This chapter explores processes of learning in everyday life from the point of view of children that participate from marginalized positions in school. The chapter analyzes how these marginalized positions develop over time through slopes of exclusion (Kousholt 2012). The slope of exclusion is an analytical concept formed by many years of theoretical and ethnographic work, as I moved in and across the different social practices of children’s everyday lives. The concept is meant to grasp social processes of exclusion and alienation produced over time and across contexts. It involves restrictive conditions and conflicts on many levels that interweave and produce a slippery slope of exclusion, where children end up giving up on their belonging with other children. The chapter shows how individualized understandings and explanations of children’s behavior displace problems outside of the school, limiting or preventing explorations of how different personal struggles are also connected to dealing with common matters in a contradictory school life.

This chapter explores co-production of spaces for differentiated learning in Street-Lab – a non-profit organization primarily run by volunteering parents and youth making collective activities in collaboration with public employed professionals, local citizens, and other organizations. Street-Lab’s way of co-producing common third activities is an example of a social pedagogical approach in Denmark and an alternative to professional treatment focusing on user’s problems or special target groups. As practice researchers, we participate in multi-positioned ways when exploring processes of co-production of street-sport activities, networks, and dialogical practices in and around Street-Lab. The chapter applies theoretical concepts about boundary communities and differentiated equalities to discuss how inclusive ideologies of being for all are linked to questions of marginalization, (non-)belonging and processes of empowerment. Street-Lab is analyzed as a boundary community that co-produces different boundary spaces for expansive agency and empowerment with different people from the margin.

Romani people have been present in the United States since its earliest days, yet public awareness of Romani lives and experiences remains limited to episodic reporting often highlighting negative interactions with the public. Drawing upon two episodes of Romani interactions with non-Roma, separated by almost a century, this chapter argues that American Romani experiences, memories and kinship connections illuminate the complex character of American immigration controls for individuals who were often deemed to be “undesirable.” Moreover, this chapter highlights the power of strategic actions and claims of belonging by American Roma pursuing their dreams for a new home in the United States. Utilizing both archival documentation and oral history, this chapter shows how American Romani persistence and tenacity, built upon years of effort, have pushed new forms of kinship and social memory around the Atlantic.

Much has been written about the Phoenician colonization of Sardinia, and Phoenician colonial settlements on the island have seen extensive excavation, but much less attention has been given to the local communities of so-called Nuragic culture, despite their millennium-old roots and widespread distribution. Detailed investigation and comparison of two key sites on the central west coast shows that the Iron Age communities of this region drew on the particular ‘power of place’ to sustain their active involvement in shaping both the Iron Age landscape and their interactions with Phoenician outsiders while also affirming and elaborating their deep roots in the local past.

Humans are essentially social creatures, motivated to seek and enjoy human contact. This property is shared with a number of non-human species, a conserved characteristic. Belonging confers essential functional advantages; for example, defence against predators. Attachment is based upon a socially directed motivational system, which provides for flexible behaviour. The chapter describes the attachment theory of Bowlby and Ainsworth, types of attachment and the notion of an internal working model. The theory derived support from imprinting in geese and Harlow’s studies on monkeys. fMRI studies reveal some of the brain bases of attachment. The chapter describes Panksepp’s brain opioid theory of social attachment. Underlying attachment, dopamine and oxytocin interact, exemplified by pair-bonding in the prairie vole. Motivation rooted in aversion is described in the cases of loneliness and social rejection. Could brain opioids help to explain why victims of domestic abuse so often return to their abuser?

This chapter investigates the architecture of belonging by examining how built environments can foster genuine emotional connection and a sense of place. Drawing insights from a Melbourne-based panel hosted by Six Degrees Architects, it explores how planners, developers, and architects can design precincts that nurture a profound sense of belonging. Emphasising the importance of emotional wellbeing and ecological sustainability, the discussion integrates Indigenous perspectives on place and custodianship, contrasting them with human-centric Western planning practices. Case studies, including Melbourne’s Public Office precinct, Canberra’s Dairy Road, and Hobart’s In the Hanging Garden precinct, illustrate creative strategies for revitalising urban spaces through adaptive reuse, community engagement, and landscape-led design. The chapter underscores the need to prioritise values of Country in architectural and urban-planning processes, advocating systemic change in procurement and planning practices, fostering authentic engagement, and promoting reconciliation through the collaborative stewardship of the built environment.

