Skolan mitt i förorten
(School in the middle of the suburb)
Stockholm: Symposion, 2001
Nihad Bunar, PhD
University of Växjö, Sweden
Department of Ethnic Studies, Campus Norrköping, Linköping
University, Sweden
Summary
Chapter 1
The contemporary Swedish elementary
school system is primarily organized on the so-called 'proximity principle'
, which means that children from a given neighborhood attend
the school that is closest to where they live. Thus, schools mirror
their local environment. Schools in middle-class neighborhoods where Swedish
families predominate are seen to be more stable and of a higher status than
schools in areas with many unemployed and immigrant families. Schools in
areas with a high proportion of immigrants or socially marginalized residents, or
in 'segregated' areas are often associated with the same categorizations. The
school. s status, reputation, and accomplishments are thus directly
associated with the social and representational effects that characterize
its catchment area. As . segregated. areas are the object of
various integration policy visions and concrete efforts, their schools
consequently are also part of these visions and efforts. In recent years the central
role of schools in integration has been highlighted in state studies among
other fora. The aim of this dissertation is first to bring into focus
and analyze how relations between schools and the local community are affected
when negative economic developments in combination with stigmatizing public
representations or portrayals segregate the area. The second aim is to
lift up and analyze what role schools are expected to, and actually do, play
when an area with a large proportion of immigrants and socially marginalized
residents is to be integrated via a set of political-ideological proclamations
and concrete efforts. The empirical material that I analyze in the
dissertation has been collected from spring 1998 . spring 2000 in the following
districts of Stockholm: Jordbro, Rinkeby, Tensta, and Husby. The heart
of the dissertation comprises of four independent studies (chapters 5-8), as
well as an introductory section (chapters 1-4), in which the dissertation. s
background factors, theoretical and methodological framework, and central
concepts (segregation and integration) are delineated. Chapter 9 comprises of a
concluding discussion of the central findings of the dissertation.
Chapter 2
This chapter sets out the basic theoretical framework
of the dissertation.
The same framework lies behind the theoretical perspective and concepts that are
presented and used in the individual studies. My primary source
of inspiration is the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. s way of looking
at the relations between individuals and structures. To a great extent Bourdieu.
s sociology is about breaking the dualisms between abstract theorizing and
theory-less empiricism, between . structure. and . agency. ,
and between . personal problems. and . social issues.
. Bourdieu. s theoretical and empirical work is characterized by
the central roles he ascribes to social and economic conditions, even when his
investigations reach down to the individual and subjective level. Structural
conditions and power relations all impact everyday occurrences and furthermore
impact the formation of the individual. s habitus, that is to say
a sort of cognitive or mental map with which the individual comprehends, makes
sense of, and evaluates the world he or she lives in. Other important concepts
in Bourdieu. s sociology are field, capital, and symbolic
power. Within a given more or less autonomous field (such as the educational field)
struggles take place between various institutions, individuals, and
groups (for example, schools, the local political leadership, parents, etc)
for various forms of capital (economic, cultural, social, and symbolic). In
order to study, understand, and explain the origins, developments, and
outcomes of these processes we must at the same time study the relations
between structures, habitus, and the logics of symbolic power. Against the
background of these premises I contend that: 1) we cannot understand why
individuals act as they do in various settings, in relations and interaction by
solely studying concrete forms of self-understanding and practices, such
as, for example expressed individual motives; 2) we cannot understand how
power relations between various positions are recreated in a field solely
by orienting our analyses towards studies of the internal logics of institutions,
such as schools. work routines and practices; 3) we cannot understand how
the conditions of social structures are internalized as dispositions and
lead to tangible consequences through practices solely by studying the
discourses and ideologies of symbolic power, for example, how the media or
the rest of society represents areas with high proportions of immigrants. It
is first when positions, lived experiences, and representations are placed
in relation to each other in a specific context . a field . that we can see
the complexity that makes an explanation possible of why and how segregation of
areas with high proportions of immigrants and their schools can be carried
out and maintained. This is the framework that I operationalize in my empirical
studies. The framework thus consists of a) . objective. socio-economic
structures, or . objective. life conditions in suburbs with large
immigrant populations; b) the forms of understanding, practices, and relations
of the local actors, which in different ways are dependent upon these
conditions and therefore contribute to their reproduction; and c) public
representations of structural conditions and the lived experiences of local
actors. And once again, the relations between these.
