Beyond the classroom: engaging stigmatised students in the wider community

 

The young residents of immigrant background living in the marginalized suburbs of major cities are at the focus of attention of many social and economic initiatives. From social policies to support childbearing poor families to non-profit organizations engaged in local community building, a profusion of grass-root and public services are all committed to changing the living conditions of these vulnerable communities. Diverse as these initiatives are, they share a common challenge: that of further stigmatizing their target group. Often referred to as “vulnerable”, “disenfranchised” or “marginalized”, target groups become interesting only because they are distinctly vulnerable, marginalized or disenfranchised. In so doing, initiatives perform and reproduce the ethnic stigma that is both the outcome and the source of their target groups’ disadvantage. What role can the school play in breaking this circle of reproduction? The lecture shows how a particular collaboration between a local school and a non-profit organization worked to overcome the problem of stigmatization.

 

Oplægsholder: Ester Barinaga

Ester Barinaga is Professor (mso) at the Dpt. of Management, Politics and Philosophy at the Copenhagen Business School. In 2010 she published the book Powerful dichotomies – Inclusion and exclusion in the information society. Her current work focuses on concepts, strategies and tools that may help us better design organizations and initiatives aiming at social change in general and the dissolution of the immigrant condition in particular. To put her ideas into practice, Ester founded and chairs Förorten i Centrum, a social venture based in Stockholm that uses the collective production of mural art to work bottom-up with socio-economic vulnerable communities.

 

Moderator: Peter Ulholm

 

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