Middle-Class Diversity and the (Re)production of Inequalities: A Study in a General Secondary School in Vienna

Amidst growing societal diversification, schools operate as key sites for the gendered and racialized production of “national subjects” — shaping who is seen to legitimately belong to the imagined national community. This article explores the politics of national subject formation in a Viennese general secondary school (AHS), celebrated for academic excellence yet characterized by a high proportion of 'migrant' and socioeconomically disadvantaged pupils. Drawing on the discourses and everyday practices of school staff, and applying an intersectional feminist framework, the study investigates how subject positions emerge through processes of gendering, racialization, ethnicization, and class-based distinction. The findings expose the construction of a normative national subject aligned with what I term “middle-class diversity” — a mode of conditional inclusion in which difference is welcomed only when it conforms to dominant gendered, classed, and national norms. Pupils who do not align with these expectations risk marginalization and structural disadvantage, despite school staff’s efforts to address inequalities. The article argues that individual interventions are insufficient and calls for systemic, institutionally embedded reforms to promote educational equity and inclusive national imaginaries.