Self-Made Men

“With a focus on the Australian context, Garth Stahl offers a glimpse into the world of working-class masculinities and the blurring of social class lines ...a deep dive into the higher education experience, this book provokes a rethink of the working-class masculinities that we thought we all knew and understood.”
—Michael Kehler, Research Professor of Masculinities Studies in Education, University of Calgary, Canada

“Garth Stahl’s book highlights the ongoing reality and complexity of structural inequity in, and beyond, higher education. This is a rich exploration of masculinities, through a study of young men who were ‘first in family’ to attend university.”
—Andrew Harvey, Program Director, Pathways in Place, Griffith University, Australia

This book explores how boys from low-socioeconomic status backgrounds disengage from their education, and are resultantly severely underrepresented in post-compulsory education. For those who attend university, many will be first-in-their-family. As first-in-family students, they may encounter significant barriers which may limit their participation in university life and their acquisition of social and cultural capital.  Drawing on a longitudinal study of young Australian men pursuing higher education, the book provides the first detailed account of socially mobile working-class masculinities.  Investigating the experiences of these young men, this book analyses their acclimatisation to new learning environments as well as their changing subjectivities. The monograph draws on various sociological theories to analyse empirical data and make practical recommendations which will drive innovation in widening participation initiatives internationally. This book will be of interest to scholars interested in widening participation, transitions, social mobility and Critical Studies of Men and Masculinities.

Garth Stahl is Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Queensland and former Research Fellow, Australian Research Council (DECRA), Australia. His research interests lie on the nexus of neoliberalism and socio-cultural studies of education, identity, equity/inequality, and social change. Currently, his research projects and publications encompass theoretical and empirical studies of learner identities, gendered subjectivities, equity and difference, and educational reform.