From practice to theory and back again?

How mixed-class backgrounds shape academic trajectories

Abstract

Having been socialised at a crossroads of peasant, working and (ascending to) middle class, resulted in frictions between theory and practice (also described by Willis 1977), mind and body or science and ‘real life’ building themselves into the way I think and work to this day. Engaging in an internal dialogue and refraining from delivering my insights on a silver platter, I take the reader on the journey of trying to understand my class (non-)belonging. This also entails tracing back my fear of corrupting real life with social theory and might irritate the reader at times. By re-reading and re-framing field notes from my PhD research on knitting, I ultimately carve out how the frictions mentioned managed to reinsert themselves into my ethnographic research practice. I ponder how these frictions and their effects become intelligible through a reflection of my class (non-)belonging.