Abstract
In this chapter Kenway and Prosser examine the social aesthetics of two elite schools in the Global South. Focusing on the role of space within the creation of social aesthetics, they draw on Lefebvre’s notion of the ‘spatial triad’, particularly ‘spatial practices’, to describe the historical and social processes taking place inside and outside the school gates. This relationship between the school and its wider social context is crucial since an elite space is defined by those places beyond it. In South Africa and Argentina, elite schools signal the flavor of their preferred clientele through their location in expensive, expansive, fastidiously groomed, quiet suburbs. These are well away from the cramped and noisy quarters of the poor where no space can be wasted and which are often home to the schools’ manual workers. Largely unnoticed, their long days are devoted to indulging the senses of rich: cooking, cleaning, primping the grounds. Such social divisions—spatial and otherwise—remain in spite of the democratic transformations and social upheavals that have altered these nations in the past few decades. As such, elite schools have had to shift their character and try to become open to Others. But this is easier said than done. Some new students enter the school from previously abject groups; others are merely allowed in as part of open days for family workers. Such noble gestures are welcomed but often accentuate an exclusive social aesthetics experience by a select few.
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Notes
- 1.
Howard Prosser conducted the fieldwork in Argentina; Jane Kenway and Debbie Epstein did so in South Africa.
- 2.
That is not to say that MacDougall was unaware of the external influences on this internal culture of the school. His writings on the school and other fieldwork certainly prove he was. Rather, we are suggesting that the films’ focus remained within the school itself (MacDougall 1999).
- 3.
Lefebrve identified three elements in the use of urban space: Spatial Practices, Representations of Space, and Spaces of Representation. These are a little confusing, so it’s preferable, in this forum, to use adjectival definitions that Lefebrve endowed them with: Conceived Space, Lived Space, and Perceived Space. For an excellent clarifying interpretation see Rob Shields, Lefebrve, Love and Struggle: Spatial Dialectics (1999).
- 4.
The description speaks of a downplaying of wealth or disproving of extravagant displays of wealth. It also can be read as meaning not bringing attention to the economic elite that the school serves. Engagement with the public sphere—in formal politics, for example—is regarded as corrupting or distasteful. The likely historical reason for this lies in the unpredictable nature of doing business in a nation with a long history of social unrest.
- 5.
That race is an issue in Argentina at all still seems a surprise to some. It is a testament the success of nationalist homogenization and the control of the past. Scholars now working to rectify the record will no doubt meet with resistance.
- 6.
Coming to terms with the inclusive nature of social discourse has been a common trait among elite schools in our larger project ‘Elite Independent Schools in Globalizing Circumstances.’ The openness that a liberal education affords does not always sit easily with the exclusionary expense it incurs (see Khan 2011).
- 7.
There was an added layer to this day. Another part of the school was open to other young people, mostly girls, who were competing in a Scottish festival of dance and song. (Scottish dancing is fashionable among the private schools for reasons no one could explain beyond tartan skirts.) Although not an official school event, the occasion did have a more than tangential relationship to the Scottish origins of the Caledonian school. Much like a tango milonga in Edinburgh, the festivities showed global culture in full garb. But more tellingly, when viewed in concert with the family fun day at the other end of the campus, it showed two different manifestations of the school culture: its past and its future in the present. Spatially, the whole arrangement—which could simply be seen as a matter of allocation—captures Lefebrve’s point about the complicated way that space is lived and the richness of the social aesthetics that results.
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Kenway, J., Prosser, H. (2015). Distinguished Spaces: Elite Schools as Cartographers of Privilege. In: Fahey, J., Prosser, H., Shaw, M. (eds) In the Realm of the Senses. Cultural Studies and Transdisciplinarity in Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-350-7_3
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