That Sinking Feeling

Emotions, especially those of impoverished migrant families, have long been underrepresented in German social and cultural studies. That Sinking Feeling raises the visibility of the emotional dimensions of exclusion processes and locates students in current social transformations. Drawing from a year of ethnographic fieldwork with grade ten students, Stefan Wellgraf’s study on an array of both classic emotions and affectively charged phenomena reveals a culture of devaluation and self-assertion of the youthful, post-migrant urban underclass in neoliberal times.

List of Illustrations

Introduction

Part I: Boredom and Beyond

Chapter 1. School in Ruins: Atmosphere of Boredom
Chapter 2. Distraction: Provocation as Critique

Part II: Forms of Self-Empowerment

Chapter 3. Coolness: Selfie Poses
Chapter 4. “Ghetto” Pride: Discourses and Practices

Part III: Feelings of Inadequacy

Chapter 5. Grading: On the Pedagogical Production of Feelings of Inferiority
Chapter 6. Ugly Feelings: Envy, Resentment and Embarrassment

Part IV: Anger and Aggressiveness

Chapter 7. Anger: Political Feelings and Patronizing Education
Chapter 8. Aggressiveness: Boxer Style

Part V: Fears and Hopes

Chapter 9. Social Anxieties: Unemployment and Deportation
Chapter 10. Cruel Optimism: The End of the Future

Bibliography