Complicating the "soccer mom:"the cultural politics of forming class-based identity, distinction, and necessity.
Using Pierre Bourdieu's theories of social class differentiation and class reproduction, this paper provides an analysis of class-based identity politics in contemporary suburban America. Through a critical ethnography of the emergent, American, upper-middle-class "soccer mom" phenomenon, this study contributes to a growing body of research that interrogates class-based, cultural practices of status differentiation. As part of a larger; longitudinal ethnographic study, this paper specifically focuses on the ways in which women, who are driven by upper-middle-class habitus, contest and construct their identity as mothers of young, soccer-playing children.
Swanson
Lisa
L
Department of Kinesiology, Towson University, Maryland 21252, USA. lswanson@towson.edu
D000328:Adult; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008875:Middle Aged; D009035:Mothers; D012923:Social Class; D012933:Social Identification; D013177:Sports; D013383:Suburban Population; D014481:United States