To Belong or Not?

Abstract

The chapter focuses on how feelings of belonging are enacted with place, residential, and school segregation. Furthermore, it focuses on how these feelings are negotiated in daily school practice and how they affect thoughts around school choices. The study is situated in one of Sweden’s bigger cities, at a school located in a territorially stigmatized suburb. Data was collected using ethnographical methods, and the theoretical inspiration for the chapter was drawn from the concepts of belonging, non-belonging, and constructions of symbolic boundaries. The study shows that thoughts around school choice are relational, and furthermore that it is important to understand where students feel they belong in order to fully understand the logics and practices behind school choice.