Christopher D. Berk. “Between Worlds: Identity, Culture, and Ambivalence in a Boarding School for ‘At-Risk’ Youth.” Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics 10, no. 2 (2025): 580–602.
DOI: 10.1017/rep.2025.23

Published version: Link
Preprint: SocArXiv / SSRN

Overview

This article examines youth identity formation at a contemporary boarding school that serves “at-risk” children. The school seeks to prepare students for adulthood through sustained intervention in everyday cultural practices, aiming to reshape norms, dispositions, and forms of belonging. The article analyzes how institutional efforts to produce maturity and responsibility can generate a distinctive experience of social liminality, or felt “in-betweenness,” among students navigating competing cultural worlds.

By tracing how discipline, belonging, and aspiration are organized in a custodial educational setting, the article connects questions of culture and identity to broader debates about governance, authority, and the reproduction of social disadvantage. It provides a framework for understanding how institutions manage vulnerability and how young people interpret, negotiate, and sometimes resist the roles offered to them.

Central Question

How do institutions attempt to shape identity and belonging among “at-risk” youth, and what forms of ambivalence emerge in response?

Contribution

This article contributes to debates in:

  • politics of childhood and youth
  • race, culture, and identity formation
  • institutions and social reproduction
  • governance of “at-risk” populations
  • custodial education and discipline

Who might find this useful?

Scholars working on:

  • institutional life and youth development
  • boarding schools and residential programs
  • race and inequality
  • child welfare and juvenile governance
  • qualitative approaches to institutions

Related work by the author

Suggested citation

Berk, Christopher D. 2025. “Between Worlds: Identity, Culture, and Ambivalence in a Boarding School for ‘At-Risk’ Youth.” Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics 10(2): 580–602. 

[Cite with BibTeX]
@article{berk2025between,
  title={Between Worlds: Identity, Culture, and Ambivalence in a Boarding School for "at-risk" Youth},
  author={Berk, Christopher D.},
  journal={Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics},
  volume={10},
  number={2},
  pages={580--602},
  year={2025},
  publisher={Cambridge University Press},
  doi={10.1017/rep.2025.23}
}