group 1
Jen – focus Working class/middle class Female White British University Sociology
group 5
Jodie – focus Working class Female White British University Teaching
group 3
Kim – focus Working class Female Chinese University English
group 4 language
Teacher
Paul – focus Working class/middle class Male White British University Not specified
group 5
Sian – focus Working class Female White British Unsure, potentially N/A
group 1 employment
Adele – focus Middle class Female Black African- University Medicine
group 3 Caribbean
Adrian – focus Middle class Male White British Russell Group university Maths
group 4
Beth – focus Middle class Female White British Russell Group university Psychology
1 THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

group 4
Claudia – focus Middle class Female White British Russell Group university Anthropology
group 4
Gemma – focus Middle class Female White British University Childhood
group 1 studies
Julie – focus Middle class Female White British University Teaching
group 2
Laura – focus Middle class Female White British University Teaching
group 3
Paresh – focus Middle class Female Indian University Sociology
group 1
Sandra – focus Middle class Female White British University Sociology/
group 3 Teaching
Stephanie – Middle class Female White British Unsure, probably N/A
focus group 1 employment
Susie – focus Middle class Female White British University Social work
group 2
Tim – focus Middle class Male White British Russell Group university Biochemistry
group 4
Jamal – focus Unsure Male Pakistani University Probably
group 2 economics
Holly – focus Unsure/probably middle class Female White British Unsure, maybe University N/A
group 2 but highly unlikely
THE EMPIRICAL STUDY
9
10 1 THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

(FSM)6 rate is 14.8% compared with the borough7 average of 18.6%, so

the uptake is in the lower band. The school prioritises academic post-
16 pathways with 21 A-level subjects and just one BTEC on offer. The
school has recently gained academy8 status, although the Head Teacher
told me that he had felt pressurised to convert to benefit from the
financial incentives associated with being an academy school in
England.
Turning now to the project design, I decided to take a singular case
study approach, where the school is taken as the ‘bounded unit’ of analysis
and to gather ‘rich data’ using interviews and focus groups to explore the
complex and situated experiences of the participants (Hamilton and
Corbett-Whittier 2013: 11). I used a theory seeking and theory-testing
case study, with the intention of producing ‘a fuzzy generalisation – or
proposition – which shows how the discovery may apply more widely’
(Bassey 1999: 47). The strength of case studies comes from their attention
to the subtlety and complexity of the case in its own right. I acknowledge
that single case studies may ‘limit what generalizations you are able to
make’ (Beare et al. 1989: 14) but argue that such research provides ‘access
to events or groups that are otherwise inaccessible to scientific investiga-
tion’ (Yin 1994: 88).
The data was gathered during two intense, but short, periods of time with
a six-month gap between the first and the second focus groups with the
participants. I have used the case study approach to uncover some of the
situated impacts of recent further and higher policy change as they are
experienced by a small, diverse group of students, to explore how social
identity and policy shapes young people’s choices and pathways (Yin 1994).
The research complied with the ethical protocols set out by the
University of Roehampton’s code of practice and requirements; the
British Education Research Association (BERA) (British Educational
Research Association (BERA) 2011) revised ethical guidelines and the
British Sociological Association (BSA) (2002) ethical guidelines.
I used a qualitative methodology and method to gather the partici-
pants’ views. I conducted in-depth semi-structured, audio-recorded focus
groups, which lasted approximately 1 hour, with 22 15–16-year-old stu-
dents. The students were mainly interviewed in focus groups of 5. I had
hoped all the focus groups would have four or five participants; however,
because of timing issues on the fieldwork days, there was one group with
two participants. The audio recordings were fully transcribed and ana-
lysed. Data coding was thematic and followed the Strauss and Corbin’s
 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 11

Table 1.2 Teacher participant demographic table

Name Job title Gender Ethnicity

Chloe Year 12/Post-16 Teacher Female White British

Emily Head of Post-16 Study Sociology Female White British
Julia Year 12/Post-16 Teacher Female White Irish
Maria Year 12/Post-16 Teacher Female White British
Daniel Year 12/Post-16 Teacher Male White British
Jasper Year 12/Post-16 Teacher Male White British
John Head of Post-16 Study Male White British

(Strauss and Corbin 1990: 61) approach of open coding where the aim is
to ‘break down, examine, compare, conceptualise and categorise data’.
The coding process was followed by the construction of thematic cate-
gories related to addressing my research questions.
The focus groups explored the participants’ plans and aspirations for
their post-16 pathways. I asked them about whether they intended to
apply for further and higher education or employment. They were asked
to explain the motivations and factors informing their plans for the future
and I particularly probed the role of the school and the role of the family in
shaping and influencing these plans. The focus groups benefited from
‘interaction found in a group’ (Morgan 1988: 12), which was particularly
useful for facilitating my attempt to ‘stimulate people in making explicit
their views, perceptions, motives and reasons’ (Punch 2009: 147). Thus,
the semi-structured focus groups disrupted, to some extent, the power
dynamics within the research process, as the participants had opportunities
to define and direct some of the information they chose to share.
Finally, I also carried out eight in-depth semi-structured interviews with
teachers and senior leaders in the school. The semi-structured nature of
the interviews was useful for gathering rich, detailed and descriptive data.
The teachers also provided further insights into the factors informing the
participants’ plans for the future (Table 1.2).

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
To understand and analyse the participants’ stories, I used Bourdieu’s
(1977) theory of habitus, field and cultural capital to frame the project
design and data analysis. I utilised a social constructionist approach to the
12 1 THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

