The Cosmos of a Public Sector Township: Democracy as an Intellectual Culture

The public sector plays an important role in responding to the rights of citizens and evolving norms of social interest (Qu 2015). Qu argues that the nature of public enterprise is never final and there is a constant negotiation between the private and the public emergence of life and rights. One such space where the tension between the private and the public manifests itself is the public sector township or the residential colony in India. The sociality of hierarchy in public sector organizations manifest itself in the public sector township and may nurture everyday aspirations, angsts and divides. The officer lives in a bigger hone, in a bungalow, and the clerk lives in a smaller home, many times with a larger family. [excerpt

Stealing Peanuts and Coercing Energy Drinks: The Underground Economy of a Middle School Summer Camp

Economic activities are one important but understudied mechanism which kids use to recreate inequality within their peer cultures. Drawing on ethnographic data from a middle school summer camp, we used Goffman’s typology of economic arrangements to analyze sequences of economic interactions within an underground economy. The middle school students drew on coercion, trading and sharing in order to address their own interests and concerns. When negotiating friendships, girls sometimes engaged in a series of interactions which converted previous social exchanges into unfulfilled economic exchanges. Girls also used inappropriate social exchanges to successfully resist boys’ private coercion efforts, prompting boys to switch tactics and propose appropriate social exchanges and economic exchanges. Not only were these economic interactions patterned along gender, race, and class lines, but the repetitive, routine nature of these interactions helped to recreate inequality within the peer culture

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Qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve e S So oc ci io ol lo og gy y R Re ev vi ie ew w V Vo ol lu um me e V VI I I Is ss su ue e 2 2 w ww ww w. .q qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve es so oc ci io ol lo og gy yr re ev vi ie ew w. .o or rg g 1 10 05 5 Q Qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve e S So oc ci io ol lo og gy y R Re ev vi ie ew w Abstract Economic activities are one important but understudied mechanism which kids use to recreate inequality within their peer cultures. Drawing on ethnographic data from a middle school summer camp, we used Goffman's typology of economic arrangements to analyze sequences of economic interactions within an underground economy. The middle school students drew on coercion, trading and sharing in order to address their own interests and concerns. When negotiating friendships, girls sometimes engaged in a series of interactions which converted previous social exchanges into unfulfilled economic exchanges. Girls also used inappropriate social exchanges to successfully resist boys' private coercion efforts, prompting boys to switch tactics and propose appropriate social exchanges and economic exchanges. Not only were these economic interactions patterned along gender, race, and class lines, but the repetitive, routine nature of these interactions helped to recreate inequality within the peer culture. Keywords Underground Economy, Middle School, Peer Culture, Interpretive Reproduction, Inequality, Ethnography In contemporary US schools, many teachers craft lessons about tolerance, diversity, and multiculturalism. Yet even as their teachers preach the value of equality in the classroom, kids 1 often reproduce inequalities during their interactions with each other. As they build their peer cultures, kids appropriate information from adult social worlds and the peer cultures of older youth, creatively refashion this information to meet their own needs, and interpretively reproduce gender, race and class inequalities in the process Ausdale and Feagin 2001). However, less is known about the role kids' economic arrangements play in the reproduction of social inequality. We add to a nascent literature on kids' underground economies by examining how kids' food and monetary exchanges reproduce gender, race, and class inequalities in their peer culture. At the summer camp we studied, the acquisition and consumption of food was a central concern in the peer culture. Each day at the start of camp, kids congregated in a central meeting room. As they greeted each other and played video games, the room would buzz with requests to share food and money, promises of future food gifts, and inquiries about economic resources. Throughout the day, kids continued to negotiate the purchase and distribution of food and drink. When adult staff were busy organizing activities or mediating disputes, kids furtively purchased and guzzled forbidden energy drinks, argued about food gifts and unpaid loans, and stole food from one another. Away from the watchful eyes of adult staff, kids organized a complicated and often coercive exchange of food, drink and money. This underground economy consisted of long sequences of economic transactions which included members of multiple friendship groups and sometimes spanned weeks. Drawing on The underlife and kids' underground economies Underground economies are part of the underlife that residents of total institutions create. Total institutions are bureaucratic organizations in which individuals work, sleep and play apart from mainstream society. Although organizations such as nonresidential schools and camps do not fit Goffman's definition of a total institution, kids in schools and summer camps routinely create an underlife. Perhaps this is because schools and camps share some of the important characteristics of a total institution, including a bureaucratic structure which homogenizes people into groups for processing, a goal of transforming