Class Cultures and Social Mobility: The Hidden Strengths of Working-Class First-Generation Graduates

When working-class first-generation students enter college or the professional workplace, they often find themselves immersed in entirely new worlds. They must learn the unwritten rules for how to speak, dress, behave, and interact with new peers and colleagues. While striving to fit in and do well, they risk feeling imposter syndrome, a loss of identity, or broken ties with friends and family.

Class Cultures and Social Mobility tells the stories of upwardly mobile first-gen graduates who flipped the script and turned their working-class roots into a strength. This accessible and highly engaging book reveals how first-gen graduates overcame hardship while leveraging unique skills--their working-class cultural capital--in college and their professional careers. It demonstrates there needn’t be a choice between economic success and maintaining authenticity to one’s roots--we can balance the competing demands of the two class worlds together. Whether you’re an educator, student, working professional, or advocate, this book provides a powerful way to reimagine the transformations that accompany class mobility.

PAUL DEAN is an associate professor of sociology and anthropology at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. He is coauthor of the book Globalization: A Basic Text.