data collection and analysis to problematise constructions of gender in my

participants’ experiences, for example, any gendered educational pathways
and career aspirations. Finally, I make reference to Putnam’s (2000)
theory of social capital to understand the role of bonding and bridging
capital. This blend of theory enabled me to explore the tensions between
structure and agency in the data.
Habitus refers to ‘a system of durable, transposable dispositions which
functions as the generative basis of structured, objectively unified prac-
tices’ (Bourdieu and Passeron 1977, vii). The term characterises the
recurring patterns of social class, social mobility and class fractions – that
is the beliefs, values, conduct, speech, dress and manners – that are
inculcated by everyday experiences within the family, particularly in early
childhood (Mills 2008). These classed patterns are formed of individual
and shared group dispositions.
The dispositions (capacities, tendencies, propensities or inclinations)
that constitute habitus are acquired through a gradual process of inculca-
tion in early childhood and thus habitus is a complex formulation of past
and present (Hoskins and Barker 2014). The dispositions that individuals
acquire are also structured in the sense that they reflect the social condi-
tions within which they were acquired. An individual brought up in a
working-class family, for instance, will have acquired dispositions which
are different in certain respects from those acquired by individuals who
were brought up in a middle-class family (Thomas 2001). The process of
exploring habitus can illuminate a family’s ‘durable dispositions’ and it is
the dispositions that an individual acquires via familial socialisation that
become, according to Bourdieu (1977) embodied, acting as markers, or
signifiers, of the habitus, which can in turn illuminate an individual’s social
class location.
Bourdieu’s (1977) concept of habitus provides a useful framework for
interpreting the impacts of different ‘fields’, including familial, school and
higher education institutions on the individual (see, e.g., Reay et al.
2010). Habitus is dynamic and interconnected to the field. A field consists
of ‘a set of objective, historical relations between positions anchored in
certain forms of power (or capital)’ (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992: 227).
Exploring how field and habitus influence young people’s choices is useful
as it enabled me to theorise how the fields of my participants’ family and
school shaped their pathways, sometimes providing them with an alter-
native course of action which moves them beyond the ‘practical sense that
inclines agents to act and react in specific situations’ (Bourdieu 1993: 5).
 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 13

Drawing on the work of Reay et al. (Reay et al. 2010: 116) I examine the
process of reconciliation ‘of the disjuncture between working-class back-
ground and academic dispositions’.
The natural familiarity of the schooling system experienced by some
young people contrasts with the persistent disconnect experienced by
many others. These differences according to Bourdieu (1977) relate to
the alignment, or not, of habitus and field between an individual and the
school, an alignment made possible by the possession of reified and
valued dispositions and forms of cultural capital. It is knowledge of the
unconscious codes underpinning the education system, which facilitates
space for shared values between the individual and the social structure of
schooling. Bourdieu (1977) has argued that the culture of the dominant
group – that is, the group that controls the economic, social and political
resources – is embodied in schools. Educational institutions ensure the
profitability of the cultural capital of the dominant group, attesting to
their gifts and merits. Educational differences are frequently misrecog-
nised as resulting from individual giftedness rather than from class-based,
structural differences. This ignores the ways that the abilities measured
by scholastic criteria often stem not from natural ‘gifts’ but from ‘the
greater or lesser affinity between class cultural habits and the demands of
the educational system or the criteria which define success within it’
(Bourdieu and Passeron 1977, 22). Exploring the participants’ habitus
is a significant way to understand the different family backgrounds,
values and beliefs they have experienced.
Despite its uses, habitus is a widely contested concept (James 2015;
Reay 2004; Hey 2003; Nash 1999; Tooley and Darby 1998) and there
are limitations involved with deploying habitus theory. In earlier work
(Hoskins and Barker 2016) we identified three key criticisms, but there
are others. The first criticism is the extent to which habitus is agentic
as opposed to structural and deterministic. Mills argues that ‘it is ironic
that habitus has been subject to widespread criticism on the basis of its
latent determinism’ (Mills 2008: 80). However, it remains the case
that a recurring criticism of habitus is its perceived potential for
determinism (Calhoun et al. 1993). I have chosen to follow Nash
(1999: 76), who asserts that ‘habitus provides the grounds for agency,
within a limited arena of choice, and thus is a theoretical escape from
structuralist determinism’. As such, throughout this book I provide an
agentic reading of habitus where individuals were able to transform
their lives.
14 1 THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

Second, ‘habitus theory cannot satisfactorily account for anomalies in

choice making processes reported by participants whose stories are not
straightforward examples of social reproduction’ (Hoskins and Barker
2016: 6). For this reason, I decided to adopt a multi-theoretical
approach to this research that not only drew on habitus, but also the
concepts of cultural capital and social constructionism, to provide a
detailed and critical analysis of why and how young people make choices
about their lives.
The final limitation relates to Bourdieu’s fluid definitions of his key
concepts, for example, the term ‘dispositions’. As Jenkins (1992: 76)
notes, dispositions ‘might be no more than “attitudes”, and indeed have
often been understood as such’; thus, using habitus is problematised by
the variants of definitions deployed (James 2015). I have attempted to
address the slippage in definitions by providing clearly articulated and
exemplified descriptions of habitus, field and cultural capital and drawing
on these descriptions in the data analysis process. Whilst there are key
limitations associated with drawing on habitus theory, it is arguably suffi-
ciently useful in allowing me to explore and offer discussion of the impact
it has had in my respondents’ education pathways.
I have also used Berger and Luckmann (1966) theoretical concept of
social constructionism to understand how the young people construct
and maintain particular versions of their gender, class and ethnic iden-
tities. I have used social constructionism as the methodological
approach to gathering and analysing the data, following the key tenets
of the theory, as highlighted by Burr (2003: 2–4). Burr contends that
social constructionism requires ‘a critical stance toward taken-for-
granted knowledge’, that is, to problematise and critique the familiar.
Second, Burr argues that there is the need to acknowledge ‘historical
and cultural specificity’. Third, Burr states it is important to take the
view that ‘knowledge is sustained by social processes’. Social scientists
need to problematise and take a critical stance towards the socially
constructed nature of, for example, the interview process. Fourth,
‘knowledge and social action go together’ – that is, knowledge can
enable social change and change is a key aspect of the feminist project,
which is a key aspect of my approach.
Utilising a social constructionist approach has allowed me to explore
the influence of gender in my participants’ perceptions and experiences of
school and, for example, the gendered nature of their subject choices and
career aspirations. Taking a social constructionist approach also enabled
 RESEARCHING IDENTITY 15

me to be self-reflexive and question the data I have gathered; nothing was

taken as objective and this allowed me to bring a level of criticality to the
data analysis and meaning-making process. Such an approach enabled me
to use the results of the data to undermine assumptions about the world,
for example, the idea that a person’s success is only down to individual
factors rather than structural and identity factors.
Finally, I make reference to social capital theory to understand how the
participants draw on bonding and bridging capital to assist with their post-
16 choices (Putnam 2000). According to Coleman (1994: 300) social
capital is inherent ‘in family relations and in community social organisa-
tions’. Putnam (1995: 66 in Phillips 2010: 493) identifies social capital as
‘the features of social life networks, norms and trust’ and highlights the
importance of the reciprocal relationships existing within networks. In a
subsequent work, he identifies two aspects of social capital, namely its
potential for bonding and bridging (Putnam 2000). Bonding networks
entail close ties with friends and family and provide support, whereas
bridging networks have weaker ties, but are outward-looking and include
contacts from diverse social backgrounds. In this research, bonding and
bridging capital (Putnam 2000) are recognised together with the impor-
tance of close relationships within networks, as evident in Coleman’s
attention to the social capital provided by family relations where the
close relationship between parent and child has the potential to influence
a child’s educational achievement (Coleman 1988). In using Putnam’s
definition I am drawing on a conservative and communitarian way of
conceptualising social capital. However, despite this potential limitation,
I have found bonding and bridging capital of value to explore if and how
those participants seeking employment rather than university at age 18
benefit from access to bonding and bridging networks.