Chapter 3
In this chapter
I discuss issues related to the dissertation. s methodology. The topic
for my dissertation to a large extent was decided by the research project Partnerskap
för multietnisk integration (PfMI) [Partnership for Multi-ethnic
Integration] that I participated in. The project commenced in autumn 1997 and
concluded in December 1999. The project was financed by what was then the
Department of Domestic Affairs [Inrikesdepartementet]. PfMI was also sponsored
by the UNESCO-MOST program and was part of the international network .
Multicultural policies and modes of citizenship in European cities. . PfMI. s primary
task was, as formulated in the project application, to study various efforts
to promote integration and counter segregation in four suburbs of Stockholm (Jordbro,
Rinkeby, Spånga-Tensta, and Kista). The dissertation. s ethnographic
data-collection method was directed towards, naturalism, understanding (verstehen), and discovery.
Most of the empirical material was acquired through direct contact with
actors in the areas and schools studied. I have also continuously tried to
illuminate the historical and structural factors that have impacted the life
conditions of the actors. The most important aim of the fieldwork has been to
understand and explain why people act as they do and what they say means against
the background of their life conditions and representation. I have not
sought to test the validity of strictly defined hypotheses. My ambition has
been to . discover. or illuminate how neighborhoods and schools are impacted
by worsening socio-economic conditions and stigmatizing representations
on the one hand, and integration programs on the other. In this sense
. exploration and discovery. must be woven together with theoretically
oriented thought.
Chapter 4
This chapter delineates
the meanings that the concepts integration and segregation have received
in different contexts. The aim of this review is to show the complexity of
the concepts, and show which dynamic processes lie behind their creation and
perpetuation in society. At the same time I seek to show how society. s
integration problems have, through a series of practical actions, become
immigrants. integration problems. In this dissertation, integration and segregation
are neither a theoretical system to be applied to my empirical data nor
analytical tools. They rather summarize the background precepts or .
problem. that this dissertation treats.
In
sociological theory and empirical research, integration has primarily denoted
the processes and relations between various groups and structures that in
functional cooperation create a society. The general Swedish welfare policy
has, during the post-war period, via a series of actions attempted to
facilitate integration between various social strata and the institutions of
the emerging welfare state. Emphasis was placed on general welfare
actions aimed at encompassing all citizens. The labor immigration of the 1960s
and the refugee and family unification immigration of recent decades have
increasingly diversified the previously ethnically homogeneous Swedish nation.
At the same time that immigrants came to be encompassed by the general welfare
policies (and thereby also general integration processes) due to their formal
status, the responsible authorities also pointed out these groups. particular
needs. To
meet these needs . integration policies. (in various guises) have been produced
from the 1970s onwards for immigrants. The difference between today. s
integration policy and general welfare policy is the former. s ethnic
dimension. One could say that today. s integration policy is the ethnified
component of Swedish welfare policy. It is primarily this particular and
ethnified welfare policy and its practical implementation (I choose to
call this practical integration policy) that is analyzed in this
dissertation. The school has been made into an operative for this practical
integration policy and its implementation. Besides giving pupils with a
different cultural background (that is to say other than Swedish) pure factual
knowledge, schools are also to be natural meeting places, in the forefront of
developing these primarily immigrant suburbs, and to change the image of the
local community in the wider society and thereby indirectly contribute to
strengthening the local community (the school at the center of the community).
Most theoretical approaches focus
on segregation. s socio-spatial character, that is to say on the prevailing physical, social,
and mental distance between ethnic groups and classes in an
urban context. The primary explanations of physical segregation. s origin and
maintenance in the sociological literature appears to have changed little since
the Chicago school launched their theories nearly a century ago. Socio-economic status
and discrimination of ethnic minorities are the two most common explanations.
In recent decades more attention has been paid to the segmentation of
the housing market and the desire of immigrants and minorities to live
near each other, as well as the attitudes of the majority which lay behind .
white flight. . Even these explanations are often basically socio-economic
and ethnic in nature. Changes in society. s conditions for reproduction, internal
and external migration streams (immigration) and fluctuations in the housing
market have contributed to make some of the Swedish . million program. housing areas into socio-economically and ethnically
segregated areas.