people (in this case into productive, educated adults), and a high degree of social control (Davies © ©2 20 00 05 5--2 20 01 10 0 Q Qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve e S So oc ci io ol lo og gy y R Re ev vi ie ew w V Vo ol lu um me e V VI I I Is ss su ue e 2 2 w ww ww w. .q qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve es so oc ci io ol lo og gy yr re ev vi ie ew w. .o or rg g 1 10 07 7 1989). Because children are legally minors, their ability to voluntarily enter and exit schools and camps are severely curtailed (Davies 1989). High degrees of social control over children's movements and activities in these organizations generate a threat to kids' selfhood and autonomy that kids counter by developing an underlife. The underlife in children's organizations includes a variety of secondary adjustments. Students have engaged in unauthorized means of avoiding unpleasant chores, such as pretending not to hear the teacher's directions or claiming one needs to go to the bathroom instead (Corsaro 2005). Despite teachers' instructions to share, be friends, and work things out, kids in preschools routinely achieved the unauthorized end of excluding other kids from their play (Corsaro 2005; Within the underground economy, Goffman (1961) observed three important categories of economic arrangements. The first, private coercion, occurred when one patient expropriated another's resources without providing a rationale. For example, Goffman noted that a patient in a mental hospital used another patient as a seatkeeper, pushing that patient into the seat when he left and pushing the patient out when he returned without saying anything (1961: 264). Private coercion practices can include stealing, strong-arm techniques, and forced sexual submission. Although Goffman raised the question of how long such naked expropriation could continue without justification, he did not describe how residents of total institutions might resist private coercion. In the second category of economic arrangements, economic exchanges, two parties agree on terms before the transaction occurs and payment must be immediate. Should one party default on the transaction, the other can demand to be repaid. Economic exchanges include selling and trading Within the underground economies of schools, kids are active economic agents (Zelizer 2002) who produce, consume and distribute food, toys, clothing and money. Elementary school-aged kids (roughly ages six to eleven) circulate goods in the underground economy using two of the economic arrangements Goffman identified: social and economic exchanges Previous research on kids' underground economies has four limitations which we attempt to address in this paper. First, the nascent literature on kids' underground economies has primarily examined the underlife in preschool and elementary school. We extend this literature by examining an underground economy at the middle school level. Second, investigations of the underground economy have not examined sequences of economic transactions. In part, this may be because investigations of kids' peer cultures have often mentioned, but rarely focused on, the underground economy. Some book-length works may mention the economic interactions between kids on just a few pages Third, drawing on insights from interpretive reproduction Based on our observations of a summer camp, we contend that middle school kids who create secondary adjustments in order to maintain a sense of self separate from the one imposed by the formal organization are able to use multiple economic arrangements to address their own interests and concerns. The middle school students we studied creatively and flexibly drew on coercion, trading and sharing in order to solidify status hierarchies, threaten friendships and resist unfavorable arrangements. In contrast to Researching the underground economy at camp To investigate the underground economy in a middle school peer culture, we conducted ethnographic research at a summer day camp in a small Texas city. In June and early July 2008, the Program for After School Success (PASS) camp offered middle school students enrichment activities from noon to six pm four days a week. Each day of camp, kids congregated in a public school classroom where they chatted and played video games until everyone had arrived. Then, the camp director described the day's field trip and activities. The PASS field trips included outings to a community pool, an arcade, museums, a mall, a library, an ice skating rink, and the movie theater. If the field trip took less than six hours, the camp director and her staff took the kids back to the public school and either let the kids play in the computer lab or supervised activities designed to foster civic engagement. Because the PASS camp offered kids large amounts of unstructured time in the computer labs and on field trips, it was an ideal site for observing the dynamics of a middle school peer culture. © ©2 20 00 05 5--2 20 01 10 0 Q Qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve e S So oc ci io ol lo og gy y R Re ev vi ie ew w V Vo ol lu um me e V VI I I Is ss su ue e 2 2 w ww ww w. .q qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve es so oc ci io ol lo og gy yr re ev vi ie ew w. .o or rg g 1 11 10 0 Twenty-seven students from three different middle schools attended the PASS camp. In this area, middle schools served students in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades. The kids at camp were primarily from the earlier grades. There were ten sixth graders, fourteen seventh graders, and just three eighth graders. Eleven of the campers were boys and sixteen were girls. Seven (26%) of the students at camp were Latino/a and the remainder were white. Fifty-two percent of the students at the camp were on free or reduced lunch status, which we use as a crude measure of social class. 