This study examined middle-class mothers' engagement in urban school selection as residents of two gentrifying neighborhoods in Atlanta, Georgia. Gentrifiers levy social capital when activating or exercising agency and create social networks that valorize child-rearing concerns through exchange of information. Thirty mothers with children under the age of 5 in the initial stages of school selection participated in the study. Empirical data were collected about their social networks using an open-ended interviewing technique. A four-part typology of parent-gentrifiers was created to identify levels of agency operating within networks. While the mothers expressed an equity agenda honoring educational diversity, actual school-selection outcomes belied their liberal intentions.
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