The . million program. was the Swedish
governmental project in the 1960s of building one million new housing units to
improve the housing conditions of the population. The
basic operations in these segregation
processes take place on society. s macro level. But these
segregation processes are dependent upon a more fundamental dynamic that,
through everyday practices on the micro level, creates and maintains
differentiation and separation. Much of this dynamic is highlighted in the
dissertation. School segregation can take many forms. External or outer
segregation is an expression of segregated housing. Most children attend the
school that is nearest their residence, which means that the neighborhood. s
social structure and ethic composition is reflected in the school. A negative
attitude towards housing areas with a large immigrant population thereby almost
automatically afflicts the local school, regardless of the results that the
school achieves. Inner segregation can arise as a consequence of
dividing pupils into groups, the division between practical and theoretical
lines of study, and the creation of different profiles for different classes.
With regard to results, segregation can arise as a consequence of students
achieving lower grades.
Chapter 5
The first
study . Economics, Rhetoric and Reality . examines the relations between
schools and their local communities (as represented by parents, institutions,
associations, etc) in the largely immigrant communities from the perspective
that these relations are strongly impacted by the negative representations and
economic changes in the 1990s as well as the new integration policy goals and
visions. The question is how and with what consequences? The aim of the
study is first to show what the relations between schools and their local
community look like in Jordbro, Rinkeby, Tensta, and Husby. The second aim is
to analyze similarities and differences in these relations against the
background of the integration and segregation processes that take place in the
nexus between economics, rhetoric, and the real actions taken.
In certain
housing areas, such as Husby, unemployment at the end of the 1990s reached 40%,
and in others, such as Rinkeby, nearly half of the population received welfare
relief payments. As such, many of the residents of these areas are separated or
segregated from the labor market and the opportunity to economically provide
for themselves, something that not only decimates the economic situation of the
individual families, but also the whole of the local social life. This brings
with it everything from difficulties in offering positive role models for
youths to being placed in a relationship of dependence on the bureaucratic
apparatus and institutional network. Through negative representations the residents, architecture,
and institutions of the area are labeled . different. .
This stigmatization also affects the schools. In many schools the effects of
the symbolic identification with the poor and stigmatized neighborhood in which
it is located is felt to be the greatest problem. The most tangible effect is
flight from the majority of these schools. As a result of these representations
the schools are ascribed various characteristics. The representations (formed
by the media and various actors within and outside of the local community) are
based on average grades, the number of students who have passed all subjects
and graduate, and the percentage of students with immigrant heritage and
thereby conveys a grossly simplified picture of a complex social whole. Both
categories of problems and programs of remedies are created in response to
these representations, while the totality, the preconditions, efforts, positive
results in certain areas and the views of teachers and students remain
overlooked.
The conclusion reached in this
study is that the structure of all the schools reflects their respective catchment
area. s structure, with regard to socio-economic conditions and
the composition of the population. However, the schools deal in
different ways with the effects of the segregated and stigmatized space, and
with different results, something that to a great extent is associated with
the relations developed between the schools and their local communities. Although the
socio-economic conditions in the areas studied have not changed, the
local actors are not entirely locked into space. s structural effects. Bredby
school in Rinkeby, for example, shows that a school doesn. t necessarily
have to reflect its catchment area. s status and reputation, even
though the area harbors structural and stigmatizing elements (such as many
unemployed, welfare recipients, immigrants, etc). To achieve this certain
things are required:
that visions
of change (regardless of whether this is spoken of as . integration. or
something else) are formulated and institutionalized;
that local
projects and efforts are oriented towards the totality, the town, district
or local community and not an association of special interests, or an .
integrated. neighborhood that can mobilize against the visions, projects and
efforts as these things are interpreted as a threat to the patterns of life and
practices to which they are accustomed;
that no
deep divides that counteract local mobilization are present in the area;
that
the local school is not used as an instrument in internal conflicts between
various local actors, regardless of whether these are conflicts between parent
groups, teachers and staff, the school administration, or any other group;
that schools work
to give students the tools to be . someone. and . something;.
that
a strong engagement exists at the level of everyday practices among individual
actors.
It is however important to
underscore that the positive results of changed relations in themselves cannot
change the structural bases of the problems that these . immigrant. areas
and their schools struggle with . the socio-economic position of the
population and powerlessness in relation to the public sphere and the market. These
are not . immigrant issues. , but rather social phenomena, the
creation, maintenance, alteration and eradication of which involves the whole
of Swedish society, every day and in all arenas, from the kitchen table to the
national parliament, from public sector institutions to market actors.
