Mothering, Habitus and Habitat: The Role of Mothering as Moral Geography for the Inequality Impasse in Urban Education

Following Bourdieu, residential location as habitat may provide spatial profit when it matches with a habitus – but how? How can we conceptualize situations of mismatch between habitat and habitus, and what may they mean for urban inequalities? This article explores this topic through the lens of mothering practices in elementary schools. Qualitative interviews in two neighbourhoods in Berlin, Germany, suggest how moral geographies at intersections of class and race/ethnicity structure parents' opportunities to organize resources for children in their specific spatial contexts. It argues that mothering practices can help us see not just that, but how habitus and habitat are related. Empirically, it suggests that the moral geographies in which these schools are embedded reinforce the exclusionary consequences of their institutional practices. I theorize that the moral geographies of neighbourhoods as sites of mothering practices vis-à-vis the class-based state logics in institutions may contribute to an urban impasse of educational inequality.Peer Reviewe

'They got a project mentality’: Theorizing neighborhood dis-identification and the paradox of belonging through the lens of ‘the Ghetto’.

In a housing project in a small college town on the American East coast, a project that residents call ‘the Ghetto’, city administrators, social workers and politicians alike have often argued that housing projects offer living conditions that are not beneficial to the residents because, in a causal argument, they do not care about their community. Caring about the community is associated in public discourse and urban studies alike with positive identifications, and positive identifications with a sense of belonging, and sense of belonging with community. Based on long-term ethnographic research, this paper aims to critically discuss the question of how, on a meta-theoretical level, sense of belonging, community and positive identifications with a place are connected, showing that such connections are less obvious than sometimes suggested. Drawing on fieldwork on discourses of dis-identification and distancing in daily routines that constitute de-facto community as urban practice, this paper argues that first, sense of belonging and identification develops in an individual agents’ perspective, whereas community is relational and collective. This contrast explains the paradox of belonging: people say that others have ‘a project mentality’ and that they themselves do not ‘belong’ in the projects. Yet at the same time much of their networks and daily interactions consist of doing community locally. Second, this paper argues that usual explanations of simple stigma coping strategies - discursive constructions of dis-identification as a way of stigma - may play some role but do not suffice as a full explanation

Sicherheitsempfinden am Kottbusser Tor, Berlin

Das Kottbusser Tor in Berlin-Kreuzberg wird sowohl wegen seiner Vielfalt und seines Community-Aktivismus gefeiert als auch wegen Schmutz, Drogen und Gefahr gemieden. Wie die Bewohner*innen ihren Kiez sehen, wird oft in Anekdoten und politischen Statements dargestellt, aber kaum systematisch untersucht. Deshalb hat ein Forschungsteam des Georg-Simmel-Zentrums für Metropolenforschung an der Humboldt-Universität im Auftrag des Bezirksamtes Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg an Haustüren geklingelt und nachgefragt: Wodurch fühlen sich die Menschen in ihrem Wohngebiet unsicher? Würden sie denken, dass mehr Polizeipräsenz die Un-/Sicherheit erhöhen würde? Was erwarten sie von anderen Anwohner*innen, und inwiefern tragen solche Erwartungen zum Gefühl der Sicherheit bei? Trägt die alltägliche Nutzung der Nachbarschaft zum Sicherheitsgefühl bei? Dieses kleine Buch stellt die Ergebnisse der Studie vor. Es engagiert sich kritisch mit der berühmten These, dass "Augen auf der Straße" soziale Kontrolle und damit mehr subjektive Sicherheit erzeugen, und untersucht die Relevanz von Dunkelheit, Dreck und Drogen sowie von Achtsamkeit, Gemeinsamkeit und Zugehörigkeit. Die Studie zeigt, dass das Sicherheitsempfinden in einer städtischen Nachbarschaft von vertrauter Öffentlichkeit abhängt. Sie zeichnet sich dadurch aus, dass Menschen einschätzen können, was sie um sich herum sehen (eine Fähigkeit, die bei wiederholter Nutzung von Orten zunimmt) und darauf vertrauen, dass andere Bewohner*innen ihnen den Rücken freihalten. Dabei muss den Menschen nicht immer alles gefallen, was sie an ihrem Wohnort erfahren. Aber in dichten Stadtgebieten mit hoher Diversität profitieren die Bewohner*innen von gegenseitigem Wiedererkennen, wenn es um das Sicherheitsempfinden geht

