Going out with school. (Im)mobilities and sporting and cultural experiences among young people from horticultural families

Abstract

This work reflects on the everyday mobilities and immobilities of young people from a horticultural smallholding area in relation to their status as students in the peri-urban zone of an intermediate city, considering the implications for their social lives and school experiences. It presents findings from an ethnographic study conducted at a state-run secondary school in Paraná (Entre Ríos), which, although classified as urban, enrolls students from both the neighborhood where it is located and the adjacent smallholding area. In this ethnography, a series of sports and cultural practices promoted by the school and framed within the realm of 'socio-educational' activities emerge as facilitators of mobility and spatial usage that hold significant meaning from the youths' perspective—particularly for those who live and work in this area, reshaping their experiences of spatial (im)mobility. Examining how they move, which spaces they navigate, which are restricted to them, which movements hold significance, what phenomena enable them, what strategies they employ, what resources they rely on, and what constraints they overcome, among other questions, allows us to account for processes that limit, facilitate, or enable access to and use of spaces, as well as material and symbolic resources for young people. It also sheds light on their experiences in a context marked by inequality and social exclusion.