Unequal Neighbourhoods, Unequal Schools: Organisational Habitus in Deprived and Privileged Local Contexts

Do schools work differently in deprived and privileged neighbourhoods? As segregation is on the rise in many cities, this book explores how different neighbourhood contexts shape public organisations, by using an innovative approach that combines a Bourdieusian perspective and new institutional theory. Based on interviews and ethnographic data from two primary schools in Berlin, Germany, it shows how local social compositions, symbolic meanings of urban areas, and neighbourhood-based policy interventions structure schools. Educational professionals adapt to these structural differences. The book analyses how teachers’ understandings and practices vary by local context – and what that means for the reproduction of urban inequality.