Defend, Defy, or Distance: How Marginalized Youth Experience and Respond to the Stigma of Place

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 2:30 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Fracturing and Transforming Race and Place (Table 19)

Abstract

Recent work has provided insight into how school stigmatization negatively shapes students’ sense of worth and experiences within school. Additional questions remain about how school stigmatization shapes students’ experiences beyond the school context. Drawing on Wacquant’s (2007) concept of territorial—or place—stigma, this study explores how students enrolled in a stigmatized high school experience and respond to the “blemish of place.” Analysis of semi-structured interviews (N = 47) indicate that participants experienced stigma by association with their school. Their educational affiliation was perceived as a mark that negatively shaped their out-of-school interactions and opportunities. In response to everyday place-related marginalization, participants drew on several strategies that potentially resisted or reinforced the stigma surrounding their school.

Author

• Daphne M. Penn, Vanderbilt University