Victim or Actor? How Young Adults Manage Social Group Memberships and Deal with Racism Experiences.

Author(s):

Wiebke Scharathow

Conference:

ECER 2010

Network:

7. Social Justice and Intercultural Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

07 SES 07 B, Intercultural Dialogues Inside Schools

Paper Session

Time:

2010-08-26

15:30-17:00

Room:

AUDITORIUM III, Päärakennus / Main Building

Chair:

Ghazala Bhatti

Contribution

Young adults with a migration background, marked as ‚others‘ by the majority society, face special challenges – in their identity-work as well as in every day situations – when it comes to questions of social group membership and the relations between self-descriptions and outside attributions. Those stereotyped attributions, made due to a (presumed) belonging, e.g. to a certain religion, nationality, ethnicity or gender, transport societally widely accepted social knowledge, giving information about who and on the basis of which aspects is or can be an accepted part of ‚our‘ society or a relevant powerful group, and who cannot. These powerful practices of social (dis-)placement, the categorization in ‚members‘ and ‚non-members‘ through social groups, while at the same time ignoring self-descriptions and self-positioning, are part of every day inclusion- and exclusion processes that – on an individual as well as on a structural level – legitimate social inequalities in society (cf. Gomolla/Radtke 2002; Mecheril 2003).

Young adults with a migration background, in their everyday life, are confronted with such mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion and forced to handle discrimination experiences – a situation not unique to Germany, where the research data presented in this paper has been collected: even though colonial and Nazi history, targeted recruitment of so called „Gastarbeiter“ in the 1970s and the refusal to acknowledge the multicultural composition of society on a governmental level up until a decade ago have a certain impact on how society perceives these young people and shapes their experiences, young people with a migration background in all European countries are confronted with these issues (cf. Frosh/Phoenix/Pattman 2001).

Research questions center around experiences with discrimination along different categories of difference (such as gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity etc.) and their intersections as well as management strategies with regard to situations of in- and exclusion and its mechanisms, specifically the way in which society, with its discourses and politics, and subjective reasoning behind actions interact.

The research therefore focuses on young adults not (just) as victims but with agency – able to act within a certain ‚room of possibilities‘ whose borders are marked by both individual and societal conditions (cf. Holzkamp 1983). They are seen as individuals who develop competences and - more or less useful - strategies within the framework of their social backgrounds and their experiences in dealing with discrimination in society.

As adolescents with migration background need spaces where they can discuss and reflect their experiences and actions to develop useful strategies (cf. Kalpaka 2006), the objective of this research is to give pointers for the development of adequate concepts of pedagogical support and reflexive professional attitudes in the context of social work with stigmatized groups.

Method

The research presented in this paper is based on one mixed gender and two gender-separated group discussions, eight problem-centered interviews and excerpts of reflective discussions with eight young adults (age 14-20). Part of the data was collected during a 4-day workshop with young adults with migration background, where reflections and discussion about experiences and strategies among participants took place. This setting was chosen to not just collect data but also to offer a space for the participants to reflect their experiences and strategies and to discuss options of extending their possibilities of (re)acting (cf. Holzkamp 1983). The perspective with which the research was undertaken, understood the young adults as subjects, as active „co-researchers“, not as objects of research (cf. Held 1994). One result of the reflections during the research process was the production of a professional documentary-film (25 min), where young people talk about their everyday experiences with discrimination, to be used in political education and in group discussions with other young adults.

Expected Outcomes

First results of the ongoing data analysis describe, how the young adults experience a variety of discrimination on different levels in their everyday life. The main kind of suppression they face is racism, intersected with other categories of difference as in age and gender. They are enmeshed in mechanisms of discrimination in complex ways: victims of discrimination themselves, they also discriminate others. The strategies they utilise make sense from their subjective point of view, in wider, long term perspective some of these acquired strategies are self-harming and support systems of suppression rather than challenge them. As the data points toward the support system being not adequate, pedagogy has an important role to play in providing knowledgeable support in processes of coping with inequalities at different levels, to work towards equal opportunities and social justice for all.

References

Frosh, Stephen/Phoenix, Ann/Pattman, Rob (2001): Young Masculinities, Understanding boys in contemporary. London: Palgrave Gomolla, Mechtild/Radtke, Frank-Olaf (2002): Institutionelle Diskriminierung. Die Herstellung ethnischer Differenz in der Schule. Opladen: Leske und Budrich. Hall, Stewart (1994): Rassismus und kulturelle Identität. Ausgewählte Schriften 2. Hamburg: Argument. Held, Josef (1994): Praxisorientierte Jugendforschung. Theoretische Grundlagen, Methodische Ansätze, Exemplarische Projekte. Hamburg: Argument. Holzkamp, Klaus (1983): Grundlegungen der Psychologie. Frankfurt a.M. Kalpaka, Annita (2006): ‚Parallelgesellschaften’ in der Bildungsarbeit – Möglichkeiten und Dilemmata pädagogischen Handelns in geschützten Räumen. In: Elverich, Gabi/Kalpaka, Annita/Reindlmeier, Karin (Hg.):Spurensicherung – Reflexion von Bildungsarbeit in der Einwanderungsgesellschaft. Frankfurt a.M.: IKO. S. 95-166. Keupp, Heiner (1999): Identitätskonstruktionen. Reinbek bei Hamburg Klinger, Cornelia/Knapp, Gudrum-Axeli (2005): Achsen der Ungleichheit – Achsen der Differenz. Verhältnisbestimmungen von Klasse, Geschlecht, ‚Rasse’/Ethnizität. In: Transit – Europäische Revue, Nr.29/2005 Leiprecht, Rudolf (2001): Alltagsrassismus. Eine Untersuchung bei Jugendlichen in Deutschland und den Niederlanden. Münster: Waxmann. Lutz, Helma/Wenning, Norbert (2001): Differenzen über Differenz – Einführung in die Debatten. In: Lutz, Helma/Wenning, Norbert: Unterschiedlich verschieden. Differenz in der Erziehungswissenschaft. Opladen: Leske und Budrich. S. 11-24. Mecheril, Paul (2000): Zugehörigkeitsmanagement. Aspekte der Lebensführung von Anderen Deutschen. In: Attia, Iman/Marburger, Helga (Hg.): Alltag und Lebenswelten von Migrantenjugendlichen. Frankfurt a.M.: IKO. S. 27-47 Mecheril, Paul (2003): Prekäre Verhältnisse. Über natio-ethno-kulturelle (Mehrfach-) Zugehörigkeit. Münster: Waxmann. Melter, Claus (2006): Rassismuserfahrungen in der Jugendhilfe. Münster: Waxmann. Riegel, Christine (2004): Im Kampf um Zugehörigkeit und Anerkennung. Orientierungen und Handlungsformen von jungen Migrantinnen. Frankfurt a.M./London: IKO.

Author Information

Wiebke Scharathow

Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg

Department for Education, Faculty I

Oldenburg

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