2 During the 2005-2006 school year, 36% of the students in this school district were racial and ethnic minorities and 35% were economically disadvantaged students. Compared to the school district as a whole, the PASS camp enrolled a smaller percentage of racial and ethnic minorities and a higher percentage of economically disadvantaged students. In order to observe how the kids organized their peer culture, two female ethnographers entered the field and attempted to become quiet and marginal members of the peer culture (Eder, Evans and Parker 1995). The first author was a 36-year-old white college professor and the second author was a 21-year-old Asian American undergraduate. On the first and second day of camp, the camp director asked the college professor to describe the research project to the kids. The first author stated that she and the second author were from the local university and planned to write a paper about what it was like to be a kid at PASS. Most kids were excited that we were going to write about their experiences. We obtained parental consent for twenty-three of the twenty-seven kids and all three of the high school students who volunteered as camp staff. We obtained consent from the adults at a pre-camp staff meeting. Both ethnographers participated in camp activities with the kids. We avoided sitting at the "adults' table" with the camp director and her staff. By the end of the first week at camp, both ethnographers had been accepted into the peer culture at the camp as marginal members. The kids demonstrated their acceptance of us into the peer culture when they broke rules in front of us by cussing, switching seats while the bus was moving, and streaming explicit music videos in the computer lab (Corsaro 2005; While it was impossible for either ethnographer to fully abandon her adult status within the camp, both ethnographers were able to construct field roles which minimized our adult power and authority While in the field, we tried to take jottings unobtrusively whenever possible. After exiting the field each day, we used our jottings to write full and detailed field notes. In addition, we used small digital recorders to record samples of kids' conversations. Although the quality of these recordings rarely allowed for full transcription, these recordings functioned as audio jottings which helped us to expand our field notes. Each week, we met to compare field notes and to discuss the salient features of the peer culture. Before data analysis began, we replaced names with pseudonyms and changed identifying information. Following the procedures outlined by The quest for food and the underground economy All of the kids at the camp shared a quest for food. At the start of each day, the kids had the option of eating a school lunch. As in Chin's (2001) study, few kids found the school lunches appetizing and most kids went to the lunchroom primarily to visit with friends. With the exception of a few special days when the camp had a cookout, the camp provided only a small snack sometime between 12:30 and 4:00 pm. This snack usually consisted of chips, cookies or a granola bar coupled with a juice box. 3 Because the school lunches were unappetizing and the snacks were fairly small, kids at the camp were often hungry. Campers spent a great deal of time seeking access to food or looking for money with which to purchase food. Because food and money were rare and valued within the peer culture, the kids generated an organized underground economy to govern their distribution. Unlike previous studies of the underlife in elementary school, the most common economic arrangements in the middle school camp were private coercion and social exchanges. Economic exchanges were rare, although kids did discuss trades and loans to be repaid. In order to demonstrate how the meanings of these economic transactions shifted according to context, we present two series of economic interactions. The first sequence of economic interactions illuminated how one kid, Kate, simultaneously juggled three different economic interactions. The second was a series of economic interactions that occurred over the course of three weeks between Angelica and the highest-status group of boys. By analyzing these sequences, we reveal how kids manipulate, respond to and resist unfavorable economic arrangements as they address their own concerns and values. Kate and the Peanuts Throughout the summer the camp director, Mrs. Levinson, encouraged the kids to share their food and drink, to be kind to one another, and to respect each other. On several occasions, we observed Mrs. Levinson lecturing kids who had denigrated, hit or humiliated each other. We observed several episodes where kids shared food while insulting each other and engaging in power plays. Although the director encouraged sharing, she discouraged sharing that occurred within a context of insults and domination. Consequently, one set of secondary adjustments kids made was to exchange food and insults out of sight of the camp director. Such sharing episodes became a part of the underground economy. © ©2 20 00 05 5--2 20 01 10 0 Q Qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve e S So oc ci io ol lo og gy y R Re ev vi ie ew w V Vo ol lu um me e V VI I I Is ss su ue e 2 2 w ww ww w. .q qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve es so oc ci io ol lo og gy yr re ev vi ie ew w. .o or rg g 1 11 12 2 Within the underground economy, we observed kids in group situations deftly handling multiple economic arrangements simultaneously. Not only were kids able to multitask by fending off coercion while negotiating the terms of a trade, kids were also able to convert one type of economic interaction into another after the fact. To illustrate the alacrity with which kids could switch between economic arrangements, we focus on a series of interactions centered around Kate. Within the space of thirty minutes, Kate deftly handled and converted multiple economic arrangements in order to address her own