Chapter 6
The aim
of the second study . Borders, Trouble, Reputations and the School . is to
analyze at a deeper level how changed socio-economic conditions and negative representations
of two areas impact the relations between actors who directly or
indirectly have to do with the local schools. The analysis focuses on three questions
which figure large in the way schools where pupils with immigrant backgrounds
are in the majority are portrayed, namely trouble in terms of unruliness,
badly functioning relations between schools and parents, and cultural
differences. Some of the questions I discuss are: Who is it that causes
trouble or is unruly? Why don. t relations work between the schools and
parents in predominantly immigrant areas? How are cultural differences dealt
with in teaching?
The study. s framework
comprises of the concepts of configuration, figuration, and representation.
As a consequence of socio-economic changes, reproduction processes
and the nature of power relations in society create within an area a certain
configuration characterized by the population. s characteristics such as
class, age, ethnicity, gender, the local architectural design, etc. These
characteristics provide the foundation for the formation of figurations,
that is to say the relations, power orders, and the legitimizing actions within
an area. Configuration in turn lead to the creation of external representations of a
space, for example in the media, film, or academic research, that create a given image
of an area or gives an area a certain reputation and status. This also leads
to the space. s internal representations, that is to say, the way the residents
of an area symbolically deal with the space. s configurational
structure and the eventual negative and stigmatizing images that proliferate
about the area as whole. This study observes how the tension between
configurations, figurations, and representations impact the situation in two
Swedish suburbs, Jordbro and Tensta, and the consequences on the residents and
local schools. The study shows that stigmatization and segregation cannot be
understood entirely unless the basic socio-economic conditions, actions,
relations, and power hierarchies as well as external and internal
representations of a social space is seen from a relational perspective. The trouble that is
always portrayed as stigmatizing
for schools and in general seen as creating problems for the area is
conflicts between individual students or between different groups of students. When unruliness
between students is seen as an action and a type of
social relation on the social space. s configurational map, when it is placed in relation
to other conflicts between different parent groups and the personnel of the school
(also seen as actions and social relations), and when we look at the
long-term significance and social consequences of the various sorts of trouble
for the areas. and schools. reputations, status and daily work, we see
that the trouble between students is accorded a disproportionately large role in the
stigmatization of the area and school. The explanation as to why this
is the case can be found in the exploitation of . student unruliness. in both
the internal and external representations, which in turn is facilitated
by the local power hierarchy, which in turn is associated with
the local configuration. The same chain of reasoning can even be used in
the field of the school. s relations to parents and how . cultural differences.
are dealt with in teaching. Seen as an integrated part of the
local configurations, figurations, and representations, these . pedagogical problems.
become social problems between actors with varying access to power
resources and with a lack of basic trust. The consequence of this is mutual
accusations, stigmatizing representations, and cultural shame. The cumulative effect
of these processes deepens the divide between . we. and . them.
, further contributing to the maintenance of stigmatization and
segregation. In the end, the social and cultural reproduction process is
cemented. The theoretically informed model employed comprising of
configurations, figurations, and representations also shows the basic
ambivalence that can be embedded in the alternative spaces that are more or
less consciously created by different social actors in an otherwise polarized
social space. Paradoxically, these spaces which in terms of identity can be
seen as boundary transcending, build new distinctions and stigmatizing
representations. In practice even these boundary transcending meetings affirm
the status quo. They tend to reproduce socio-economic and ethnic differences,
distancing, division, stigmatization, segregation, negative external
representations, and border-setting spatial practices into new distancing and
divisions. Is this determinism? No, it is merely a sociological representation
of reality, but undoubtedly a representation that is necessary not only in
order to understand and explain a complex reality, but also to change it.
