Product Description

Learning Capitalist Culture presents an ethnographic study of a small, economically-depressed, predominantly Mexican American south Texas town. Like many communities in the Southwest, North Town has undergone cultural and political change since the late sixties, when the Chicano civil rights movement emerged and challenged the segregated racial order.

This book examines the way in which the youth of North Town learn traditional American values through participation in sports, membership in formal and informal social groups, dating, and interactions with teachers in the classroom. Using information gathered over fourteen years of field work, Douglas E. Foley shows how the rituals involved in these activities tend to preserve or reproduce class and gender inequalities, even as Mexicanos transform the racial order.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #166395 in Books
• Published on: 1990-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Review

"A fascinating study of the clash between Anglo and Hispanic cultures in South Texas as seen through the eyes of its youth."—Choice

"Learning Capitalist Culture poses excellent questions and offers provocative theoretical possibilities."—American Journal of Sociology

About the Author
Douglas E. Foley is Associate Professor of Anthropology and of Education at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of From Peones to Politicos: Class and Ethnicity in a South Texas Town, 1900-1987, and The Heartland Chronicles, which is also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Customer Reviews

Terrific ethnographic work on a much ignored region
Do not let the stale title fool you here. Foley employs some wonderful ethnographic, qualitative research methods in this piece of work. Foley disobeys the old, archaic rules of the social sciences, in that he leaves his objectivitiy behind and immerses himself into the city of North Town (a mythical name). Texas is much more than Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. The author shows us another side of the state. Foley focuses on the South Texas region and its much too often ignored Mexican American population. Many people do not realize the old, colonized treatment that Mexican Americans are still subjugated to and Foley makes a point of writing about this in his text. In addition to being an ethnographic account of the socially inequities that exist between the dominant Anglo population and the subordinate Mexican American population in North Town, this book is also an analysis and critique of an educational system. Foley demonstrates how the educational system in North Town perpetuates inequality and tracks its young people to take their assigned role in society according to their socioeconomic status and their ethnic background. Learning Capitalist Culture is a book for those not only interested in the social sciences, but those of us interested in research techniques and methodological approaches that are new, exciting, and part of a new kind of social science model.

Book Review
Douglas Foley's ethnographic portrayal of a South Texas border city, which he calls "North Town", is a tale of two texts. The first text is a fully rich, detailed, and what my colleague appropriately refers to as a "cinematic" description of life of North Town high school students. The second text is a scholarly and theoretical response to Paul Willis' critiques outlined in the forward as well as a beautifully described section on methods.

A major strength of this book is its readability. Foley's writing style in the first half of the book is extremely accessible and fantastically interesting. As I was reading the book, I felt as though I was reading a brilliantly written popular fiction. I could not put the book down and I found myself contently engrossed as time completely slipped away from me.

Another strength inherent in Foley's work is the local historical background of North Town. Foley tells the history of North Town's culture, politics, and economic development. Although he is an outsider, his extensive historical knowledge and fourteen years in the community allow him to unveil a well informed account of life in North Town.

Detailing his methodology and interpretations at the end of the book is another one of Foley's strengths. For any research to be credible, replication is vital. By including a thorough and robust description of his methods, one may be able to replicate this study in a different cultural context. This lends credibility to the study and enhances the likelihood of another researcher bringing us another enchanting analysis to enjoy.

A double-edged strength and weakness of the work is his outsider status. As an outsider, Foley is able to notice and record the minutiae of daily life that most citizens of North Town take for granted. These practices are deeply engrained in the local culture to the point where they proceed relatively unnoticed.

Foley illustrates an example of a new Anglo male student from Nebraska. The new student is unaware of the entrenched class and ethnic territorial boundaries of the school grounds. Upon arrival, the new student gravitates toward the "cool" Mexicano students Foley refers to as "vatos." According to Foley, this new student does not associate the vatos with lower class and ethnic status. This seemingly minor infraction is remedied:
After three days, a new Anglo football buddy physically led him out of the Mexicano group into the Anglo group. He never hung out again with the vatos, although he frequently greeted them in the halls and in classes. He quickly learned that hanging out with the wrong people would leave him in a social "no-man's land" (p. 80).

Foley's outsider status may also be viewed as a weakness. He is not a true member of the community with vested interest or familial roots. As such, he writes about North Town as if it is a truly foreign land. If his audience is someone who grew up in a United States-Mexico border town in the Southwest, they may not be able to understand his outsider perspective and might possibly be offended at the categorization of these "foreign" students with words like "Mexicano," "vato," or "kicker."

I consider myself an outsider and can understand his perspective. Like Foley, I am an Anglo from the Midwest who played sports in high school. This shared lens made it very easy for me to read this work and understand his descriptions. In his methods section, he reveals that he used his sports experience in high school and college as an inroad to finding valuable informants. While this may have limited the scope of informants, it certainly allowed him to build trust and gain a wealth of information.

This book would be extremely valuable to anyone who has an interest in education, classroom culture, sociology, social theory, ethnographic research, local history, local level politics, economic development issues, as well as issues involving, race, class, poverty, language, and ethnicity. For those who enjoy reading about the details of the daily lives of high school students, this book is excellent. For those who drool over academic and intellectual arguments over social theory, this book definitely belongs on your book shelf. Also, for those who are seasoned or aspiring researchers, this book provides poignant insight into teachable methods and practices.

deserves a wider audience
I'm amazed this book only has two reviews. It's a valuable work that's not just meaty, but highly readable. Foley offers a new model for engaged ethnography, where he is present throughout the story but not center stage. This book set me on my own career path -- it's a classic, and deserves to be.