Facing contempt: Dealing with exclusion among Berlin Hauptschüler

Abstract

This research deals with exclusionary processes of social ascription in which low socio-economic status is linked with disregard, in turn ‘producing’ a disrespectful or contemptuous treatment of others. On the basis of an ethnographic study of Hauptschüler in Berlin, Germany, the production of and dealing with contempt is looked at from different angles: as processes of refused recognition, as discrimination based on race/ethnicity and class in the school system, and with regard to negative and derogatory media representations. A wide range of social practices of Hauptschüler – friendship, body-practices, emotions, and irony – are considered as mechanisms of coping with contempt and thus take on a political meaning.