interests and concerns. Kate (white, regular lunch) was one of the few kids at the camp who had money every day. Her money came from birthday gifts and an allowance. Toward the end of the summer, the camp took a field trip to a history museum. Because no one expected there to be opportunities to purchase food, few of the kids had brought money. Late in the afternoon, the kids congregated outside the snack bar at the museum. Several stated they were starving and bemoaned their lack of money. Kate had used her money to purchase a bag of peanuts, which she pulled out of her purse and began eating. Immediately, Mackenzie, Paige, Chase and Josh besieged Kate with requests to share her peanuts. In order to stave them off and maintain control over her peanuts, Kate employed and responded to a variety of economic arrangements. Kate's relationships with Mackenzie, Paige, Chase and Josh set the stage for how Kate responded to their multiple requests for peanuts. Kate and Mackenzie were good friends during the school year and the two girls spent the first few weeks of camp hanging out together. During the third week of camp, Mackenzie left to go on a family vacation. Left alone, Kate started to spend time with Paige, whose friends had also recently stopped attending camp. Although Kate and Paige spent several days together, they did not become good friends. Kate also spent much of her time at camp arguing with her cousin Josh and fighting with Chase, a boy whom she had known since elementary school and with whom she had a sibling-like relationship. On the day of the museum trip, Mackenzie returned to camp to find that Kate and Paige had started to spend time together. Mackenzie and Paige did not know each other, but both spent time with Kate that day. During free time at the museum, the three girls sat near each other on a bench. Mackenzie (white, free lunch) said she was hungry and started counting her change to see if she had the 92 cents needed to buy a candy bar. When Mackenzie announced that she had 46 cents, Kate suddenly decided to claim Mackenzie's money. Confused, Mackenzie pointed out that Kate had gifted her the money earlier that day. It was no accident that this negotiation occurred on the first day Mackenzie returned to camp after several days absence. Kate refused Mackenzie's request to share by converting a previous gift into an economic transaction on which Mackenzie had © ©2 20 00 05 5--2 20 01 10 0 Q Qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve e S So oc ci io ol lo og gy y R Re ev vi ie ew w V Vo ol lu um me e V VI I I Is ss su ue e 2 2 w ww ww w. .q qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve es so oc ci io ol lo og gy yr re ev vi ie ew w. Excerpt 4: 6/26/08, first author's fieldnotes Chase and Josh asked for more peanuts. Kate said 'Ha, you don't get any, meanies.' Chase said he already got some. Josh said 'We don't need to get anything. We could just steal it from you.' Kate said 'Yeah right.' Kate said she would put the peanuts in her purse and the purse was going to be behind her on the bus. When Kate refused the boys' request to share, they simply responded that they could use private coercion to get the peanuts away from Kate. Chase even pointed out that he had stolen some peanuts earlier. To some extent, this demonstrated a sense of entitlement and white male privilege. Chase and Josh were aware that coercion was an acceptable means for white boys to access girls' resources (see below). Kate responded by saying that she would hide the peanuts where the boys could not steal them. Kate did indeed hide her peanuts in her purse for the bus ride home and the boys did not have an opportunity to steal her peanuts. Chase and Josh continued to interact with Kate in friendly ways during the bus ride home. Within this one sequence, Kate demonstrated an amazing ability to protect her resources and to use multiple economic arrangements to affirm and deny friendships. With a friend, Kate was able to convert a previous social exchange into an economic exchange; this allowed her to express her resentment at being abandoned as well as to conserve her resources. With a temporary friend of lower status, Kate was able to © ©2 20 00 05 5--2 20 01 10 0 Q Qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve e S So oc ci io ol lo og gy y R Re ev vi ie ew w V Vo ol lu um me e V VI I I Is ss su ue e 2 2 w ww ww w. .q qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve es so oc ci io ol lo og gy yr re ev vi ie ew w. .o or rg g 1 11 15 5 "share" in a way that emphasized her distance from and superiority over Paige. With the boys, Kate was able to protest their threatened theft and then hide her food when the boys threatened private coercion. Kate's use of multiple economic arrangements was not unusual within the camp. Throughout the summer, we saw white and Latina girls refusing requests to share by claiming that another girl had "jacked" or stolen her food earlier. The girl requesting to share almost always immediately protested that the earlier transaction had been a gift. It was also not unusual to see white girls "gifting" in ways that demonstrated hierarchical relationships rather than solidarity. Throughout the summer, white girls handed out cruel comments about each other's bodies, behaviors, and possessions alongside gifts of food and money. Latina girls also engaged in this behavior but did so less often than the white girls; in addition, Latinas were more likely to target white girls than other Latinas. Like Kate, other girls on regular lunch status were able to share food in ways that emphasized the poverty and hunger experienced by girls on free and reduced lunch status. Because girls alternated between gifting freely, refusing requests to share, and offering food with cruel comments attached, it was critical to examine their economic arrangements in the context of evolving friendships in order to understand why girls chose a particular strategy