The purpose of this essay is to present a critique of the following book: Willis, P.E. (1977). Learning to labour. Great Britain: Saxon House. The essay begins with a general description of the research that comprises the book. This is followed by a critique of the book's basic narrative style, its data collection methods, data analysis methods, and its interpretation of findings. The essay concludes with a brief summary of the major points that were made.
In general, the first section of the book, Learning to Labour reports on the methods and findings used in a comprehensive project financed by England's Social Science Research Council. The project consisted of qualitative, longitudinal research conducted from 1972 to 1975 with the basic purpose of discovering those factors most contributive to working class boys maintaining the family and societal structure by becoming employed in working class jobs after they finished school.
The qualitative data collection methods used in the study involved interview and group discussion techniques as well as methods of participant observation. The sample consisted of selected groups of working class boys who were observed as they finished their last two years of schooling and proceeded to procure employment. The research conducted with these boys was terminated after their first few months of employment.
All collected data and observations were examined for evidence of "cultural processes" involved in working class boys' decision to obtain working class jobs following their schooling. The book itself is divided into two basic sections. The first basically outlines the cultural processes observed in the data while the second part of the book is used to construct and discuss theory related to labor power and its association with manual work where labor power was defined as:
...the human capacity to work on nature with the use of tools to produce things for the satisfaction o...