Conference Program

Building on empirical findings from an extended ethnography of school-to-work transitions among working-class youth in Brussels (Belgium), this paper aims to develop an appropriate theoretical framework and methodology to advance the study of digital skills among lower-income youth and, more broadly, educational inequalities in the context of increasing digitalization in education.

Digital divides mirror wider patterns of social inequality. Access to hardware, information, services, and the development and possession of digital skills are linked to socioeconomic status and education levels (Plantard, 2016; DiMaggio et al., 2001; Vodoz, 2010). Research on the “second order digital divide” (Brotcorne 2019; Valenduc et al., 2010; DiMaggio et al., 2001) examines digital inequalities through the lens of the key knowledge and skills needed to use ICTs within mainstream institutions and roles. Digital literacy is connected to cultural capital, familiarity with written language, and argumentative skills (Auray, 2016; Pasquier, 2018; Grimault-Leprince & Décret-Rouillard, 2023; Harrache & Mell, 2024; Pacouret, Bastin & Marty, 2024). Less scholarly attention has been paid to how young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds and other minorities develop their digital skills outside of school and formal settings, such as in areas disconnected from power. Some studies challenge this view by showing that digital practices do not differ significantly across social class or minority backgrounds, although their use within schools often conflicts with teachers’ expectations and perceptions (Rafalow, 2020). These perceptions help sustain processes of domination and legitimation within the school system.

This paper aims to contribute to this perspective by proposing theoretical and methodological adjustments to Bourdieusian theories. Bourdieu's theory is noteworthy for emphasizing, through the dialectics of affinities between, on one hand, the culture, categories, and judgments that shape the school field, and on the other hand, the culture of the dominant classes, how the legitimacy of practices of students from privileged backgrounds is reinforced. Conversely, his theory is less effective for illuminating how the value of cultural practices among young people from lower-class backgrounds is obscured by the school system and how their legitimacy is undermined in the job market. Indeed, Bourdieu’s theory presents a risk of “miserabilism” (Grignon and Passeron, 1989), which involves analyzing the symbolic worlds of dominated agents solely in relation to the dominant culture and the categories of the field of power and institutions, rather than from their own perspective. Therefore, to shed light on how educational inequalities are reinforced in the digital era—particularly regarding the digital practices of working-class and lower-class youth within the school field and their interactions with teachers’ judgments—we propose developing a Bourdieusian epistemological framework based on the concept of “subfield.” This concept refers to marginalized parts of the social space that still maintain a degree of autonomy. Although the idea of subfield and its autonomy are inherently relative, they help explore dominated symbolic universes and their digital practices before examining their relationship with legitimate culture as school culture.