In recent years, a burgeoning number of studies have shed light on the lived experience of territorial stigma. However, the vibrant academic discourse on the stigma of place focuses almost exclusively on residents living in marginalised neighbourhoods: it either overlooks or simplifies the lived experience of ‘moving out’ and ‘up’. Building upon 43 biographical interviews with individuals who experienced upward social mobility and were raised in stigmatised neighbourhoods in Germany, this article argues that the experience of exiting from the symbolic bottom of the urban structure is a more complex and conflictual one. In particular, this work sheds light on how former residents learn to relate to the symbolic baggage of having once lived in a notorious neighbourhood. By analysing the three prevailing coping strategies they engage in, the article shifts attention to the prolonged and lasting impact of territorial stigmatisation.
In recent years, there has been a revived sociological interest in assessing the lived experience of upward social mobility. Several qualitative accounts have highlighted the negative emotional imprints of upward mobility, whereas quantitative researchers have suggested that the picture is far more optimistic. However, both strands of literature rely too narrowly on the perspectives of the upwardly mobile individuals themselves. Against this empirical strategy, which is expressed in recent works on upward social mobility, this article turns attention on the family members of those who experienced upward mobility. Drawing on biographical interviews with upwardly mobile individuals and their family members, the article explores, firstly, the participants’ diverging experiences and assessments of upward mobility, and secondly, how the process affects not only the emotional life of the upwardly mobile individuals themselves, but also of those who are commonly seen as having been ‘left behind’. In doing so, the article shows that including the voices of family members can refocus social mobility research on the wider psycho-social costs and consequences of what are often portrayed as stories of individual ‘success’.
Christiane Reineckes herausragende Monografie Die Ungleichheit der Städte analysiert, wie in Frankreich und Deutschland in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts mit urbanen Problemzonen umgegangen wurde. Entstanden ist eine beeindruckende kritische Stadtgeschichte, die man auch als Plädoyer an die Stadtforschungsdisziplin zu mehr Selbstreflexion lesen kann. So sind es neben Kommunalpolitiker_innen und Aktivist_innen ausgerechnet Sozialwissenschaftler_innen, die im Zentrum von Reineckes vergleichender Analyse stehen – und deren Rolle sich als weit mehr als nur die des_der außenstehenden Beobachter_in herausstellt.
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