White working-class youth, rural disadvantage, sense of belonging and bonded social capital

Abstract

The paper critically reflects on data derived from prolonged periods of ethnographic study in an economically disadvantaged white workingclass rural community in the North East of England. A central aim the study was to understand the culture of the village and to capture and penetrate the social relationships and meanings within that culture as understood by its inhabitants and their relationship with the local school (see Bagley and Hillyard, 2013, 2015, 2019; Hillyard and Bagley, 2013, 2015). The research employed participant observation inside the village and included semi-structured interviews with residents individually and collectively in a host of formal and informal settings. For the purposes of this paper, the research draws on those interviews conducted with white working-class young people aged 16-21 years old (N= 25), born in the village who were in neither education, employment nor training. The findings suggest the experiences of rural disadvantage for these young people results in them holding a strong relational metaphorical sense of belonging (Cuervo and Wyn, 2014) that draws on bonded social capital (Putnam, 1995) to help them survive.