RESEARCHING IDENTITY
One aim of this book is to examine the influence of aspects of identity on
the participants’ post-16 decision-making process. The aspects of identity
I focus on are social class, gender and ethnicity. In what follows, each of
these is discussed.
There is much evidence that has consistently shown young people from
a working-class background are more likely to end up in lower status
employment compared with their typically more educationally successful
middle-class peers (Gewirtz 2001; Archer et al. 2007; Allen 2014;
16 1 THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

Mendick et al. 2015). Professional, managerial and skilled occupations

and careers are typically the preserve of the middle classes whilst service,
vocational, semi-skilled and unskilled forms of employment remain the
domain of many of the working class (Hoskins and Barker 2014). The
educationally successful working-class student disrupts such generalisa-
tions, but these discrepant cases are often little more than that. Indeed,
they can be understood in Reay’s (1997: 20) terms as ‘the tokenistic edge
of elitist policies’, which legitimate policy makers’ focus on individualistic
outcomes for all, where structural inequality pales into insignificance when
held up to the transformative power of individual agency.
Ethnicity has similarly been shown to have a determining effect on
individuals from particular minority ethnic backgrounds. These effects
are articulated in terms of racial stereotypes such as the hard working,
academic south Asian student (Francis et al. 2010), the less able and less
academic African-Caribbean student (Mirza 2009) and the compliant, shy
and marginalised Indian and Pakistani student (Archer et al. 2010). These
stereotypes have powerful consequences in terms of the ways that policy
makers, educators, families and young people are positioned and position
themselves in relation to educational, economic and employment possibi-
lities for their future lives. The impact of ethnicity on the individual is
keenly felt (Mirza 2009) yet arguably can seem to be overlooked or
ignored amidst discourses that emphasise zero tolerance to racial abuse.
That very zero tolerance approach to racism can silence discussions on
lingering racialised inequalities experienced by minority ethnic groups and
thus reinforce the regimes and effects of inequality, prejudice and social
injustice. It is important, therefore, to have the language/discourses to
talk about ethnicity (and gender and social class for that matter) in ways
that are constructive rather than leaving people open to accusations of
prejudice.
Gender has also been shown to have durable and demarcated effects on
many young people’s educational achievement from an early age (Skelton
and Francis 2009). Francis (2000) has shown that gender has conse-
quences on the subject choices young people make, the forms of assess-
ment they prefer and the sort of career pathway they decide to follow.
Others have similarly found that young people have a strong sense of their
educational gender identity and this guides their choices and pathways
(see, e.g., Leatz 1993; Acker 1994; Arnot 2008). Whilst there are disrup-
tions to this somewhat essentialising projection, these again are few and
are more likely to be experienced by a young person who has a more
 RESEARCHING IDENTITY 17

privileged class and ethnic identity. Despite numerous reforms and policy
initiatives in the UK as elsewhere, for example, Women into Science and
Mathematics (WISE), and drives to get more boys to read (Weiner 1985),
gender positions and subject choices remain entrenched as binary and are
repeatedly taken up and maintained in this way across all levels of school-
ing and education, from early childhood through to adulthood.
Taken together and drawing on an intersectional approach (Brah and
Phoenix 2004), these aspects of identity form complex subjectivities and
positions from which young people attempt to navigate their education and
make plans for the future. An intersectional approach towards understand-
ing identity is useful and opens up spaces to move beyond one-dimensional
forms of analysis. But analysing and theorising the operation of intersec-
tional identity is also a complex, contradictory, ambiguous and often unsa-
tisfactory process. For example, how can a young woman, from a
marginalised ‘deficit’ minority ethnic background with limited economic
capital, disrupt powerful external positioning to achieve educational and
later economic success? What would success for her look like? How could
her success be replicated through social and educational policy to form a
strategic and more widespread approach to challenging the power of iden-
tity stereotypes to formulate different, more successful outcomes? To pro-
vide an intersectional analysis, I take the view that identities are complicated,
contradictory, culturally imbued, politically and economically inflected, and
historically specific. Exploring an individual’s identity reveals how social
class, gender and ethnicity overlap, conflict and merge, creating, at parti-
cular moments, situated and contextualised intersections. Identities are not
fixed; they alter over time, and in different spaces, as people construct and
reconstruct their social realities resulting from the complex interplay
between opportunity and experience. Hall (1990: 222) contends that:

Identities are not as transparent and unproblematic as we think. Perhaps

instead of thinking of identity as an already accomplished fact, which the
new cultural practices then represent, we should think, instead, of identity as
a production, which is never complete, always in process.

Viewing identity as a production and process that is changing, unstable,

incomplete and fragmentary has enabled me to examine the relationships
between class, gender and ethnicity in the participants’ stories and in my
analysis of literature exploring youth access and outcomes in education and
employment. Analysing the intersections between class, gender and ethnicity
18 1 THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

has provided an understanding of the participants’ educational experiences

and how the nuances of their identity has shaped their pathways.
I draw on the framework of intersectionality to consider the historical
specificity of multiple axes of differentiations and the effects of the inter-
twined nature of different strands of identity. I adopt the approach that
the intersections between class, gender and race ‘are simultaneously sub-
jective, structural and about social positioning and everyday practices’
(Brah and Phoenix 2004: 75). In taking this approach, I aim to illustrate
the complexity of class, gender and ethnicity, as they appear in the parti-
cipants’ discussions of their plans for their education and employment and
in relation to the literature discussed in Chapter 2.

OVERVIEW OF CHAPTERS
The chapters of the book are structured to reflect the research process.
I begin by taking the reader through the theoretical and research
process before presenting the data analysis. The chapters are structured
as follows:

Chapter 2 – The Changing Context of Further and Higher Education

and Youth Employment
Chapter 2 examines two areas of policy change: first, the impact of cuts to
EMA; second, the impact of the increase in university tuition fees.
Chapter 2 compares the university top-up policy in England to the higher
education fee situation in Greece and Spain to explore the parallels of these
countries with the English context. The chapter also considers the current
youth employment context facing the participants and again makes links
to Greece and Spain, as these countries are all experiencing high levels of
youth unemployment (Nölke 2016; McCann 2010).

