‘A Home Away from Home’: Space, Ritual and Performance at an Elite Boys’ School in England

Abstract

This article advances ethnographic understandings of the distinctive micro-practices of the formation of elites taking place within Fortune Park School, a private boys’ school in England. It focuses primarily on two related axes of the elite school environment; the layout, use and presentation of the school’s physical space, and an analysis of school ritual. I argue that the veneer of formality presented by the school is a ‘frontstage’ performance, disguising a network of interactions or ‘backstage’ performances that are characterised by a sense of informality or ease. Therefore, I show that the rituals taking place within the school buildings reflect a constant tension between formal and informal states of being. Learning to navigate this tension becomes part of the everyday experience of a Fortune Park School student, contributing towards the acquisition of valued forms of embodied capital that have been demonstrated as advantageous for those with it in their possession.