Chapter 7
The third
study . When Jobs Disappear . is based on the fact that the areas with
high proportions of immigrants were those hardest hit by unemployment in the
1990s. From previous research we know a great deal about what socio-economic
changes took place and what their structural consequences were for the area
residents. What we do not know very much about though is what consequences
increased unemployment had on social life in the afflicted areas and how it
impacts relations between actors in these residential areas. The ambition of
this study is to bring to the surface a number of these complex patterns of
relations and their consequences by way of international comparison. The reason
for this is that a debate, what might even be called a moral panic, has begun
to spread within established political circles in Europe that European cities
are becoming just as segregated, or ghettoized, as the inner-city ghettos of
large American cities. The metropolises of Europe are portrayed in this debate
(or panic) as a single homogeneous block, comparable to American big cities. An
increasing number of opinion-makers in Sweden have begun advocating the application
of American models for solving the segregation problems of Sweden. s
major cities. The primary question is whether Europe. s segregated
housing areas are really comparable to American inner-city ghettos? This study
has two aims. The first is from a comparative perspective to discuss and
analyze relations between various actors in an American ghetto (Woodlawn
in Chicago), a French banlieue (Quattre mille in
Paris) and a Swedish residential district with a high proportion
of immigrants (Tensta in Stockholm) with reference to three dimension that
have bearing on people. s everyday lives: the presence of territorial stigma
and . we. and . them. distinctions; the degree of crime and
violence in public spaces; and the structure and actions of social institutions. The second
aim is to discuss differences and similarities between these deprived areas
in the context of three welfare state contexts. The comparison is based
primarily on two sources. The first is Loïc Wacquant. s (1996b) work
presented in a number of articles, but primarily . Red Belt, Black Belt:
Racial Division, Class Inequality and the State in the French Urban Periphery
and the American Ghetto. . In this article Wacquant compares two areas
in Chicago (Black Belt) and Paris (Red Belt). The other source is ethnographic
material from fieldwork I conducted in Tensta in the past three years. I
augment these two primary sources with a number of secondary sources.
In this
study I argue that the deprived and segregated areas have:
1) been
ascribed, (as a consequence of increasingly tense everyday
representation forms in the United States as well as in Europe);
2) structurally
created (as a consequence of economic restructuring and tightening up);
and
3) internalized
from within (as a consequence of the residents. powerlessness, the way the
institutions present in these areas operate and division between different
groups);
a
specific set of real and imagined characteristics that operate as handicaps in times
of economic recovery such that general positive trends in the rest of the
country to an all too limited extent reach the residents of these areas. I call
this set of characteristics, 'objectively' existing and embodied, territorial
hexis. The word hexis comes from ancient Greek and means
'posture' or 'strata' , . way of
being. , or . way of composing oneself. . The term's anthropological
or sociological meaning is borrowed from Pierre Bourdieu. s
analysis of Kabyl society in Algeria in the 1960s. In this work he speaks of a bodily
hexis in terms of an embodied political mythology transformed into a particular
disposition, a durable way of being and speaking, and thereby thinking
and feeling. Territorial hexis is a set of characteristics, ascribed and/or
real and existing, that reside in the socio-spatial sphere, that through various
mechanisms such as embodied patterns of understanding and explanation, social
actions, and representations, impact the residents and wider society. s
dispositions and practices. The delimitation of space spans from the geographic
to the social, from the administrative to the cognitive.
In
comparing the three areas, some principle differences could be identified.
These comprise primarily of the characteristics in Tensta and Quattre mille (in
contrast to Woodlawn) not leading to certain consequences:
1) the
majority of the population in these areas do not live in economic misery and
far below the official poverty line;
2) the
illegal economy is not the primary economic and social motor in the local
community;
3) crime
has not eroded the basic trust that people have to each other and in relation
to public places;
4) public
institutions have not abandoned these areas, either as a consequence of
increased crime or an ideology that deems the individual fully responsible for
his or her life conditions.
One of the
primary factors that leads to the residents in Tensta and Quattre mille living
in conditions different from the residents of Woodlawn is the predominant
ideologies in Sweden and France about solidarity and social justice, and the
absence of such ideologies in public policy in the United States. Two other
factors are the presence of institutional networks, and the practical actions
of the welfare state in the deprived areas. Even though criticisms of the
way welfare state institutions operate in
Tensta have been voiced, in the three
years of my fieldwork I have never met anyone who has said that these institutions
and their extra efforts should disappear or desist. Most of the people
I have spoken to have called for a new disposition, a new attitude, and a
new way of relating to the area. s residents, their difficulties and
possibilities. The differences between Tensta and Quattre mille largely have to
do with the welfare state sphere. The question is not whether or not to
initiate integration promoting projects and retain the institutional network or
not. The question is rather what sort of
programs should be initiated, what the local bureaucracy should be doing
and how. Another difference of importance for the territorial hexis in the
two European areas is the percentage (or density) of immigrants as a
portion of the total population. Nowhere in Europe is the density as
high as in Sweden, something that influences the orientation of the integration projects
(such as language courses, information on democracy, etc) and the
local bureaucracy. s attitude towards citizens with a non-Swedish ethnic
background. However, as my analysis and comparison shows, an area. s
territorial hexis does not need to be dominated by the ethnic aspect for
it to be categorized as . different. and it inhabitants stigmatized as . the
other. . One can though say that ethnicity makes categorization and
stigmatization . easier. .