Chapter 3 – Post-16 Educational Choices and Decision-Making:

Opportunities and Challenges
Chapter 3 explores how recent policy changes to further education policy
(detailed in Chapter 2) have influenced young people’s decisions about
their post-16 pathways. The chapter also investigates how social class,
gender and ethnicity have influenced the participants’ post-16 decisions
for their next steps. The chapter draws on the concepts of habitus and field
Another random document with
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 FOOTNOTES:
[5] Atlantic Monthly, August, 1894.
 V
PHASES OF STATE LEGISLATION[6]

THE ALBANY LEGISLATURE.

Few persons realize the magnitude of the interests affected by
State legislation in New York. It is no mere figure of speech to call
New York the Empire State; and many of the laws most directly and
immediately affecting the interests of its citizens are passed at
Albany, and not at Washington. In fact, there is at Albany a little
home rule parliament which presides over the destinies of a
commonwealth more populous than any one of two thirds of the
kingdoms of Europe, and one which, in point of wealth, material
prosperity, variety of interests, extent of territory, and capacity for
expansion, can fairly be said to rank next to the powers of the first
class. This little parliament, composed of one hundred and twenty-
eight members in the Assembly and thirty-two in the Senate, is, in
the fullest sense of the term, a representative body; there is hardly
one of the many and widely diversified interests of the State that has
not a mouthpiece at Albany, and hardly a single class of its citizens—
not even excepting, I regret to say, the criminal class—which lacks
its representative among the legislators. In the three Legislatures of
which I have been a member, I have sat with bankers and
bricklayers, with merchants and mechanics, with lawyers, farmers,
day-laborers, saloonkeepers, clergymen, and prize-fighters. Among
my colleagues there were many very good men; there was a still
more numerous class of men who were neither very good nor very
bad, but went one way or the other, according to the strength of the
various conflicting influences acting around, behind, and upon them;
and, finally, there were many very bad men. Still, the New York
Legislature, taken as a whole, is by no means as bad a body as we
would be led to believe if our judgment was based purely on what we
read in the great metropolitan papers; for the custom of the latter is
to portray things as either very much better or very much worse than
they are. Where a number of men, many of them poor, some of them
unscrupulous, and others elected by constituents too ignorant to hold
them to a proper accountability for their actions, are put into a
position of great temporary power, where they are called to take
action upon questions affecting the welfare of large corporations and
wealthy private individuals, the chances for corruption are always
great; and that there is much viciousness and political dishonesty,
much moral cowardice, and a good deal of actual bribe-taking in
Albany, no one who has had any practical experience of legislation
can doubt; but, at the same time, I think that the good members
generally outnumber the bad, and that there is not often doubt as to
the result when a naked question of right or wrong can be placed
clearly and in its true light before the Legislature. The trouble is that
on many questions the Legislature never does have the right and
wrong clearly shown it. Either some bold, clever parliamentary
tactician snaps the measure through before the members are aware
of its nature, or else the obnoxious features are so combined with
good ones as to procure the support of a certain proportion of that
large class of men whose intentions are excellent, but whose
intellects are foggy. Or else the necessary party organization, which
we call the “machine,” uses its great power for some definite evil
aim.

THE CHARACTER OF THE REPRESENTATIONS.

The representatives from different sections of the State differ
widely in character. Those from the country districts are generally
very good men. They are usually well-to-do farmers, small lawyers,
or prosperous store-keepers, and are shrewd, quiet, and honest.
They are often narrow-minded and slow to receive an idea; but, on
the other hand, when they get a good one, they cling to it with the
utmost tenacity. They form very much the most valuable class of
legislators. For the most part they are native Americans, and those
who are not are men who have become completely Americanized in
all their ways and habits of thought. One of the most useful members
of the last Legislature was a German from a western county, and the
extent of his Americanization can be judged from the fact that he
was actually an ardent prohibitionist: certainly no one who knows
Teutonic human nature will require further proof. Again, I sat for an
entire session beside a very intelligent member from northern New
York before I discovered that he was an Irishman: all his views of
legislation, even upon such subjects as free schools and the
impropriety of making appropriations from the treasury for the
support of sectarian institutions, were precisely similar to those of his
Protestant-American neighbors, though he was himself a Catholic.
Now a German or an Irishman from one of the great cities would
probably have retained many of his national peculiarities.
It is from these same great cities that the worst legislators come. It
is true that there are always among them a few cultivated and
scholarly men who are well educated, and who stand on a higher
and broader intellectual and moral plane than the country members,
but the bulk are very low indeed. They are usually foreigners, of little
or no education, with exceedingly misty ideas as to morality, and
possessed of an ignorance so profound that it could only be called
comic, were it not for the fact that it has at times such serious effects
upon our laws. It is their ignorance, quite as much as actual
viciousness, which makes it so difficult to procure the passage of
good laws or prevent the passage of bad ones; and it is the most
irritating of the many elements with which we have to contend in the
fight for good government.

DARK SIDE OF THE LEGISLATIVE PICTURE.

 Mention has been made above of the bribe-taking which
undoubtedly at times occurs in the New York Legislature. This is
what is commonly called “a delicate subject” with which to deal, and,
therefore, according to our usual methods of handling delicate
subjects, it is either never discussed at all, or else discussed with the
grossest exaggeration; but most certainly there is nothing about
which it is more important to know the truth.
In each of the last three legislatures there were a number of us
who were interested in getting through certain measures which we
deemed to be for the public good, but which were certain to be
strongly opposed, some for political and some for pecuniary reasons.
Now, to get through any such measure requires genuine hard work,
a certain amount of parliamentary skill, a good deal of tact and
courage, and above all, a thorough knowledge of the men with whom
one has to deal, and of the motives which actuate them. In other
words, before taking any active steps, we had to “size up” our fellow-
legislators, to find out their past history and present character and
associates, to find out whether they were their own masters or were
acting under the directions of somebody else, whether they were
bright or stupid, etc., etc. As a result, and after very careful study,
conducted purely with the object of learning the truth, so that we
might work more effectually, we came to the conclusion that about a
third of the members were open to corrupt influences in some form
or other; in certain sessions the proportion was greater, and in some
less. Now it would, of course, be impossible for me or for anyone
else to prove in a court of law that these men were guilty, except
perhaps in two or three cases; yet we felt absolutely confident that
there was hardly a case in which our judgment as to the honesty of
any given member was not correct. The two or three exceptional
cases alluded to, where legal proof of guilt might have been
forthcoming, were instances in which honest men were approached
by their colleagues at times when the need for votes was very great;
but, even then, it would have been almost impossible to punish the
offenders before a court, for it would have merely resulted in his
denying what his accuser stated. Moreover, the members who had
been approached would have been very reluctant to come forward,
for each of them felt ashamed that his character should not have
been well enough known to prevent anyone’s daring to speak to him
on such a subject. And another reason why the few honest men who
are approached (for the lobbyist rarely makes a mistake in his
estimate of the men who will be apt to take bribes) do not feel like
taking action in the matter is that a doubtful lawsuit will certainly
follow, which will drag on so long that the public will come to regard
all of the participants with equal distrust, while in the end the
decision is quite as likely to be against as to be for them. Take the
Bradly-Sessions case, for example. This was an incident that
occurred at the time of the faction-fight in the Republican ranks over
the return of Mr. Conkling to the United States Senate after his
resignation from that body. Bradly, an Assemblyman, accused
Sessions, a State Senator, of attempting to bribe him. The affair
dragged on for an indefinite time; no one was able actually to
determine whether it was a case of blackmail on the one hand, or of
bribery on the other; the vast majority of people recollected the
names of both parties, but totally forgot which it was that was
supposed to have bribed the other, and regarded both with equal
disfavor; and the upshot has been that the case is now merely
remembered as illustrating one of the most unsavory phases of the
once-famous Halfbreed-Stalwart fight.

