Paper short abstract:

This presentation will illustrate how the middle-class is imagined by Bucharest families using extracurricular activities as strategies of class reproduction and upward social mobility. The second part will explore the experience of middle-class children engaged in such activities.

Paper long abstract:

Drawing on the work of Vincent and Ball (2006), the first part of this paper presents the case of families from Bucharest enrolling their children into extracurricular activities (such as various sports, arts and crafts, foreign languages, etc.), as part of their strategies of class reproduction or upward social mobility. I discuss how the Bucharest middle-class is imagined through the choices related to extracurricular activities and the role parents think they play for (the future of) their children. While studies have long concentrated on the role of schools, families and education in class reproduction (Bourdieu, 1986), what is less explored is the experience of the main subjects of these processes. Therefore, the second part of the presentation deals with how the Bucharest middle-class is lived through the experience of children engaged in this kind of educational/recreational activities. What does it mean to be the subject of middle-class aspirations as a child? What do these children's routines and daily lives look like? Is the class ideal poignant in them? Using snippets from the daily lives of ten children from Bucharest I will answer these questions, addressing issues such as consumption, time management, children's relational spaces and notions of class and childhood.

The data used was collected throughout a nine-month fieldwork, using participant observation in institutions providing extracurricular activities, semi-structured and in-depth interviews with parents, children, teachers, child psychologists and therapists. Moreover I used operationalized drawings and family journals for recording routines and practices of the middle-class family from a child's perspective.