‘I call it the dark side’: stigma, social capital and social networks in a disadvantaged neighbourhood

It is well established that the stigmatisation of residents of socio-economically disadvantaged places by outsiders can have harmful consequences for those residents’ wellbeing and opportunities. However, relatively little research examines the effects of intra-neighbourhood stigmatisation on residents. We draw on Loïc Wacquant’s ‘advanced marginality’ thesis to explore this dynamic. We extend Wacquant’s concept of ‘territorial stigmatisation’ empirically with a social and spatial analysis of relational ties and stigma in a disadvantaged neighbourhood in Tasmania, Australia. This shifts the analytical focus from insider–outsider boundary-making to the ‘micro-territories’ of stigma production, which we argue are relationally as well as geographically constituted.