Highly Commended in the Society of Educational Studies Book Prize
This book explores how economic changes and the growing importance of educational qualifications in a shrinking labour market, particularly effects marginalized young men. It follows a group of young working-class men in a de-industrial community and challenges commonly held representations that often appear in the media and in policy discourses which portray them as feckless, out of control, educational failures and lacking aspiration. Ward argues that for a group of young men in a community of social and economic deprivation, expectations and transitions to adulthood are framed through the industrial legacy of geographically and historically shaped class and gender codes. These codes have an impact on what it means to be a man and what behaviour is deemed acceptable and what is not.

Michael R.M. Ward is Lecturer in Social Sciences at Swansea University, UK and programme director for Education. His work centres on the performance of working-class masculinities within and beyond educational institutions. He is the author of the award winning book,
From Labouring to Learning, Working-class Masculinities, Education and De-industrialization
and the editor of
Gender Identity and Research Relationships
, and

Higher Education and Social Inequality:

University Admissions, Experiences and Outcomes

. Mike is also an editorial board member for Sociological Research Online, the Journal of Boyhood Studies, and the British Journal of Educational Studies and co-convenor of the BSA Education Study Group.