DIFFICULTIES OF PREVENTING AND PUNISHING

CORRUPTION.
From the causes indicated, it is almost impossible to actually
convict a legislator of bribe-taking; but at the same time, the
character of a legislator, if bad, soon becomes a matter of common
notoriety, and no dishonest legislator can long keep his reputation
good with honest men. If the constituents wish to know the character
of their member, they can easily find it out, and no member will be
dishonest if he thinks his constituents are looking at him; he
presumes upon their ignorance or indifference. I do not see how
bribe-taking among legislators can be stopped until the public
conscience becomes awake to the matter. Then it will stop fast
enough; for just as soon as politicians realize that the people are in
earnest in wanting a thing done, they make haste to do it. The
trouble is always in rousing the people sufficiently to make them take
an effective interest,—that is, in making them sufficiently in earnest
to be willing to give a little of their time to the accomplishment of the
object they have in view.
Much the largest percentage of corrupt legislators come from the
great cities; indeed, the majority of the assemblymen from the great
cities are “very poor specimens” indeed, while, on the contrary, the
congressmen who go from them are generally pretty good men. This
fact is only one of the many which go to establish the curious political
law that in a great city the larger the constituency which elects a
public servant, the more apt that servant is to be a good one; exactly
as the Mayor is almost certain to be infinitely superior in character to
the average alderman, or the average city judge to the average civil
justice. This is because the public servants of comparatively small
importance are protected by their own insignificance from the
consequences of their bad actions. Life is carried on at such a high
pressure in the great cities, men’s time is so fully occupied by their
manifold and harassing interests and duties, and their knowledge of
their neighbors is necessarily so limited, that they are only able to fix
in their minds the characters and records of a few prominent men;
the others they lump together without distinguishing between
individuals. They know whether the aldermen, as a body, are to be
admired or despised; but they probably do not even know the name,
far less the worth, of the particular aldermen who represents their
district; so it happens that their votes for aldermen or assemblymen
are generally given with very little intelligence indeed, while, on the
contrary, they are fully competent to pass and execute judgment
upon as prominent an official as a mayor or even a congressman.
Hence it follows that the latter have to give a good deal of attention
to the wishes and prejudices of the public at large, while a city
assemblyman, though he always talks a great deal about the people,
rarely, except in certain extraordinary cases, has to pay much heed
to their wants. His political future depends far more upon the skill
and success with which he cultivates the good-will of certain
“bosses,” or of certain cliques of politicians, or even of certain bodies
and knots of men (such as compose a trade-union, or a collection of
merchants in some special business, or the managers of a railroad)
whose interests, being vitally affected by Albany legislation, oblige
them closely to watch, and to try to punish or reward, the Albany
legislators. These politicians or sets of interested individuals
generally care very little for a man’s honesty so long as he can be
depended upon to do as they wish on certain occasions; and hence
it often happens that a dishonest man who has sense enough not to
excite attention by any flagrant outrage may continue for a number of
years to represent an honest constituency.

THE CONSTITUENTS LARGELY TO BLAME.

