Agnès van Zanten - Böcker

This book examines how social inequalities in higher education shape the positional competition in graduate labour markets.Featuring research from Europe, North America, and China, the book provides new insights into graduate careers by examining how graduates from various backgrounds navigate their labour market trajectories in different national contexts. Based on in-depth case studies, it demonstrates how the opportunities for graduates in the labour market do not solely depend on individual skills, experience, and abilities, but on how other graduates act within the labour market and the different forms of capital they possess. This book delineates the social, cultural, and educational conditions through which positional competition becomes meaningful to employers and graduates. It explains why employers value and seek out university graduates when hiring and demonstrates how the value of educational credentials interacts with graduates’ gender, ethnicity, and social class positions. Furthermore, it addresses how regional inequalities influence graduates’ employment opportunities.This book is essential for university students and scholars, policymakers, and anyone interested in the recruitment of graduates. It was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Education and Work.

This latest volume in the World Yearbook of Education Series focuses on educational elites and inequality, focusing particularly on the ways in which established and emergent groups located at the top of the social hierarchy and power structure reproduce, establish or redefine their position. The volume is organized around three main issues: analyzing the way in which parents, students and graduates in positions of social advantage use their assets and capitals in relation to educational strategies, and how these are different for old and new and cultural and economic elites; studying how elite institutions have adapted their strategies to take into account changes in the social structure, in policy and in their institutional environment and exploring the impact of these strategies on educational systems at the national and global levels; mapping the new global dynamics in elite education and how new forms of 'international education' and 'transnational cultural capital' as well as new global educational elite pathways shape elite students’ identities, status and trajectories. Making use of a social and an institutional approach as well as a focus on practices and policies, the volume draws on research conducted on secondary schools and on higher education. In addition, the global contributions within the book allow for a comparison and contrast of situations in different countries. This results in a comprehensive picture of common processes and national differences concerning advantage and excellence and a thorough examination of the impact of globalization on the strategies, identities and trajectories of elite groups and individuals alongside more general cultural and economic processes.

This latest volume in the World Yearbook of Education Series focuses on educational elites and inequality, focusing particularly on the ways in which established and emergent groups located at the top of the social hierarchy and power structure reproduce, establish or redefine their position. The volume is organized around three main issues: analyzing the way in which parents, students and graduates in positions of social advantage use their assets and capitals in relation to educational strategies, and how these are different for old and new and cultural and economic elites; studying how elite institutions have adapted their strategies to take into account changes in the social structure, in policy and in their institutional environment and exploring the impact of these strategies on educational systems at the national and global levels; mapping the new global dynamics in elite education and how new forms of 'international education' and 'transnational cultural capital' as well as new global educational elite pathways shape elite students’ identities, status and trajectories. Making use of a social and an institutional approach as well as a focus on practices and policies, the volume draws on research conducted on secondary schools and on higher education. In addition, the global contributions within the book allow for a comparison and contrast of situations in different countries. This results in a comprehensive picture of common processes and national differences concerning advantage and excellence and a thorough examination of the impact of globalization on the strategies, identities and trajectories of elite groups and individuals alongside more general cultural and economic processes.