The Subjective Experience and Socialisation of Social Inequality for Young People in Middle School in Mexico

Abstract

This paper presents some findings of an ongoing research project about the socialization that occur in high school in Mexico, in relation to social inequalities, and what this results as part of the subjective experience of the teenagers. A qualitative study was carried out, with discussion groups from a high school, in addition to the application of a questionnaire survey to all the students. Among the results, it was found that students assimilate normative content (in relation to discipline, work, effort and consumption) with which they construct distinctions of a moral sense compared to others and that support the logic of social inclusion and exclusion. In this regard, its effects are analyzed in four ways: the reinforcement of the meritocratic discourse, the denial of inequality in terms of class, the distinctions and typifications according to their school affiliation, and the homogenization of experience that makes inequality invisible. In conclusion, the implications of these effects are presented from de point of view of Alfred Schutz’s phenomenological perspective, in the sense of pointing out how socialization around merit shapes shared subjectivities that make a strong counterweight to the immediate personal experience regarding inequality, in addition to underlining the importance of continuing to study the phenomenon from common sense notions, and from its subjective dimension in young people.