Moreover, a member from a large city can often count upon the
educated and intelligent men of his district showing the most gross
ignorance and stupidity in political affairs. The much-lauded
intelligent voter—the man of cultured mind, liberal education, and
excellent intentions—at times performs exceedingly queer antics.
The great public meetings to advance certain political movements
irrespective of party, which have been held so frequently during the
past few years, have undoubtedly done a vast amount of good; but
the very men who attend these public meetings and inveigh against
the folly and wickedness of the politicians will sometimes on election
day do things which have quite as evil effects as any of the acts of
the men whom they very properly condemn. A recent instance of this
is worth giving. In 1882 there was in the Assembly a young member
from New York, who did as hard and effective work for the city of
New York as has ever been done by anyone. It was a peculiarly
disagreeable year to be in the Legislature. The composition of that
body was unusually bad. The more disreputable politicians relied
upon it to pass some of their schemes and to protect certain of their
members from the consequences of their own misdeeds. Demagogic
measures were continually brought forward, nominally in the
interests of the laboring classes, for which an honest and intelligent
man could not vote, and yet which were jealously watched by, and
received the hearty support of, not mere demagogues and agitators,
but also a large number of perfectly honest though misguided
workingmen. And, finally, certain wealthy corporations attempted, by
the most unscrupulous means, to rush through a number of laws in
their own interest. The young member of whom we are speaking
incurred by his course on these various measures the bitter hostility
alike of the politicians, the demagogues, and the members of that
most dangerous of all classes, the wealthy criminal class. He had
also earned the gratitude of all honest citizens, and he got it—as far
as words went. The better class of newspapers spoke well of him;
cultured and intelligent men generally—the well-to-do, prosperous
people who belong to the different social and literary clubs, and their
followers—were loud in his praise. I call to mind one man who lived
in his district who expressed great indignation that the politicians
should dare to oppose his re-election; when told that it was to be
hoped he would help to insure the legislator’s return to Albany by
himself staying at the polls all day, he answered that he was very
sorry, but he unfortunately had an engagement to go quail-shooting
on election day! Most respectable people, however, would
undoubtedly have voted for and re-elected the young member had it
not been for the unexpected political movements that took place in
the fall. A citizens’ ticket, largely non-partisan in character, was run
for certain local offices, receiving its support from among those who
claimed to be, and who undoubtedly were, the best men of both
parties. The ticket contained the names of candidates only for
municipal offices, and had nothing whatever to do with the election of
men to the Legislature; yet it proved absolutely impossible to drill this
simple fact through the heads of a great many worthy people, who,
when election day came round, declined to vote anything but the
citizens’ ticket, and persisted in thinking that if no legislative
candidate was on the ticket, it was because, for some reason or
other, the citizens’ committee did not consider any legislative
candidate worth voting for. All over the city the better class of
candidates for legislative offices lost from this cause votes which
they had a right to expect, and in the particular district under
consideration the loss was so great as to cause the defeat of the
sitting member, or rather to elect him by so narrow a vote as to
enable an unscrupulously partisan legislative majority to keep him
out of his seat.
 It is this kind of ignorance of the simplest political matters among
really good citizens, combined with their timidity, which is so apt to
characterize a wealthy bourgeoisie, and with their short-sighted
selfishness in being unwilling to take the smallest portion of time
away from their business or pleasure to devote to public affairs,
which renders it so easy for corrupt men from the city to keep their
places in the Legislature. In the country the case is different. Here
the constituencies, who are usually composed of honest though
narrow-minded and bigoted individuals, generally keep a pretty
sharp lookout on their members, and, as already said, the latter are
apt to be fairly honest men. Even when they are not honest, they
take good care to act perfectly well as regards all district matters, for
most of the measures about which corrupt influences are at work
relate to city affairs. The constituents of a country member know well
how to judge him for those of his acts which immediately affect
themselves; but as regards others they often have no means of
forming an opinion, except through the newspapers,—more
especially through the great metropolitan newspapers,—and they
have gradually come to look upon all statements made by the latter
with reference to the honesty or dishonesty of public men with
extreme distrust. This is because our newspapers, including those
who professedly stand as representatives of the highest culture of
the community, have been in the habit of making such constant and
reckless assaults upon the characters of even very good public men,
as to greatly detract from their influence when they attack one who is
really bad. They paint everyone with whom they disagree black. As a
consequence the average man, who knows they are partly wrong,
thinks they may also be partly right; he concludes that no man is
absolutely white, and at the same time that no one is as black as he
is painted; and takes refuge in the belief that all alike are gray. It then
becomes impossible to rouse him to make an effort either for a good
man or against a scoundrel. Nothing helps dishonest politicians as
much as this feeling; and among the chief instruments in its
production we must number certain of our newspapers who are
loudest in asserting that they stand on the highest moral plane. As
for the other newspapers, those of frankly “sensational” character,
such as the two which at present claim to have the largest circulation
in New York, there is small need to characterize them; they form a
very great promotive to public corruption and private vice, and are on
the whole the most potent of all the forces for evil which are at work
in the city.

PERILS OF LEGISLATIVE LIFE.

However, there can be no question that a great many men do
deteriorate very much morally when they go to Albany. The last
accusation most of us would think of bringing against that dear, dull,
old Dutch city is that of being a fast place; and yet there are plenty of
members coming from out-of-the-way villages or quiet country towns
on whom Albany has as bad an effect as Paris sometimes has on
wealthy young Americans from the great sea-board cities. Many men
go to the Legislature with the set purpose of making money; but
many others, who afterwards become bad, go there intending to do
good work. These latter may be well-meaning, weak young fellows of
some shallow brightness, who expect to make names for
themselves; perhaps they are young lawyers, or real-estate brokers,
or small shop-keepers; they achieve but little success; they gradually
become conscious that their business is broken up, and that they
have not enough ability to warrant any expectation of their continuing
in public life; some great temptation comes in their way (a
corporation which expects to be relieved of perhaps a million dollars
of taxes by the passage of a bill can afford to pay high for voters);
they fall, and that is the end of them. Indeed, legislative life has
temptations enough to make it unadvisable for any weak man,
whether young or old, to enter it.

ALLIES OF VICIOUS LEGISLATORS.

The array of vicious legislators is swelled by a number of men who
really at bottom are not bad. Foremost among these are those most
hopeless of beings who are handicapped by having some measure
which they consider it absolutely necessary for the sake of their own
future to “get through.” One of these men will have a bill, for
instance, appropriating a sum of money from the State Treasury to
clear out a river, dam the outlet of a lake, or drain a marsh; it may be,
although not usually so, proper enough in itself, but it is drawn up
primarily in the interest of a certain set of his constituents who have
given him clearly to understand that his continuance in their good
graces depends upon his success in passing the bill. He feels that
he must get it through at all hazards; the bad men find this out, and
tell him he must count on their opposition unless he consents also to
help their measures; he resists at first, but sooner or later yields; and
from that moment his fate is sealed,—so far as his ability to do any
work of general good is concerned.
A still larger number of men are good enough in themselves, but
are “owned” by third parties. Usually the latter are politicians who
have absolute control of the district machine, or who are, at least, of
very great importance in the political affairs of their district. A curious
fact is that they are not invariably, though usually, of the same party
as the member; for in some places, especially in the lower portions
of the great cities, politics become purely a business, and in the
squabbles for offices of emolument it becomes important for a local
leader to have supporters among all the factions. When one of these
supporters is sent to a legislative body, he is allowed to act with the
rest of his party on what his chief regards as the unimportant
questions of party or public interest, but he has to come in to heel at
once when any matter arises touching the said chief’s power, pocket,
or influence.
Other members will be controlled by some wealthy private citizen
who is not in politics, but who has business interests likely to be
affected by legislation, and who is therefore, willing to subscribe
heavily to the campaign expenses of an individual or of an
association so as to insure the presence in Albany of someone who
will give him information and assistance.
On one occasion there came before a committee of which I
happened to be a member, a perfectly proper bill in the interest of a
certain corporation; the majority of the committee, six in number,
were thoroughly bad men, who opposed the measure with the hope
of being paid to cease their opposition. When I consented to take
charge of the bill, I had stipulated that not a penny should be paid to
insure its passage. It therefore became necessary to see what
pressure could be brought to bear on the recalcitrant members; and,
accordingly, we had to find out who were the authors and sponsors
of their political being. Three proved to be under the control of local
statesmen of the same party as themselves, and of equally bad
moral character; one was ruled by a politician of unsavory reputation
from a different city; the fifth, a Democrat, was owned by a
Republican Federal official; and the sixth by the president of a horse-
car company. A couple of letters from these two magnates forced the
last members mentioned to change front on the bill with surprising
alacrity.
Nowadays, however, the greatest danger is that the member will
be a servile tool of the “boss” or “machine” of his own party, in which
case he can very rarely indeed be a good public servant.
There are two classes of cases in which corrupt members get
money. One is when a wealthy corporation buys through some
measure which will be of great benefit to itself, although, perhaps an
injury to the public at large; the other is when a member introduces a
bill hostile to some moneyed interest, with the expectation of being
paid to let the matter drop. The latter, technically called a “strike,” is
much the most common; for, in spite of the outcry against them in
legislative matters, corporations are more often sinned against than
sinning. It is difficult, for reasons already given, in either case to
convict the offending member, though we have very good laws
against bribery. The reform has got to come from the people at large.
It will be hard to make any very great improvement in the character
of the legislators until respectable people become more fully awake
to their duties, and until the newspapers become more truthful and
less reckless in their statements.
It is not a pleasant task to have to draw one side of legislative life
in such dark colors; but as the side exists, and as the dark lines
never can be rubbed out until we have manfully acknowledged that
they are there and need rubbing out, it seems the falsest of false
delicacy to refrain from dwelling upon them. But it would be most
unjust to accept this partial truth as being the whole truth. We blame
the Legislature for many evils, the ultimate cause for whose
existence is to be found in our own shortcomings.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PICTURE.