This chapter speaks of Sancho’s meaning to me as a Black Briton. It is also about his general place in the pantheon of Black British figures. I write about belonging and Sancho because it is at the heart of the reason to study a life such as his. Knowing about this Black Briton and his eighteenth-century world can impact on Black lives lived in the UK today. Sancho’s legacy is his engagement with the world of his time and the mirror of that engagement in ours. Artistic, political, and domestic history is interwoven with personal views on a figure who made his compromises and his accommodations in a world not designed for him or people like him. My chapter seeks to unearth a little talked about and less known subject, which is Britain’s deep and exceptionally involved participation in the human trafficking of millions of Black people from the continent of Africa. I conclude with highlighting the positive, contemporary manifestations of interest in Sancho and his world.

Chapter Two examines the notions of “becoming” and “being” Qizilbash, contextualizing the Ottoman Qizilbash within the broader literature on belonging while revealing the multitude of factors influencing this choice of adherence, as perceived by both the ruler and the ruled. More specifically it examines the motivations behind Qizilbash belonging in Ottoman lands through a framework that scrutinizes their lived experience under two major modes: belonging rooted in spiritual conviction and belonging driven by social, economic, and political compulsion. Within this framework, the chapter aims to illustrate that belonging took on diverse forms and that a shift in sectarian affiliation did not always entail the complete abandonment of previously held beliefs; instead, it often occurred within a larger interplay of politics and morality, as well as personal and material needs.

In this chapter, the book is introduced by interrogating how a political community is constructed and with what membership boundaries, especially when it lies across borders, or at another level than the nation-state. I argue that the political belonging found at the local level and based on ideas of ‘indigeneity’ – whereby the individual is bound to a particular community and has access to a bundle of rights by virtue of the ‘first-comer’ or ‘early-comer rule’– informs and contributes to the making of other types of political belonging at different levels.

The convergence of citizenship towards indigeneity implies that the instability of one can easily lead to the instability of the other. This chapter analyses how the two main political parties in Ghana capitalized on the blurred boundary between citizenship and indigeneity and how images of exclusion conveyed by the Aliens Compliance Order (that instructed all foreigners without residence permits to leave Ghana within 14 days) in 1969 strengthened the image of the NPP (New Patriotic Party) as seeking to exclude Ewe-speakers from the nation in the 1990s (in political campaigns) and the 2000s (including in the national debate about cross-border voting).

Chapter Three provides a thorough exploration of the multifaceted experience of being Qizilbash within the Ottoman realm and the consequential implications of such an identity within the intricate Ottoman–Safavid geopolitical landscape. By scrutinizing a diverse array of Qizilbash texts, artifacts, and ceremonial practices, the chapter elucidates the complex processes entailed in shaping and perpetuating a collective sense of belonging. Additionally, this chapter seeks to integrate a discussion of the Ottoman state’s surveillance strategies into the analysis of Qizilbash subjecthood formation within the empire.

Industry figures show that whilst most attendees at electronic dance music events are young adults, older people are also participating. The changing demographic destabilises conventional readings of a culture hitherto associated with youth and reveals the shifting priorities and expectations of older people in relation to (sub)cultural participation. This chapter investigates the impact of this emerging trend and examines the role clubbing plays in the lives of older people. Drawing on the perspectives of participants over forty, it highlights the contradictory attitudes that circulate around the topic of club culture and ageing. Whilst the reported benefits of participation are significant, older people’s presence provokes polarised views and notions of belonging in the scene can be undermined by concerns about fitting in, appearance and feeling ‘othered’. The discussion foregrounds these tensions and explore the ways in which older people’s participation in club culture is provoking change.