Sisters’ stories: a psychosocial perspective on families, peers and social class in resistance and conformity to education

Abstract

This article places identification at the centre of a discussion about sisters, families, shaky class locations, and resistance and conformity towards schooling. Drawing on ideas from group psychology, and placing sisters centre stage, it seeks to shed light on some of the push and pull of unconscious processes and flows of affect across and between generations and groups, and their place in the educational identifications of working‐class girls.

Keywords:

• social class
• Western Europe
• qualitative interviews
• secondary education
• psychoanalysis
• sociology
• family
• femininities

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful, thought‐provoking and encouraging comments.

Notes

1. Comment from an anonymous reviewer.

2. Not even death need weaken the potency of such relationships.

3. In Bion’s terms this might be understood as being in a state where ‘–K’ or the destruction of knowledge predominates.

4. The ‘Sibling Practices: children’s Understandings and Experiences’ study was funded by the ESRC and conducted within the Families and Social Capital Research Group located at London South Bank University.

5. No parents were interviewed in this study.

6. Thanks to Tamara Bibby for pointing this out.

7. He also represents financial and material success.