There is a much brighter side to the picture, and this is the larger
side, too. It would be impossible to get together a body of more
earnest, upright, and disinterested men than the band of legislators,
largely young men, who during the past three years have averted so
much evil and accomplished so much good at Albany. They were
able, at least partially, to put into actual practice the theories that had
long been taught by the intellectual leaders of the country. And the
life of a legislator who is earnest in his efforts faithfully to perform his
duty as a public servant, is harassing and laborious to the last
degree. He is kept at work from eight to fourteen hours a day; he is
obliged to incur the bitterest hostility of a body of men as powerful as
they are unscrupulous, who are always on the watch to find out, or to
make out, anything in his private or his public life which can be used
against him; and he has on his side either a but partially roused
public opinion, or else a public opinion roused, it is true, but only
blindly conscious of the evil from which it suffers, and alike ignorant
and unwilling to avail itself of the proper remedy.
This body of legislators, who, at any rate, worked honestly for what
they thought right, were, as a whole, quite unselfish, and were not
treated particularly well by their constituents. Most of them soon got
to realize the fact that if they wished to enjoy their brief space of
political life (and most though not all of them did enjoy it) they would
have to make it a rule never to consider, in deciding how to vote
upon any question, how their vote would affect their own political
prospects. No man can do good service in the Legislature as long as
he is worrying over the effect of his actions upon his own future.
After having learned this, most of them got on very happily indeed.
As a rule, and where no matter of vital principle is involved, a
member is bound to represent the views of those who have elected
him; but there are times when the voice of the people is anything but
the voice of God, and then a conscientious man is equally bound to
disregard it.
In the long run, and on the average, the public will usually do
justice to its representatives; but it is a very rough, uneven, and long-
delayed justice. That is, judging from what I have myself seen of the
way in which members were treated by their constituents, I should
say that the chances of an honest man being retained in public life
were about ten per cent. better than if he were dishonest, other
things being equal. This is not a showing very creditable to us as a
people; and the explanation is to be found in the shortcomings
peculiar to the different classes of our honest and respectable
voters,—shortcomings which may be briefly outlined.

SHORTCOMINGS OF THE PEOPLE WHO

SHOULD TAKE PART IN POLITICAL WORK.
The people of means in all great cities have in times past
shamefully neglected their political duties, and have been
contemptuously disregarded by the professional politicians in
consequence. A number of them will get together in a large hall, will
vociferously demand “reform,” as if it were some concrete substance
which could be handed out to them in slices, and will then disband
with a feeling of the most serene self-satisfaction, and the belief that
they have done their entire duty as citizens and members of the
community. It is an actual fact that four out of five of our wealthy and
educated men, of those who occupy what is called good social
position, are really ignorant of the nature of a caucus or a primary
meeting, and never attend either. Now, under our form of
government, no man can accomplish anything by himself; he must
work in combination with others; and the men of whom we are
speaking will never carry their proper weight in the political affairs of
the country until they have formed themselves into some
organization, or else, which would be better, have joined some of the
organizations already existing. But there seems often to be a certain
lack of the robuster virtues in our educated men, which makes them
shrink from the struggle and the inevitable contact with rough
politicians (who must often be rudely handled before they can be
forced to behave); while their lack of familiarity with their
surroundings causes them to lack discrimination between the
politicians who are decent, and those who are not; for in their eyes
the two classes both equally unfamiliar, are indistinguishable.
Another reason why this class is not of more consequence in politics,
is that it is often really out of sympathy—or, at least, its more
conspicuous members are—with the feelings and interests of the
great mass of the American people; and it is a discreditable fact that
it is in this class that what has been most aptly termed the “colonial”
spirit still survives. Until this survival of the spirit of colonial
dependence is dead, those in whom it exists will serve chiefly as
laughing-stocks to the shrewd, humorous, and prejudiced people
who form nine tenths of our body-politic, and whose chief
characteristics are their intensely American habits of thought, and
their surly intolerance of anything like subservience to outside and
foreign influences.
From different causes, the laboring classes, even when thoroughly
honest at heart, often fail to appreciate honesty in their
representatives. They are frequently not well informed in regard to
the character of the latter, and they are apt to be led aside by the
loud professions of the so-called labor reformers, who are always
promising to procure by legislation the advantages which can only
come to working men, or to any other men, by their individual or
united energy, intelligence, and forethought. Very much has been
accomplished by legislation for laboring men, by procuring
mechanics’ lien laws, factory laws, etc.; and hence it often comes
that they think legislation can accomplish all things for them; and it is
only natural, for instance, that a certain proportion of their number
should adhere to the demagogue who votes for a law to double the
rate of wages, rather than to the honest man who opposes it. When
people are struggling for the necessaries of existence, and vaguely
feel, no matter how wrongly, that they are also struggling against an
unjustly ordered system of life, it is hard to convince them of the truth
that an ounce of performance on their own part is worth a ton of
legislative promises to change in some mysterious manner that life-
system.
 In the country districts justice to a member is somewhat more apt
to be done. When, as is so often the case, it is not done, the cause is
usually to be sought for in the numerous petty jealousies and local
rivalries which are certain to exist in any small community whose
interests are narrow and most of whose members are acquainted
with each other; and besides this, our country vote is essentially a
Bourbon or Tory vote, being very slow to receive new ideas, very
tenacious of old ones, and hence inclined to look with suspicion
upon any one who tries to shape his course according to some
standard differing from that which is already in existence.
The actual work of procuring the passage of a bill through the
Legislature is in itself far from slight. The hostility of the actively bad
has to be discounted in advance, and the indifference of the passive
majority, who are neither very good nor very bad, has to be
overcome. This can usually be accomplished only by stirring up their
constituencies; and so, besides the constant watchfulness over the
course of the measure through both houses and the continual
debating and parliamentary fencing which is necessary, it is also
indispensable to get the people of districts not directly affected by
the bill alive to its importance, so as to induce their representatives
to vote for it. Thus, when the bill to establish a State Park at Niagara
was on its passage, it was found that the great majority of the
country members were opposed to it, fearing that it might conceal
some land-jobbing scheme, and also fearing that their constituents,
whose vice is not extravagance, would not countenance so great an
expenditure of public money. It was of no use arguing with the
members, and instead the country newspapers were flooded with
letters, pamphlets were circulated, visits and personal appeals were
made, until a sufficient number of these members changed front to
enable us to get the lacking votes.

