Follow nine young people as they move from racially isolated elementary and middle schools to a diverse – yet internally segregated – neighborhood high school.

In this illustrative book, author Rebecca Alexander draws from the lived experiences of the young residents of “Glenwood”, a historically Black suburb, and “Parkside”, the historically white, wealthy community just across the freeway. Focusing on an anonymised location in California during the sub-prime crisis, the book explores issues of segregation and gentrification in US schools and communities, while looking at how youth and families work to produce, contest, question, resist, and engage racialized space in and beyond schools.

Reframing (de)segregation work through the lens of dispossession, displacement, borders and frontiers to highlight the historic and ongoing labor of young people, families, and communities in the context of persistent dispossession, the author contextualises experience with theory to demonstrate how concepts in social and educational structures impact real lives.

Rebecca Alexander PhD is an Associate Professor and Chair of Education Studies at DePauw University, Indiana. Her work specializes in education and borders, and segregated schools and communities.