Spatial-social inequalities and their reproduction in the Hungarian primary school system

Abstract

In the study, I examine the development and reproduction of socio-spatial inequalities through the system of education, learning and training, with particular emphasis on the role of the state (central and local) and the consequences of changes in its roles. In my work, I consciously approach phenomena from a “bottom-up” perspective as they become perceptible to people and their communities and shape and influence their activities locally. Thus, in my analysis, spatial representations of the world economy, regional and national institutional frameworks, practices and local-regional social influences are closely intertwined with the everyday behaviour of certain actors in certain places. The background to my analyses is the experience of empirical research in three Hungarian settlements between 2014 and 2018, in which I tried to investigate the phenomena of school selection and pupil segregation and their main causes and consequences. In my work, I interpret institutional education as a large, bureaucratically organised system in which the state distributes services through the regulatory authorities it accepts and through the mechanisms it controls and supervises, which consequently appear to users as “accessible services”, but with different patterns for individuals and groups in different situations. Using the concept of Lefebvre's social space and the interpretation of Soja's spatiality, I distinguish within the (theoretically) “available services” between services that are “ordered” and those that are “actually available” to people. With this differentiated approach, I interpret the role of the state, local government and local elites in shaping educational provision and in the ever-increasing processes of pupil selection and segregation, in which the family background, social and economic status and ethnicity of pupils play a crucial role and contribute significantly to the reproduction and growth of social and spatial inequalities.