Sub-alterities: schooling in Southern Italy

Pitzalis, Marco

Co-prime

;Spanò, Emanuela

2023-01-01

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Abstract

The article analyses the circularity of symbolic and structural forms of domination, feeding the field of expertise, and the school field in a country such as Italy, historically characterised by a deep divide between north and south; this led to the emergence of the so-called Southern Question. We aim to bring into the international debate the existence of a South in a European country which is usually and univocally con- sidered to belong to the North. The analysis is structured around two main interconnected dimensions: 1) the macro-dimension of knowl- edge production where we show how, when analysing the experience of schooling, if the structure of the field itself and its logic of domination are not challenged, any critical epistemological discourse is destined to become a form of structural complicity with the intrinsic logic of the academic field; 2) the micro-dimension of school experience: schools, families and students engage and participate in the educational field, are part of it, adhere to its rules of play and struggle to ‘exist’ in its interstices.