Transcript Document

‘X FACTOR CULTURE
FUELLED THE UK RIOTS’:
INTERVENING INTO
DEBATES ON CELEBRITY
AND YOUTH ASPIRATIONS
An ESRCfunded
research
project
Heather
Mendick, Kim
Allen and
Laura Harvey
1. Interest in young people’s aspirations and inequalities in youth
transitions
2. Policy and public concern about effects of celebrity as eroding
aspiration
“X Factor culture fueled the UK riots… Kids are meant to believe that
their stepping stone to massive money is The X Factor. Luck is great,
but most of life is hard work. We do not celebrate people who have
made success out of serious hard work” - Iain Duncan Smith MP
“Kids nowadays just want to be famous. If you ask little girls, they
either want to be footballers' wives or win The X Factor…Our society
is in danger of being Barbie-dolled “ - Barbara Follett MP
3. Absence of empirical work with young people
UNDERSTANDING CELEBRITY AND YOUNG
PEOPLE’S ASPIRATIONS
 CELEBRITY STUDIES: Mainly textual analysis of reps of celebrity
 Empirical work is limited
 FAN STUDIES: extreme, intense rather than mundane, everyday
 PSYCHOLOGICALLY INFORMED WORK: ’parasocial relationships’
– deficit, pathologised status
  CELEB AS A SOCIAL PRACTICE (Turner) – NEGOTIATED
MEANINGS
 Young people’s media and cultural practices – bring back from the
margins of ‘the classroom’ and school life
UNDERSTANDING CELEBRITY AND YOUNG
PEOPLE’S ASPIRATIONS
 The study is located in sociology of education specifically work
on aspirations, choices and transitions that sees these not as
individual acts but regulated and shaped by wider inequalities.
 We are drawing on recent work on audience engagement with
celebrity and RTV in relation to moral economies of selfhood.
Celebrity as a discursive and disciplinary field where social
distinctions are made and relations, behaviours and people are
given or denied value (Imogen Tyler & Bruce Bennett; Bev
Skeggs and Helen Wood).
 Thus, we see young people’s talk about celebrity as
‘performance practices’ through which they position
themselves and others (Linda Duits 2010, p.249).
THEORETICAL
APPROACH
Understanding Celebrity Discursively
‘A DISCOURSE-BASED EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH WOULD SET ITSELF THE WORK
OF TAKING THAT WHICH OFFERS ITSELF AS COMMON-SENSICAL, OBVIOUS,
NATURAL, GIVEN OR UNQUESTIONABLE, AND TRYING TO UNRAVEL IT A BIT –
TO OPEN IT UP TO FURTHER QUESTIONING.’ (MAGGIE MACLURE, 2003: P9)
PULL APART THE ‘FABRIC OF TEXTS’ - DECONSTRUCT DISCOURSES OF
ASPIRATION, TALENT, HARD WORK, AMBITION ETC AS CIRCULATE IN AND
ABOUT CELEBRITY
WHAT FUNCTION DO THESE SERVE?
- WHAT SELVES DO THESE PRODUCE?
-WHICH ‘FUTURES’ (CHOICES, PATHWAYS) BECOME ESTABLISHED AS VALUABLE,
POSSIBLE, DESIRABLE?
EXPLORE HIERARCHIES OF VALUE ESTABLISHED IN POSITIONING OF SELF (AND
OTHER) VIA TALK OF ASPIRATION AND CELEBRITY
THINKING ABOUT AND ACCESSING AFFECT?
PRODUCTION OF CLASSED OTHERS VIA AFFECTIVE RESPONSES TO
MELODRAMATIC MOMENTS IN RTV AND CELEB – SHAME, DISGUST AND
SOCIAL ABJECTION (SKEGGS AND WOOD; TYLER)
BUT ALSO… REFUSAL OF JUDGEMENTS AND RECLAIMING OF VALUE
ASPIRATIONS AS AFFECTIVE PRACTICE – ORIENTATIONS TO ‘GOOD’ AND
‘BAD’ OBJECTS AND FUTURES; LOCATED IN MORAL ECONOMIES (SARA
AHMED, 2010)
ROLE OF FANTASY AND IMAGINATION IN CLASS TRANSFORMATION LOCATE CELEBRITY AS OPENING UP NEW WAYS OF BEING (VALERIE
WALKERDINE)
THE STUDY
WHAT DISCOURSES (POWERFUL AND CONFLICTING
SOCIAL STORIES) OF ASPIRATION CIRCULATE IN
CELEBRITY REPRESENTATIONS?
HOW DO YOUNG PEOPLE TAKE-UP THESE
DISCOURSES IN TALKING ABOUT THEIR OWN
ASPIRATIONS?
HOW DO DISCOURSES OF ASPIRATION IN CELEBRITY
AND YOUNG PEOPLE’S TAKE-UP OF THESE RELATE
TO SOCIAL CLASS AND GENDER?
RESEARCH
QUESTIONS
YOUTH CENTRED
QUALITATIVE – GROUP (24 WITH 144 YOUNG
PEOPLE) AND INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEWS (48)
PLUS TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF 12 CELEBRITY CASE
STUDIES
ONLINE AND OFFLINE METHODS : CAPTURING
COLLECTIVE SOCIAL PRACTICES OF MEANING
MAKING
‘Social networking sites play a pivotal role in the
production, circulation and reception [of celebrity
culture], where online discussions offer a
fascinating insight into how televisual
characterisations become animated in struggles
over identity and value’. (Imogen Tyler, 2011)
RESEARCH
DESIGN
KEY
PRINCIPLES
RESEARCH DESIGN
• 6 secondary schools (11-18) in England, rural and
urban, reflective of local demographics
• In each:
• 4 Group interviews with 6 students each (24
pupils - 12 from year 10 and 12 from year 12)
• Follow up individual interviews with 8
students per school
• Online forum – collective discussion of celebrity
• Textual analysis of 12 case study celebrities
(generated from young people interviews)
TENTATIVE
FINDINGS
TOP TWELVE CELEBRITIES?
• Tom Daley
• Emma Watson
• Will Smith
• Nicki Minaj
• Kim Kardashian
• Barack Obama
• Justin Bieber
• Keith Lemon
• Miley Cyrus
• Bill Gates
• Katie Price
• Mike Tyson
www.celebyouth.org
Twitter: @CelebYouthUK
Facebook: CelebYouthUK