This ar ticle explores how urban working-class young people's performances of embodied identities — as enacted through practices of `taste' and style — are played out within the educational field.The ar ticle considers how such practices may contribute to shaping young people's post-16 `choices' and their views of higher education as `not for me'. Drawing on data from longitudinal tracking inter views with 53 individual young people and discussion groups with a fur ther 36 pupils, the article discusses the double-bind experienced by these young people as a result of their performances of style. It is argued that whilst the young people seek to generate wor th and value through their investments in style, these practices may also play into oppressive social relations and contribute to fixing the young people within marginalized and disadvantaged social positions.
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