Elisabet Öhrn

Thursday, 15.09,  13:30 - 14:30
Hörsaal 1a

Urban education as a field of research revolves around contrasts; on the one hand the urban associations with poverty, marginalisation and problems, and on the other thelinks to opportunities, high culture and capital. This urban - urbane problematic also takes the form of physical segregation as people with low income/education and immigrant backgrounds are grouped together in certain areas – inner city or suburban, depending on which part of the world we focus on – whereas those with more capital dwell elsewhere. Young people in the respective areas face different conditions for schooling and respond to schooling in different ways.

This presentation draws especially on contemporary Swedish research to discuss the differentiation between and within schools in urban areas, and the interplay between processes within individual schools and the relations and conflicts in their neighbourhoods. In particular, the presentation focuses on schooling in marginalised areas, typically associated with problems and challenges, to explore young people’s responses to their schooling and social positions. Such responses include individual acts, such as rejecting further schooling or dismissing the local school for more prestigious ones, as well as the development of shared understandings and collective formations through aesthetic practices, informal education and political actions.  The various responses, including their goals, means and resources, are explored in the presentation.