Chapter 8
The point
of departure for the fourth study . Cultural Citizenship and the
Multicultural School
. is that multiculturalism is indicated to be a possible solution for many of
the problems of schools in areas with high proportions of immigrants in numerous
official documents and recommendations. The expectation is that by
profiling (or marketing) schools with many pupils with immigrant backgrounds as .
multicultural. , these schools can be made attractive, front-end schools.
The primary argument is that the world is becoming more and
more globalized, and that access to multicultural skills and language capacities accords
a great advantage in the future. However, . the multicultural school.
has in practice become linked to a number of negative and stigmatizing markers.
I term the gap between the vision and practice . the official
lie about multiculturalism. . The lie is that while there is conscious,
pronounced official support for multiculturalism as an idea and vision,
there is an equally conscious rejection of
multiculturalism as a reality and
in practice. The purpose of this study is to discuss how the gap between ideal
and practice arises in the school and how it is recreated through the educational
system. s social history against the backdrop of theories about the
expansion of citizenship. I also name a few preconditions necessary for this
gap to be bridged. I take my point of departure in theories of citizenship
because a precondition for the multiculturalization of the school and the role
such a school can play in increasing equality is that citizenship rights are
respected on various levels. Recent developments in schools have two
consequences for social citizenship. The
first is that citizenship as an idea is hollowed out by a
group that is in the process of attaining (formally) full citizenship is also in practice
deprived of the right to an equal education. What is interesting in this
context is that these persons on the way to attaining citizenship are excluded from
future opportunities by reference to their ethnic belonging via stigmatization (.
immigrant schools. ); socio-economic marginalization (unemployed parents); isolation
(growing up in segregated, predominantly immigrant residential areas);
and prejudice (discrimination, racism and . culturalizing.
). The other consequence is the paradox that the multicultural school
today is built precisely on these grounds. That is to say, the same
grounds (ethnic background and life experiences) that at the same time, through
a number of social practices and mechanisms, are used to stigmatize and
exclude the bearers of these characteristics. The civil, political and
social dimensions of citizenship apparently lack the necessary instruments to
deal with the multicultural paradox where representations of ethnicity and
socio-economic conditions create new and deepen old rifts in society. Recognizing
the dimension of representation via the rights of cultural citizenship and
corresponding institutions can help us see what new instruments are required
to dissolve the paradox. Cultural citizenship can be defined as every person.
s right to recognition as a full-fledged member of the national community
regardless of his or her ethnic or cultural background or lifestyle. Realization
of this cultural citizenship in the first instance requires conscious
and diligent efforts to change the existing norms and attitudes towards
ethnic diversity that have their roots in a cultural hegemonic way of thinking.
Among other ways, this can be guaranteed by non-stigmatizing symbolic representation
of diverse cultural life forms in the public sphere and society. s
key institutions. In the same way that social citizenship once was expanded and
won support via the socially expansive education system, cultural
citizenship today can be expanded and win support in part through a culturally
sensitive education system. That is to say, through the creation of a new
multicultural school. The new multicultural school promotes equality and equal
respect. All students are afforded equal opportunities regardless of their
social and cultural background. It is a meeting place for children from
different social and cultural environments, a school in which all students feel
valued for who they are and where all students see themselves in and attracted
to the content of their school books. To attain this, altering schools in a
multicultural direction must be coupled to the relationship between social
(basic socio-economic conditions) and cultural citizenship (representations).
Secondly, this process comprises of a comprehensive review and alteration of
institutional constructions (catchment areas, choice, non-state schools), the
ideological base of the school (multiculturalism as a goal worth striving
after) and the pedagogical basis of the school (curriculum, schoolbooks, and
the basic practices of teachers). It is through these sorts of changes that the
official lie about multiculturalism can be transformed into a practically
functioning multiculturalism.
