Kläders värde och roll i skolan
En kvalitativ studie om fyra gymnasieelevers syn på kläders symboliska värde, och dess roll som statusmarkör i skolan
Research establishes, that clothes constantly communicate something about its wearer. You send out different messages depending on what sort of clothes you are wearing. For example, a suit can project social status and power, while, a pair of jeans usually conveys a more casual impression. Either way, research state that clothes are symbolic expressions.This essay focuses on the theme clothes and pupils within the school world. Do pupils today experience clothes as symbolic values? By using qualitative interviews, I have examined how four senior high school pupils talk about clothes and its potential symbolic value in school. Together with, in what ways the participants experience clothes functions as status markers in school. The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu´s theory of the judgment of taste, is the theoretical starting point of this paper. Bourdieu claims that trivial things, such as clothes, reveal the social belonging of the individual. Because, clothes can project differences in taste, and taste is connected with social class, according to the Bourdieu.The conclusion of the essay is that all participants, more or less, experience that clothes project symbolic values within school; however, what it projects varies in different social spaces. That is, clothes do not have the same symbolic meaning in all schools. For the second research assignment, I have come to the conclusion that quite often clothes actually do functions as status markers in school. But, what sort of clothing that is synonymous with status also varies within different social spaces. That is, a piece of clothing that is symbolic with high social status in one school does not necessarily project the same status value at another school.