conscious that they need to be ‘normal’ and ‘ordinary’ within the codes set by their own
peer group. One of the most urgent dimensions of school life for boys is the need to gain
popularity and, in particular, status (see, Weber, 1946, 1963; Corsaro, 1979; Adler &
Adler, 1998): indeed, the search to achieve status is also the search to achieve an
acceptable form of masculinity. The boys’ notion of status comes from having a certain
position within the peer group hierarchy which becomes relevant when it is seen in
relation to others. It is not something that is given, but is often the outcome of intricate
and intense manoeuvring, and has to be earned through negotiation and sustained through
performance, sometimes on an almost daily basis.
The resources and strategies used
Ultimately, the boys’ position in the peer group is determined by the array of social,
cultural, physical, intellectual and economic resources that each boy is able to draw on
and accumulate. Although some may be intellectual (general academic capability and
achievement); economic (money); social and linguistic (interpersonal); or cultural (in
touch with the latest fashions, music, TV programmes, computer expertise etc), the most
esteemed and cherished resource across all three schools was connected with an
embodied form of physicality and athleticism (sporty, tough, etc). Of course, ultimately,
these resources are all symbolic in that their power and influence derives from their
effect, and from what they are perceived to mean and stand for. These resources will also
always exist within determinate historical and spatial conditions, so that the resources
available will vary within different settings, and some may be easier to draw on than
others at particular times and in particular places. This means that the boys who use a set
of resources and interactional skills to establish high status in the dominant pupil
hierarchy in one school will not necessarily be able to sustain this position in another. In
this next section I present and discuss the embodied resources that the boys employed,
which include being sporty and athletic, acting tough/hard, using humour and wit
(including cussing), wearing fashionable clothes/training shoes, and possessing
culturally-acclaimed knowledge. Finally, I also consider the status of having a girlfriend,
although this type of relationship was largely anomalous in my study.