Sociospatial schooling practices: a spatial capital approach

Abstract

This paper highlights the importance today of the spatial dimension within the analysis of parents' education strategies concerning their school choices at the secondary school level. This study is based on the 2 dimensions of the concept of spatial capital (Lévy, 1994 Lévy, J. 1994. L'espace légitime. Sur la dimension géographique de la fonction politique[The legal space. About the geographical dimension of political function], Paris, , France: Les Presses de Sciences Po. [Google Scholar]): position capital and situation capital. It explores sociospatial schooling practices of all pupils between the ages of 11 and 15 living in Lille and attending a secondary school in 2006. The Lille example reveals the importance of taking into account the configuration of the local school provision. It also underlines the benefit of the multidimensional concept of spatial capital. In this way, control over the spatial dimension appears to be a capital in its own right, unequally distributed among social groups, which contributes to the production of schooling inequalities in urban environments.