Affective-Moralizing Classifications
Adolescent Perspectivations of "Violence", “Masculinity” and "Justice" in the Context of Schools’ Normative Order
Adolescent Perspectivations of "Violence", “Masculinity” and "Justice" in the Context of Schools’ Normative Order
STEFANIE STRULIK
The contribution analyses moralising classification practices of adolescents within the context of post-migrant schools in Switzerland. It is based on data gathered through a multi-modal ethnographic approach, centred on a participatory video project with students.
In Switzerland, as elsewhere, schools have undergone significant transformations due to migration, mobility, globalisation, and digitisation. Despite these changes, schools remain positioned in national education policies as key socialising institutions, particularly given the increasing heterogeneity of student populations. The political mandate for integration and inclusion within schools—often interpreted as assimilation—is closely tied to their role in categorising and classifying both knowledge and students. Schools exercise the power of definition through their authority to determine what constitutes legitimate or illegitimate knowledge, while also assessing and positioning students accordingly. Classifications serve as instruments of social control, delineating who is perceived as 'normal' and who is labelled as 'deviant', thus reinforcing hierarchical structures. These processes are informed by an (autochthonous) middle-class orientation, which privileges certain forms of cultural capital over others. In this way, the categorisation and classification processes within schools contribute to the construction of difference, functioning as mechanisms that reproduce social inequalities and sustain existing power structures.
The presentation will focus on the possibilities of counter-classification, exemplified through the analysis of two short films produced by students aged 13-15. The analysis will explore how adolescents engage with and challenge the classifications and subject positions ascribed to them by schools, such as "migrant," "deficient," "weak," or excluded from a collective "we." Through moralising re-classifications, the adolescents reposition themselves in relation to the school's knowledge order—drawing on violence, justice, and masculinity as resources—while simultaneously expressing social belonging to their peer group.