Chapter 9
In this, the final chapter,
I summarize and discuss in more detail the primary analytical points made
in the dissertation. In this dissertation I have sought to put positions,
lived experiences, and representation in relation to each other in order
to make visible what it is that creates difficulties and opportunities in areas
and schools that are labeled . segregated. and the objects of
. integration programs. . Through the use of a multifaceted empirical
material from predominantly immigrant residential areas and the schools in
these neighborhoods, this dissertation attempts to bridge the gaps between
micro and macro; individual and structure; material conditions and
representations; individual difficulties and social problems;
empirical research and abstract theorizing.
What have I found? I. ll begin by emphasizing the importance
of socio-economic conditions. Many residents in Jordbro, Rinkeby, Tensta, and
Husby are economically disadvantaged to put it mildly. Unemployment is
very high. Many households receive various types of welfare transfers from
both national and municipal programs, transfers which for some comprise their
sole income. It is precisely this concentration of disadvantaged individual positions, with
a generally lower rate of employment and income that
separates these areas that I have studied from other areas in Stockholm, and
from the city of Stockholm in general. The positions of the residents are weak,
as are the social networks that they at best take part in. Unemployment doesn.
t just mean that the population . merely. becomes economically poorer, but
also that their power over their own daily lives is severely reduced.
The futures of the residents can be planned and steered by how the
local bureaucratic apparatus perceives various cultures, or the presence of various
. integration projects. , their content and availability. Educational background,
skills, and motivation can prove to be less valuable individual
capital than ethnic membership or belonging. The weak social position of
the parents, limited access to various types of capital, and tenuous influence over
one. s own daily life is confirmed and deepened in relation to school.
Schools tend more and more to take over the role of parents in the child. s
development (surrogate parenthood) as parents are defined as almost incapable
of raising their children as a result of social marginalization. Thus parents
are even marginalized in relation to their child. s schooling.
Many
residents in the areas studied are not just unemployed, but also immigrants,
something that plays a large role in this context. In an area with many
unemployed and
immigrants the existing social conditions and negative representations catalyze along with
a number of other factors a tendency for the area to develop
and harbor a number negative characteristics. When a school is plagued by a
bad reputation and begins losing students, and thereby also economic resources (as a
consequence of lost . school money. ), it is quite easy for the
headmaster or principal and teachers to point to the effects of specific aspects
of the area. s hexis (unemployment, many immigrants, stigmatization,
reorganizations, etc) as the cause of the problems. Their reaction
thus is to further distance themselves from the problem. s source.
Precisely this distancing conveyed via accusations about who is to blame for
the situation creates further problems, makes changes more difficult, and lays
further negative characteristics on the area.
Another solution to the segregation
problem that is often proposed in various official documents is the role
of the school in integration. In more concrete terms, this role implies continuous
efforts in internal pedagogical change (increasing the quality of teaching,
strengthening the self-esteem of the students, treating all students equally),
creation of natural meeting places for young people from different social
and cultural environments, and the creation of . the school at
the center of the community. . The latter concept connotes a more active role
for the school in local social and cultural life. All headmasters and teachers
I have been in contact with have pointed out the importance of schools actively working
with these three integration goals. The extents to which the standard of
teaching is high, and that teachers actively work at improving their pedagogic
skills is hard to discern from my material. I have not looked at classroom
teaching as such. All headmasters and teachers however claim that the teaching
at their schools is of very high quality. These contentions are substantiated to
an extent by external official commendations of merit, positive articles
in newspapers and commendations from headmasters and teachers from other
areas and schools that I have been in contact with. I have however been able
to show that culturalization, and as a consequence of this, negative special treatment
of students with immigrant backgrounds takes place, and that this has
negative consequences on the students. self-understanding. Whether the school functions
as a meeting place or not, is to the greatest extent dependent on the
area. s housing, social and ethnic structure. The process I have seen in some
of the schools studied witnesses to a degradation rather than strengthening
of the vision of a meeting place. As a consequence of the stigmatization
of the school, strained relations between teachers and parents, and
in some cases even between the school. s leadership and its administration
has led many parents to begin withdrawing their children from such schools and
placing them in schools that they believe to be more stable, with more Swedish
students, and better reputations. But not necessarily better instruction. Very
few of the parents, politicians, headmasters, teachers, and students
interviewed spoke of the pedagogical skills of the teachers. In contrast,
everyone spoke of the reputations of schools.