LIFE IN THE LEGISLATURE.

As already said, some of us who usually acted together took a
great deal of genuine enjoyment out of our experience at Albany. We
liked the excitement and perpetual conflict, the necessity for putting
forth all our powers to reach our ends, and the feeling that we were
really being of some use in the world; and if we were often both
saddened and angered by the viciousness and ignorance of some of
our colleagues, yet, in return, the latter many times unwittingly
furnished us a good deal of amusement by their preposterous
actions and speeches. Some of these are worth repeating, though
they can never, in repetition, seem what they were when they
occurred. The names and circumstances, of course, have been so
changed as to prevent the possibility of the real heroes of them
being recognized. It must be understood that they stand for the
exceptional and not the ordinary workings of the average legislative
intellect. I have heard more sound sense than foolishness talked in
Albany, but to record the former would only bore the reader. And we
must bear in mind that while the ignorance of some of our
representatives warrants our saying that they should not be in the
Legislature, it does not at all warrant our condemning the system of
government which permits them to be sent there. There is no system
so good that it has not some disadvantages. The only way to teach
our foreign-born fellow-citizens how to govern themselves, is to give
each the full rights possessed by other American citizens; and it is
not to be wondered at if they at first show themselves unskilful in the
exercise of these rights. It has been my experience moreover in the
Legislature that when Hans or Paddy does turn out really well, there
are very few native Americans indeed who do better. A very large
number of the ablest and most disinterested and public-spirited
citizens in New York are by birth Germans; and their names are
towers of strength in the community. When I had to name a
committee which was to do the most difficult, dangerous, and
important work that came before the Legislature at all during my
presence in it, I chose three of my four colleagues from among those
of my fellow-legislators who were Irish either by birth or descent.
One of the warmest and most disinterested friends I have ever had
or hope to have in New York politics, is by birth an Irishman, and is
also as genuine and good an American citizen as is to be found
within the United States.
A good many of the Yankees in the house would blunder time and
again; but their blunders were generally merely stupid and not at all
amusing, while, on the contrary, the errors of those who were of
Milesian extraction always possessed a most refreshing originality.

INCIDENTS OF LEGISLATIVE EXPERIENCE.

In 1882 the Democrats in the house had a clear majority, but were
for a long time unable to effect an organization, owing to a faction-
fight in their own ranks between the Tammany and anti-Tammany
members, each side claiming the lion’s share of the spoils. After a
good deal of bickering, the anti-Tammany men drew up a paper
containing a series of propositions, and submitted it to their
opponents, with the prefatory remark, in writing, that it was an
ultimatum. The Tammany members were at once summoned to an
indignation meeting, their feelings closely resembling those of the
famous fish-wife who was called a parallelopipedon. None of them
had any very accurate idea as to what the word ultimatum meant;
but that it was intensively offensive, not to say abusive, in its nature,
they did not question for a moment. It was felt that some equivalent
and equally strong term by which to call Tammany’s proposed
counter-address must be found immediately; but, as the Latin
vocabulary of the members was limited, it was some time before a
suitable term was forthcoming. Finally, by a happy inspiration, some
gentlemen of classical education remembered the phrase ipse dixit;
it was at once felt to be the very phrase required by the peculiar
exigencies of the case, and next day the reply appeared, setting
forth with well-satisfied gravity that, in response to the County
Democracy’s “ultimatum,” Tammany herewith produced her “ipse
dixit.”
Public servants of higher grade than aldermen or assemblymen
sometimes give words a wider meaning than would be found in the
dictionary. In many parts of the United States, owing to a curious
series of historical associations (which, by the way, it would be
interesting to trace), anything foreign and un-English is called
“Dutch,” and it was in this sense that a member of a recent Congress
used the term when, in speaking in favor of a tariff on works of art,
he told of the reluctance with which he saw the productions of native
artists exposed to competition “with Dutch daubs from Italy”; a
sentence pleasing alike from its alliteration and from its bold
disregard of geographic trivialties.
Often an orator of this sort will have his attention attracted by
some high-sounding word, which he has not before seen, and which
he treasures up to use in his next rhetorical flight, without regard to
the exact meaning. There was a laboring man’s advocate in the last
Legislature, one of whose efforts attracted a good deal of attention
from his magnificent heedlessness of technical accuracy in the use
of similes. He was speaking against the convict contract-labor
system, and wound up an already sufficiently remarkable oration
with the still more startling ending that the system “was a vital cobra
which was swamping the lives of the laboring men.” Now, he had
evidently carefully put together the sentence beforehand, and the
process of mental synthesis by which he built it up must have been
curious. “Vital” was, of course, used merely as an adjective of
intensity; he was a little uncertain in his ideas as to what a “cobra”
was, but took it for granted that it was some terrible manifestation of
nature, possibly hostile to man, like a volcano, or a cyclone, or
Niagara, for instance; then “swamping” was chosen as describing an
operation very likely to be performed by Niagara, or a cyclone, or a
cobra; and behold, the sentence was complete.
Sometimes a common phrase will be given a new meaning. Thus,
the mass of legislation is strictly local in its character. Over a
thousand bills come up for consideration in the course of a session,
but a very few of which affect the interests of the State at large. The
latter and the more important private bills are, or ought to be,
carefully studied by each member; but it is a physical impossibility for
any one man to examine the countless local bills of small
importance. For these we have to trust to the member for the district
affected, and when one comes up the response to any inquiry about
it is usually, “Oh, it’s a local bill, affecting so-and-so’s district; he is
responsible for it.” By degrees, some of the members get to use
“local” in the sense of unimportant, and a few of the assemblymen of
doubtful honesty gradually come to regard it as meaning a bill of no
pecuniary interest to themselves. There was a smug little rascal in