LAUSR

This book critically considers the dominant influence of social class on the educational experiences of working-class youth in the UK and elsewhere. As captured in the cover image, the text represents education as a cauldron or furnace capable of continually shaping and reshaping the prospects and experiences of young people. The eight chapters, written by authors based in England, Australia and the Republic of Ireland, draw on a range of conceptual frameworks and focus on different educational settings including schools, vocational education and universities – although they all highlight how education contributes to the marginalisation and continued disadvantage ofworking-class youth. The book covers contemporary issues such as Brexit and austerity education, whilst also adopting a socio-historical lens, emphasising the effects of de-industrialisation on coal mining communities and others from working-class backgrounds. It also draws attention to the reality that despite numerous educational reform and initiatives, little has changed to ameliorate multiple disadvantages faced by those from working-class backgrounds. A particular feature of this book is that it draws on the work of leading scholars whose own experiences of class-based inequalities contribute to their understandings of the relationship between education and social class. Reflecting on her experiences of attending an elite university in her youth, Diane Reay provides some sobering insights into the strains and struggles experienced by working-class students in such settings. Here, Reay revisits her previous work, The Zombie stalking English education (2006), and argues that little if any progress has been made in education for the working-classes. She argues that social class still haunts the English educational system, lurking as an absent presence in dominant political and educational policy discourses, yet visible in the lived experiences of students from workingclass backgrounds. The notion of an invisible presence affecting the here-and-now is echoed in Geoffrey Bright’s chapter on the effects of de-industrialisation in the former coalfields; a generation or more after the 1984–1985 strike and pit closures. Bright draws on Avery Gordon’s (1997) notion of social haunting, associated with ‘social violence done in the past’ highlighting ‘that what’s been concealed is very much alive and present [and] showing up without any sign of leaving’ (Gordon, 1997, p. xvi). Bright’s chapter provides a detailed empirical account of the lived experiences of working-class youth in four neighbouring former coal mining villages in North Derbyshire still coming to terms with social and economic loss. James Avis’ chapter, in contrast, argues that large sections of middle-class youth are now experiencing labour-market precariousness, over-qualification, underemployment and increasing exploitation driven by neoliberalism and variants of contemporary capitalism. Garth Stahl deals with white working-class boys’ relationship with education; Louise Archer’s chapter focuses onworking-class girls’ experience of science in schools. TerryHyland explores some of British Journal of Educational Studies Vol. 68, No. 2, April 2020, pp. 263–264