Freaks, Geeks and Cool Kids, a research book that sociologist Murray Milner Jr. wrote, describes and explains the status-based relationships between teenagers. The book’s main purpose is to elucidate all aspects of status relationships and describe tools that can be used for further investigations. According to the author, “the book has had a second key aim: to produce knowledge potentially useful for creating better schools and a better society” (Milner, Jr., 2006, p. 173). Thus, it explores the roots of those relationships, provides many examples, and supposes why they become widespread in modern society. In addition, it argues that excesses of status theory follow from flaws of the capitalist society and propose methods to solve them.
Book’s Strengths
The book illustrates status theory by many examples, including instructions for researches. The book’s appendices include descriptions of sociological research instruments; scientists can use them to investigate status relationships in schools. For example, in Appendix II, there are detailed examples of how the data were collected in different schools and analyzed (Milner, Jr., 2006). Different aspects of status are examined and well-described; for example, its inalienability means that status cannot be transferred from one individual to another. In that way, instruments and terms used in the book are well-explained; research strategies can be used to investigate the status theory further.
Reasons for kids’ behavior are explained and illustrated by examples: it is another advantage of that book. The author dedicates several whole chapters for that purpose in Part I and Part III. The roots of the status theory are well-described here: those are the emotional stimuli, such as food, sex, and will to power. The status is “the sum of the evaluations that are “located” in the minds of other people with whom a person interacts,” meaning that it is the sum of the power and influence of a person (Milner, Jr., 2006, p. 26). As teenagers have strong emotions, they are especially prone to show their status and maintain it. In that way, the book shows in detail why kids behave like that and what to do with that.
The book tends to make society better, as the author directly emphasizes: to satisfy this aim, it describes society’s flaws and proposes methods to solve them. They are indirectly mentioned throughout the book, and Part IV is utterly dedicated to that purpose. For example, there is much criticism toward exploiting children by businesses that allure them by aggressive advertising and notes to defend their rights (Milner, Jr., 2006). In Chapter 10, the author proposes different ways to solve the societal problems connected with status, such as bullying and authoritarianism elements in schools; examples of them are implementing different norms by the government. In that way, the book clearly aims to help solve societal problems by describing them and proposing methods.
Book’s Limitations
The book provides no strong psychological explanations of kids’ behavior, only social ones. It means it utterly concentrates on sociological theories and relations inside the collective, without considering individuals’ personal feelings. For example, when the author describes the roots of status theory, showing dating, eating together, and partying as types of associations, he pays no attention to the inner perceptions of participating children (Milner, Jr., 2006). When describing conformity, the author provides many examples of how children are possessed by fashion, style, and social rituals (Milner, Jr., 2006). It creates the feeling that children are like robots, driven by emotions, without any inner feelings and experiences. Such behaviorist approach is limited; although status theory is well-presented as sociological theory, the deep psychological roots of their behavior are not analyzed.
Overemphasizing the school environment and lack of attention to family background is another flaw of the book: parents are mentioned only in the context of the school environment. For example, when explaining the teen status system, the author gently describes some types of negative influence parents may have toward their children (Milner, Jr., 2006, p. 156). Still, he pays almost no attention to the family background of the students, which may be important. Status relationships are actual for families too, and status theory would benefit if the author had described those relationships inside different families. In that way, a lack of family investigations limits the book and the theory presented in it.
A lot of exaggerations and radicalism connected with capitalist society can be considered as another limitation. On the one side, the book provides reasoned criticism of capitalism, showing examples of its negative influence on children. One of these examples is aggressive advertising which encourages children to buy status-connected commodities (Milner, Jr., 2006). However, under criticism, the actual benefits of capitalism, such as the free market and its possibilities, cannot be seen. For example, in a capitalist society, it is easy to launch projects to improve school life in different schools, instead of waiting for the government to solve all problems. While Chapter 10 is dedicated to the policies which can make schools better, no cases of such activity are provided there, despite they almost certainly exist. Thus, the book depicts capitalism mainly negatively, leaving no space for investigation of its benefits for improving the school and societal life.
Book’s Usefulness
The book explains the social behavior of students in school collectives, shows problems connected with them and their reasons. For example, status inalienability is why one cannot leave the status group when they want it. Each status group has particular elements, such as a specific look, cloth, behavioral patterns, and status items. In its appendices, the book provides tools for further investigation of status theory. It also provides reasoned criticism of capitalist society, describing its flaws, and proposes solutions.
Reference
Milner Jr., M. (2006). Freaks, geeks, and cool kids (1st ed.). Routledge.