Socialisation, Integration, and Identity in Adolescence. The Use of Social Categories by Pupils from Albania, Kosovo, and Turkey Studying in a French Middle School
Socialisation, Integration, and Identity in Adolescence. The Use of Social Categories by Pupils from Albania, Kosovo, and Turkey Studying in a French Middle School

Summary/Abstract: With this text I attempt to approach childhood, more particularly the phases we often refer to as pre-adolescence and adolescence (UNCRC’s definition), from an anthropological perspective which implies thinking about it in plural rather than in singular. The paper is the product of a two-year ethnographic field study in a French middle school in a “priority zone” and aims to examine the different ways in which Albanian, Turkish and Kosovar children studying there, through their discourse and daily routines, live, construct and negotiate social categories such as origin, nationality, and social class. Pupils are viewed as social actors who are active participants in the production and reproduction of their peer culture. In the light of that perspective I address the cultural and social context of their particular situations and attribute special attention to pupils’ agency and their ability to communicate and reflect on these complex concepts. Furthermore I analyse how students apply these reflections on different social actors, adults and peers, as well as on social relations.

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