Abstract
This article examines how variation in educational outcomes according to “place,” or one’s geographic environment, has been explained in educational theory. In a critical review of functional, conflict, cultural and institutional theory in education, the author describes the disciplinary perspectives and research that leave the mechanisms of student differentiation according to place largely undeveloped. By introducing two related concepts of endogenous capital, the author articulates macro- and micro-level systems of social mobility between and within schools according to place. The author contends the social organization and functioning of schools mirror and support the larger structure of place-based stratification in that they sort and allocate students into places within school that differentiate one’s ability to convert the resources of the environment into social mobility.
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Notes
Sociologists of education were not the only ones to overlook the applicability of Weber. Blau and Duncan (1967) contend sociologists in community and urban studies also overlooked the applicability of Weberian status group theory in explanations of differentiation within communities (pp. 5–6).
Coleman (1988) would provide a more formal articulation of the connection between lateral relationships and social mobility in his theory of social capital.
The conceptualization of association follows from the law of proximity, a Gestalt principle of organization that holds events or objects that are near to one another in space and time are perceived as forming a unit.
Others such as Defilippis (2001) have criticized these conceptualizations of community social capital on the grounds that the first articulations of social capital offered by Loury (1977), Bourdieu (1985), and Coleman (1988) locate social capital in human interactions, not within individuals or communities. These theorists define social capital as the human capital, relationship norms and possible mobility one acquires from interacting with another whom possesses greater human or social capital. The factor which seems to determine the acceptability of social capital as a neighborhood or community construct depends on whether one’s perspective privileges the social ties or the endogenous externalities (norms, etc.) such ties produce (Durlauf 1999, 2002).
This observation is consistent with the concerns expressed by Goetz (2003) and Benabou (1993) regarding the creaming effects of redistributive policy. Both authors point out the consequences of individuals moving to more prosperous environments are greater for the communities left behind than for those being joined.
Lopez-Turley (2002) questioned whether relative deprivation was advantageous for lower income populations in an analysis that admittedly did not consider the associated social psychological feelings of deprivation within the dispositions of learners. Without considering the occurrence of deprivation feelings, her analysis by chance explores proximal capital, that is, the advantage youth derive from being located in areas and institutions with individuals that are financially better-off. In sum, she finds a positive relationship between “relative deprivation” and the educational outcomes of youth within economically heterogeneous environments.
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Johnson, O. Ecology in Educational Theory: Thoughts on Stratification, Social Mobility & Proximal Capital. Urban Rev 40, 227–246 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-008-0084-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-008-0084-z