[2009 Undergraduate Prize Winner]
Using participant-observer methodology, I studied Latino students at a Buncombe County, NC, elementary school in the months of February through April 2007, looking for qualities of relationship formation and interaction as mediated by three principles – spatial mobility, cultural capital, and social proximity. These three dynamics were used to analyze the distinct environments of the classroom, lunch, and recess and explain motives as well as tendencies in the students’ interactions. The amount of social proximity and the necessity for cultural capital were found to be in an inverse relationship with the amount of spatial mobility available. The varying levels of these dynamics in the different environments dictated with whom fifth grade Latino boys engaged in interactions. The interactions were highly stylized and demonstrated power, as well as linguistic, dynamics. However, significant demonstrations of racial prejudice were not expressed
