ABSTRACT
Despite the seduction of endless space place is beginning to escape from its entombment in the cultural and philosophical underworld of the modern West. The ways in which particular social relations and practices, localities, systemic policies and constellations of individuals and histories coalesce in the institution of the school will be deemed by the local narrators to be as important as the commonalities. There is something at odds with the ways schools talk of themselves and the ways they are described in policy. The category ‘disadvantaged schools’ sends to the margins, and very often offstage altogether, the significant differences between schools. In rustbelt schools, students and their families are variously affected by social, economic, cultural and political trends and events, which in turn have particular effects in the schools. Schools are also subject to changing patterns of migration and diaspora which show up as specific curriculum and counselling needs.
