ABSTRACT
Drawing on empirical research with young people in London, this chapter explores how symbolic violence permeates the everyday lives of working-class and minoritized Britons through the devaluation of their neighborhoods and schools. It explores how dreams of spatial relocation and social mobility are tied to intersectional inequalities. The paper shows how young people living in Enfield, a borough on the periphery of the city, negotiate disadvantage within the education market and their placement in poor, racialized areas of London. The individualism and good life fantasies promoted by English educational rhetoric and their aspirational secondary school are recognized as potentially illusory, as students endure symbolic violence through the marketized English educational system. Many of the young people envision a future living outside of Britain, or at least Enfield, as spatial mobility becomes aligned with social mobility. The chapter examines the relationship between spatial and social mobility, as social mobility promotes a mythical belief in social justice while leaving inequitable structures intact. Through exploring students' mobility dreams, the paper examines the relationship between urban space and embodied intersectionalities.
