Clément Rivière

Alone or together in the neighbourhood? School choice and families’ access to local social networks

ABSTRACT This study explores how the everyday geographies of city life and families’ access to social networks in the neighbourhood influence families’ school choices. The data consist of thematic interviews with parents of 8–14-year-old children (n = 170) in three urban areas located in the cities of Paris (France), Milan (Italy) and Espoo (Finland) and are analysed via qualitative content analysis. The findings indicate that the families’ access to local social networks influences the reasoning behind school choice to the local school. The children’s relationships with other children and adults in the neighbourhood are considered important, but additionally, the parents’ networks with other parents in the area, mediated by the school, play their role. School choices as practices should therefore be analysed not merely as choices of an institution, as they comprise various aspects concerning the surrounding neighbourhood as a physical and social space.

School Choice, School Markets and Children’s Urban Socialization

Drawing on in-depth interviews conducted with parents (n = 88) living in two socially mixed areas of Paris (France) and Milan (Italy), this chapter aims to extend and enrich the understanding of urban education by highlighting the relation between children’s schooling experiences and their urban socialization. The purpose is to shed light on the urban outcomes of children’s schooling experiences, and have a closer look at the phenomenon in terms of social class and inequality. Children’s acquisition of urban skills (in particular with regard to the autonomous use of public transportation), social mixing in schools, construction of social networks and the proximity/distance from home to the neighbourhood of the school, were compared in the two case-cities. School as an institution not only produced educational inequalities, but also spatial inequalities, especially in relation with school choices. The urban outcomes of school choice for children (and parents) are widely considered. On the other hand, the role played by institutional and socio-cultural contexts in shaping children’s urban socialization was investigated through comparing families in Paris and Milan. In particular, school choice policies may play a central role in producing the social differentiation in urban socialization. Taking into account the local welfare configurations (i.e. the way families, the State and the market interact), this chapter suggests the spatial dimension of parental educational strategies to be weaker in Milan, whereas the very competitive school market reinforces social differentiation in Paris.