”Mä tunnistan kaltaiseni, kun mä nään sen” – Etnografinen tutkimus kaupunkikoulun oppilaiden arkitodellisuuksien eriytymisestä

Recent studies reveal that schools in Finland’s largest urban areas are increasingly segregated. Two dimensions of segregation, residential and school segregation, have been found to be strongly interlinked. In this study, we examine how pupils’ daily lives are segregated or integrated across three life domains – 1) home 2) school and 3) leisure activities, and what kind of negotiation and social distinctions are related to these domains among pupils. Our findings are based on an ethnographic study (48 days), including interviews with pupils (n=22) with different social and ethnic backgrounds in one urban lower secondary school. The results demonstrate that differences between the pupils’ life domains are interconnected in many ways and create social distinctions, hierarchies and divisions between pupils, thus forming breeding ground for detachment and segregation. The findings emphasize the need for urban and educational policies that are sensitive to complexities of local context in social mixing measures