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In this programme Willis talks about how his interest in culture and counter culture led him into exploring working class culture and its reproduction from the inside. He discusses his ethnographic research methods, how he chose his subjects and his relationship with the notorious ‘lads’.

In contrast to the conventional sociological view of the time that saw the education system ‘failing’ working class youth, Willis argued that the lads he observed were deliberately failing themselves in recognition of the inevitable manual working future that awaited them.

In the final section Paul Willis talks about the persistence of counter school cultures in contemporary societies in spite of the drying up of manual labouring jobs. He also tells us what happened to the ‘lads’.

This programme will be relevant to those studying education, stratification, culture and research methods.