How to analyze situated inequality in institutional life in a marginalized residential area?

Rebekka Knudsen, Gry Marie Tybjerg

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Abstract

We aim to discuss limited participant possibilities in social practices with a concept of situated inequality. The context is a school and youth club in a vulnerable residential area (“ghetto”) with a lot of political conflicts in a city in Denmark. The object of the analysis are the participant conditions of young people from 12 – 16 years old mostly with a minority background in and across school and club. A conceptualization of situated inequality helps us grasp the young people’s participation and unequal access to social situations. Such situations are often linked to many complex processes as locked conflicts, powerlessness, and mutual abandonments between many participants over time. But what we find is, that these processes often depend on how young people’s social and material life circumstances outside the institutions are grasped and given situated meanings insight the social practices and develops within social dynamics. Here young people are singled out as carriers of some conflicts because of their socio-economic background, which the club and school’s many participants find problems dealing with in the concrete social practices. In such processes, the explorations of the concrete participant conditions insight school and club often disappear from the professional’s understanding of the problems. But how can we understand these processes as not random processes, but neither process’ systematically linked to the background with which children and young people enter their institutional life in across school and leisure time?
Original languageEnglish
Publication date2024
Publication statusPublished - 2024
Event20th Conference of the International Society for Theoretical Psychology : Theory as Engagement - University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade, Serbia
Duration: 20 May 202425 May 2024
Conference number: 20
https://istpsychology.org/

Conference

Conference20th Conference of the International Society for Theoretical Psychology
Number20
LocationUniversity of Belgrade, Faculty of Philosophy
Country/TerritorySerbia
CityBelgrade
Period20/05/202425/05/2024
OtherEngaged theorising has a long history, however it seems as timely and needed today as ever, particularly in psychology. It asserts that theorising is not held aside from or even in opposition to the real world – it is because we hold the world and people, their complexity, institutions, cultures, and power seriously that we need to theorise. Theorising is inclusive, it requires dedication and time, and it is always a dialogical endeavour. The beauty of theorising is that it transcends national, historical, social, and linguistic barriers while simultaneously serving as a tool for their critical examination, provided that it is respectful, honest, transparent, dialogical, and reflexive. Theory done in an engaged way creates a shift in thinking and practice that can direct social and personal transformation.<br/>
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