Oog voor elkaar

People like to live in a safe neighborhood. Areas with a variety of facilities like houses, offices and shops seem to be an important strategy to improve the safety of a neighborhood. More people on the streets means better social control, is the thought behind this strategy. But do people on the streets have consideration for each other? This book is a theory on urban environment, public familiarity and trust on the one hand. On the other it is a very practical plea for a careful planning and nuanced governance of the public space.Iedereen woont graag in een veilige buurt. Gevarieerdere buurten waar wonen, werken en winkelen elkaar afwisselen zijn een belangrijke strategie geworden om veiligheid te bereiken. Van ogen op straat gaat sociale controle uit, zo is dan de gedachte. Maar hebben mensen met ogen op straat ook oog voor elkaar? Oog voor Elkaar is enerzijds een theorie over stedelijke omgeving, publieke familiariteit en vertrouwen. Anderzijds is het een praktijkgericht, op alledaagse verhalen gebaseerd pleidooi voor zorgvuldiger vormgeving en beheer van stedelijke openbare ruimte

Oog voor elkaar: veiligheidsbeleving en sociale controle in de grote stad

People like to live in a safe neighborhood. Areas with a variety of facilities like houses, offices and shops seem to be an important strategy to improve the safety of a neighborhood. More people on the streets means better social control, is the thought behind this strategy. But do people on the streets have consideration for each other? This book is a theory on urban environment, public familiarity and trust on the one hand. On the other it is a very practical plea for a careful planning and nuanced governance of the public space.Iedereen woont graag in een veilige buurt. Gevarieerdere buurten waar wonen, werken en winkelen elkaar afwisselen zijn een belangrijke strategie geworden om veiligheid te bereiken. Van ogen op straat gaat sociale controle uit, zo is dan de gedachte. Maar hebben mensen met ogen op straat ook oog voor elkaar? Oog voor Elkaar is enerzijds een theorie over stedelijke omgeving, publieke familiariteit en vertrouwen. Anderzijds is het een praktijkgericht, op alledaagse verhalen gebaseerd pleidooi voor zorgvuldiger vormgeving en beheer van stedelijke openbare ruimte

Oog voor elkaar

People like to live in a safe neighborhood. Areas with a variety of facilities like houses, offices and shops seem to be an important strategy to improve the safety of a neighborhood. More people on the streets means better social control, is the thought behind this strategy. But do people on the streets have consideration for each other? This book is a theory on urban environment, public familiarity and trust on the one hand. On the other it is a very practical plea for a careful planning and nuanced governance of the public space

Roots and routes in neighbourhoods. Length of residence, belonging and public familiarity in Berlin, Germany

Urban scholars commonly expect that residents show more neighbourhood belonging, the longer they live in an area. An imagery of fixed settlements thus remains dominant in a rapidly changing world. Recent research challenged classic assumptions but the alternative of elective belonging hardly differentiated between symbolic and practical neighbourhood use. As belonging is performatively maintained, this differentiation may be needed. What defines residents’ belonging in a neighbourhood in digital mobile times? Does length of residence alone result in place-based practices, familiarity with other people and ultimately in more belonging? Our analyses of survey-data from four Berlin neighbourhoods show that length of residence correlates with belonging, but not in a simple linear way. The use of infrastructure and especially public familiarity, which depends on the settlement as specific historical configuration, affect this relationship.城市学者普遍认为，居民在一个地区居住的时间越长，就越有邻里归属感。因此，固定定居点的意象在瞬息万变的世界中仍然占主导地位。最近的研究对经典假设提出了质疑，但选择性归属的替代方案 几乎没有区分象征性和实际的邻里功能。由于归属感是通过行动来维持的，因此可能需要对它们进行区分。在数字化、移动化时代，如何定义居民对社区的归属感？仅仅长时间的居住就会带来基于地方的实践、与他人的熟悉并最终带来更多的归属感？我们对柏林四个街区的调查数据进行了分析，发现居住时间长短与归属感相关，但并非以简单的线性方式相关。基础设施的使用，尤其是公众熟悉度，会影响这种关系。而公众熟悉度取决于作为特定历史配置的定居点。Peer Reviewe