SHOP-FLOOR/COUNTER-SCHOOL
CULTURE PARALLELS
1. Masculine chauvinism
2. Attempt to gain informal control of
the work process
3. Distinct form of language and
intimidatory humour
4. Value of practice over theory
Differentiation: “the process whereby
the typical exchanges expected in the
formal institutional paradigm are
reinterpreted, separated and
discriminated with respect to working
class interests, feelings and meanings”
(62).
Integration: “the process whereby
class oppositions and intentions are
redefined, truncated and deposited
within sets of apparently legitimate
institutional relationships and
exchanges” (63).
COUNTER-SCHOOL CULTURE AS
SOCIALIZAITON
 Preparation for a future of
generalized labour
 Preparation for workplace hierarchy
Resistance  accommodation
Counter-school culture (resistance to
education) produces accommodation
to a capitalist class system because it
prepares the lads for manual labour.
Where there is power, there is
resistance, and yet, or rather
consequently, this resistance is never is
a position of exteriority in relation to
power…[The] existence [of power
relations] depends on a multiplicity of
points of resistance (Foucault
1978:95).