Skolan mitt i förorten : - fyra studier om skola, segregation, integration och multikulturalism

Abstract

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 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. My primary theoretical source of inspiration is the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's way of looking at the relations between individuals and structures. Against the background of his work I contend that 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 dissertation. 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.

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