“A Trace of Subversive Joy”—New Masculinities in the Typical High School Day

Abstract

Jürgen Budde’s work is a qualitative study that analyses data collected in the context of research following school lessons (lesson protocols and video tapes) with a focus on male students. The author primarily returns to Robert Connell’s concept of “masculinities” and the theory of Pierre Bourdieu for his interpretations. A central result of Budde’s analysis is that the experience of subordination for most male students represents a definitive experience of socialization. Despite a few methodological flaws the book is insightful, in the best sense of the word, for the scholar as well as the practitioner because of its richly detailed analysis that explain the production of masculinities in the school day in an understandable manner.