A generational divide within the class-based production of girls in American youth soccer

Abstract

By building upon earlier research on social class and soccer, the following study specifically provides insight into American, adolescent girls’ experiences with youth soccer (Swanson, ‘Complicating the “Soccer Mom”’; Swanson, ‘Soccer Fields’; Andrews, ‘Contextualizing Suburban Soccer’; and Zwick and Andrews, ‘The Suburban Soccer Field’). Driven by Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical concepts regarding social class reproduction, I engaged in ethnographic-style conversations regarding recreational youth soccer with girls ages 11–14 and their Baby-Boom-Generation mothers in order to further understand how the American, middle-class habitus may be contributing to a particular gender-based path in youth sport (Bourdieu, Distinction). Additionally, Grossberg’s and Giroux’s literature on youth and politics of culture informed my understanding of the discrepancies between parents’ views and their children’s views on youth soccer experiences (Grossberg, ‘Cultural Studies’; Giroux, Stealing Innocence). In this paper, I recognize American involvement in youth soccer as a class-based form of childrearing as I describe parents’ expectations of girls in youth soccer. The participants’ thoughts on race, social class, gender, and today’s youth as related to their soccer experiences are provided.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Andrews, ‘Contextualizing Suburban Soccer’; Swanson, ‘Soccer Fields’.

2. Andrews et al., ‘Soccer’s Racial Frontier’, 264.

3. Andrews, ‘Contextualizing Suburban Soccer’; Swanson, ‘Soccer Fields’.

4. Andrews et al., ‘Soccer’s Racial Frontier’.

5. Lareau, ‘Invisible Inequality’, 748.

6. Ibid.; Lareau, Unequal Childhoods.

7. Lareau, ‘Invisible Inequality’, 748.

8. DeLuca, ‘Swim Club’; DeLuca, ‘Submersed in Social Segregation’; Swanson, ‘Complicating the “Soccer Mom”’; Swanson, ‘Soccer Fields’; Light and Kirk, ‘Australian Cultural Capital’; Andrews, ‘Contextualizing Suburban Soccer’ and Zwick and Andrews, ‘The Suburban Soccer Field’.

9. Swanson, ‘Complicating the “Soccer Mom”’; Swanson, ‘Soccer Fields’.

10. Bourdieu, ‘Sport’; Bourdieu, Distinction; Bourdieu, ‘The Forms of Capital’; Bourdieu, Language; and Bourdieu, The Field of Cultural Production.

11. Swanson, ‘Complicating the “Soccer Mom”’; Swanson, ‘Soccer Fields’.

12. Zwick, ‘Sport at the Intersection’.

13. Bourdieu, Distinction.

14. Ibid., 20.

15. Ibid., 209–11.

16. Ibid., 211.

17. Singleton, Straits, and Straits, Approaches to Social Research, 164.

18. Light and Kirk, ‘Australian Cultural Capital’; Chin, ‘Sixth Grade Madness’; Tardy, ‘But I Am A Good Mom’; Andrews, ‘Contextualizing Suburban Soccer’ and Shilling, ‘Schooling’.

19. Van Maanen, Tales of the Field.

20. Fontana and Frey, ‘The Interview’, 712.

21. Hammersley and Atkinson, Ethnography, 144.

22. Bourdieu and Wacquant, ‘An Invitation’; Wynne, Leisure; Alexander, ‘Performance Ethnography’ and Stake, ‘Qualitative Case Studies’.

23. Wynne, Leisure, 1–2.

24. Hammersley and Atkinson, Ethnography, 23.

25. Kenny, Daughters of Suburbia, 47.

26. Hammersley and Atkinson, Ethnography, 147.

27. Tedlock, ‘Ethnography’, 455.

28. Grossberg, ‘Cultural Studies’.

29. Giroux, Stealing Innocence; Giroux, ‘Public Pedagogy’; Giroux, ‘The Abandoned Generation’.

30. Giroux, ‘Public Pedagogy’, 11; Stephens, ‘Children’.

31. Grossberg, ‘Cultural Studies’, 99.

32. Giroux, ‘The Abandoned Generation’.

33. Swanson, ‘Complicating the “Soccer Mom”’; Swanson, ‘Soccer Fields’.

34. Swanson, ‘Soccer Fields’.

35. Cote et al., ‘The Benefits of Sampling’.

36. Strachan, Cote, and Deakin, ‘Specializers’.

37. Cote et al., ‘The Benefits of Sampling’.

38. Ibid.

39. Ibid.

40. Strachan, Cote, and Deakin, ‘Specializers’.

41. Ibid., 78.

42. Kenny, Daughters of Suburbia, 17.

43. Hughes, ‘Managing Black Guys’.

44. Ibid., 178.

45. Kenny, Daughters of Suburbia.

46. Grossberg, ‘Cultural Studies’.