The vision of the school as a
meeting place can even be eroded as a consequence of strained relations between groups of
parents in an ethnically and socially heterogeneous area with heightened internal
divisions. In such cases Swedish parents claim that the school
is unruly and turbulent and should be closed. That there is a value
in itself in the school. s role as the divided community. s only meeting place
weighs negligibly when the socially stronger group. s social and cultural
capital is deemed to be at risk. I have shown that fighting between a
few fourteen year-olds on the school playground is not unique enough to lead
to a bad reputation for the school until it is linked to some deeper background factors
in society, such as different groups. uneven socio-economic conditions, the
fact that different ethnic groups are concentrated in certain housing areas,
and the relations between them. Again, the analysis employs the theoretical model
of positions, relations and representations; from the individual to
the general, from the macro to the micro, from . immigrants. integration
problems. to society. s social and structural integration problem.
In the cases where the school, through various programs, has attempted to get
students from different districts of the city to meet, this has been understood
as a picturesque boundary-transcending vignette in an otherwise strictly
segregated daily life. I will not moralize over such laudable, small individual
attempts to break the consequences of housing segregation, but my analysis
shows that this is not really where the problem lies.
When it comes to the idea of . the school
at the center of the community. , or . the school at the center of
the suburb. , I show that this goal is far from attained. The following have
been shown to be some of the reasons for this. First, schools have classically
been closed institutions that vest all their available human and financial
resources in everyday school activities. The consequence of this is
that all too little room is left for the necessary expansion of activity that
the idea of . the school at the center of the community. demands. Secondly,
the local community in these predominantly immigrant areas are
often seen as the primary source of the problem, rather than its solution.
The solution is thus to sever ties with the surrounding environment, not to
expand cooperation. Thirdly, from the school. s side there are few
ideas about what the school can contribute to the local community beyond teaching.
The dominant conception is instead, . what can the local community
do for us?. Fourthly, the local community increasingly sees the school
as an instructional institution, not as a potentially potent instrument in
the integration process or in social change at the local level. Most of the extra
resources that accrue to schools as part of . integration promoting.
projects are channeled into teaching-related activities. Fifthly, parents,
especially in areas with strong social and ethnic differentiation are at best
moderately interested in participating in working for change. In some areas,
parents have actually actively combated various integration efforts.
Sixthly, these changes and the school. s
search for its own role in a rapidly changing world have meant a rethinking
of traditional activities for many teachers. An unrefined media debate about
the deficiencies in schools can in some cases be felt to be
an unfair attack from people who don. t really know that much about how the
inner world of schools functions. A consequence of this can be a latent resistance
to change and falling back to old, established routines . . the way
we always have done things. . In some cases, attempts at change are dismissed
as . loony pedagogy. , where students are taught everything other
than the essentials of the subjects they are supposed to be learning . precisely
what it is believed they most need to learn. Opposition hits disadvantaged
and predominantly immigrant areas hardest. In the Department of Education.
s (Skolverket) studies it has been shown that parents with
shorter periods of formal education tend to be less inclined to take personal
strides to impact a school. This means that the impetus for change in many
cases comes neither from the school nor parents, which naturally complicates
the picture of engagement and renewal, not the least for disadvantaged young
people.
The role in
integration that schools are officially expected to play in the local
community, and that is accepted as legitimate and worth pursuing by the
leadership in schools has, for the most part been unsuccessful. In some
respects it never really started. The reason for this is the way that the
negative socio-economic conditions and representations have impacted the
relations between various actors in the schools and local communities. I have
also been able to show that when these relations work relatively well, there
can be positive benefits for both the school and its socio-economically
deprived, predominantly immigrant catchment area. The positive effects for the
schools are marked, with regard to reputation, status, an improved economic
situation, pedagogic development, and higher grades among the students. The
positive benefits for the local community come primarily in the form of higher
status and reputation.
The way and extent to which 'the school at the center
of the suburb' can contribute to integration or segregation processes at
various levels in predominantly immigrant and socially deprived districts
of big cities is dependent upon what material conditions, lived
experience, representations of the area, institutions, and various social
actors are present and comprised of; as well as how these interplay with
political visions and concrete goals about what must be done to change
their negative impact, and how conditions, experiences, and
representations and visions are dealt with in each individual case
(whether institutional or individual) in each area, and each
school.
