National symbolic capital in a multinational environment. An exploratory study of symbolic boundaries at a European school in Brussels

Abstract

Despite processes of Europeanisation in education aimed at reducing symbolic boundaries of nationality among Europeans, countries continue to be judged in terms of their reputation or “symbolic capital”. Based on qualitative group interviews with students at a European School in Brussels, a unique institution educating the future citizens of Europe, we investigate to what extent the symbolic capital attributed to the students’ national background shapes symbolic boundaries between them. Our results suggest that they draw symbolic boundaries in two steps. First, students classify their schoolmates according to criteria specific to youth culture, including: youth lifestyle, effortless academic achievement, cosmopolitan values and language skills. These primary categories may then be attributed to different national groups and language sections at the school. As a consequence, a status hierarchy emerges, running from Northwest-European to Eastern European students. This points to a permanence of symbolic boundaries of nationality, even in the highly Europeanised context of a European School.

Keywords:

• Symbolic boundaries
• international schools
• national symbolic capital

Acknowledgements

This study is a revised version of an article published in German.

Notes

1. It must be noted that this is an exploratory study, which merely tries to develop a first argument on how national background may shape symbolic boundaries within highly international environments. It does not claim to represent the full complexity of boundary-making processes at this or other European Schools.

2. We assume that countries with a low national symbolic capital are often not perceived independently, but as parts of peripheral or semi-peripheral regions. Indeed, our interviews show that people single out “the French” or “the Germans”, but speak of “Eastern Europeans”.

3. See also: Bourdieu (2005, 229), and the literature on national stereotypes from social psychology (for example, Madon et al. 2001; Cuddy et al. 2009).

4. Apart from the three larger sections (German, English and French), which exist at every European School in Brussels, we do not disclose the exact names of smaller sections for purposes of anonymisation. This also applies to sections referred to by the interviewees. We resort to general terms such as “Scandinavian” or “Eastern European” (referring to the formerly socialist countries in Central and Eastern Europe that joined the EU in 2004, 2007, and 2013). We will point out throughout the text whether we refer to a specific Eastern European or Scandinavian country, or to Scandinavia or Eastern Europe as a region.

5. A very similar distinction between primary and secondary classification was observed by Andreas Wimmer (2004) in his study of ethnic boundaries across three cities in Switzerland.

6. Interview quotes have been edited for better readability. Also, please note that the quotes reported in this text primarily serve as illustrations, whereas our interpretation of the data, and the conclusions we draw from it are based on the entire interview material.

7. Still, there are some “individuals”, in the words of the interviewees, who are not in line with the majority style of educated understatement, and instead showcase their wealth (Veblen 2007). When the respective individual is mentioned, everybody in the German group knows who it is: “We have this [student], he always comes to school in outfits of – what's it called? – Ralph Lauren, but says that's basically not expensive enough for him” (Interview #4, German Section, translated). Even though the students find this type of behaviour strange, they do not take it seriously. They dismiss it as funny and “clown-like”. In any case, it shows that such class snobbism does not mark symbolic boundaries between the school's status groups, but highlights the external boundaries of the school community. This student's behaviour deviates from the norm. Class-specific capital is not a means for status distinction at the school.

8. The material did not yield any assessment of academic achievement of other language sections.

9. However, this might also be a consequence of the exploratory nature of our study, as we did not interview students from all language sections, in particular Southern European ones.

Additional information

Funding

The study was carried out in the context of the project “Transnational Human Capital and Social Inequality” funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) [grant number GE 991/13-1 and -2].