Spaces of Educational Participation in Marginalized Neighborhoods

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Barbara Asbrand; Professorin Dr. Merle Hummrich; Professorin Dr. Nicolle Pfaff
• Subject Area: Educational Research on Socialization, Welfare and Professionalism
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 546317498

School, youth work and peer cultures are considered both contexts of the reproduction and compensation of socio-spatially anchored educational inequalities. All three of these fields are comparatively well researched, as studies on school and segregation as well as on youth cultures and youth work in marginalized spaces, have been carried out in the past. However, the interaction between school, youth work and peer cultures and its relevance for educational participation of adolescents in marginalized social spaces form a gap in educational research, despite ongoing political demands for cooperation between schools, youth work and social institutions. The proposed empirical study investigates the interaction between pedagogical organizations and different actors in the social space. Based on the experiences of young people in two selected urban districts characterized by poverty and social deprivation, the project aims to analyze experiences of young people in confrontation with educational institutions and informal, as well as youth cultural, contexts. Through the approach of multisited ethnography the research project aims to answer the following research questions: How do relevant actors deal with young people in the context of socio-spatial marginalization? How do organizational practices of inclusion and exclusion relate to one another in the complex interaction of educational institutions and lifeworlds? In order to analyze the complex interplay between these different spaces as structures of educational participation, the project refers to documentary organizational research. The empirical basis consists of interviews, group discussions and interaction data. Through documentary reconstructions, practices and experiences of inclusion and exclusion in school, youth work, and informal spaces, will be analytically related to young people’s experiences. The project aims to develop a theory on spaces of possibility enabling educational participation in marginalized neighborhoods.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Thorsten Hertel