The degree generation : the making of unequal graduate lives / Nicola Ingram [and seven others] ; with a foreword by Sam Friedman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ingram, Nicola, author.

Contributor:

Friedman, Samuel, 1991- writer of foreword.

Series:

Policy Press scholarship online.

Policy Press scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Graduate students--Employment.

Graduate students.

College graduates--Employment.

College graduates.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (213 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Bristol : Bristol University Press, 2023.

Summary:

This book traces the transition to the graduate labour market of a cohort of middle-class and working-class young people. Using personal stories and voices, it provides fascinating insights into their experience of graduate employment and how their life-course transitions are shaped by their social backgrounds and education.

Contents:

Front Cover

The Degree Generation: The Making of Unequal Graduate Lives

Copyright information

Table of Contents

List of Tables

About the Authors

Foreword

1 Graduate Success and Graduate Lives

Introduction

Constructions of graduate success

Graduate outcomes and employability within the UK higher education policy landscape

Aspirations and social mobility: bright futures and broken dreams

Conceptualizing decision making and future planning

Symbolic recognition and conversion of capitals on the labour market

Overview of the chapters in the book

Chapter 2: Moving on Up: Researching the Lives and Careers of Young Graduates

Chapter 3: London Calling: Being Mobile and Mobilizing Capitals

Chapter 4: 'There's No Place Like Home': Graduate Mobilities and Spatial Belonging

Chapter 5: Jobs for the Boys? Gender, Capital and Male-Dominated Fields

Chapter 6: Intersections of Class and Gender in the Making of 'Top Boys' in the Finance Sector

Chapter 7: Following Dreams and Temporary Escapes: The Impacts of Cruel Optimism

Chapter 8: Lucky Breaks? Unplanned Graduate Pathways and Fateful Outcomes

Chapter 9: Conclusion: The Making of Graduate Lives

References

2 Moving on Up: Researching the Lives and Careers of Young Graduates

Following participants from working-class and middle-class backgrounds

Data collection and analysis

The wider context of the data

3 London Calling: Being Mobile and Mobilizing Capitals

Who is London calling? Evidence from the DLHE

Privilege and proximity: belonging to the elite metropolitan vortex

Fitting and not fitting in: the making and not making of a life and career in London

Conclusion

4 'There's No Place Like Home': Graduate Mobilities and Spatial Belonging

Introduction.

Home, mobility and graduate employment in the 2010s

Returning home: home as a base camp and launch pad for the future

Staying home: redefining home as a resource

Habitus, capitals and capacities for mobility

Habitus

Habitus and spatial mobility

Mobility as capital and capacity

Ruby: choosing a suitable career path to stay local

Home, imagined futures and attachment to place: the social milieu of home

Pursuing a clearly structured career pathway

Elliot: complex mobilities and mapping a future of his own creation

Home, imagined futures and attachment to mobility: the social milieu of home

Creating a route to a desired career future

Class journeys and divergent meanings of home and mobility

Acknowledgements

5 Jobs for the Boys? Gender, Capital and Male-Dominated Fields

Different gender, different career aspirations and outcomes

The (gendered) field of engineering

'Engineering capital': symbolically recognized capital in the engineering field

Marcus: being the right person in the right place in the field of engineering

Jennifer: a female space invader in the male-dominated field of engineering

6 Intersections of Class and Gender in the Making of 'Top Boys' in the Finance Sector

'Top girls' and 'top boys'

Aspirations, opportunities and capacities to become 'top boys' in the finance sector: the workings of social class

Nathan: consolidating class advantage

Harvey: working his way back into the middle class

Leo: a career in finance as a route to security

7 Following Dreams and Temporary Escapes: The Impacts of Cruel Optimism

Aspirations of the 'degree generation'

Jasmine's story: cruel optimism and broken dreams.

Martin's story: escape routes and meaningful futures

Precarity or privilege?

8 Lucky Breaks? Unplanned Graduate Pathways and Fateful Outcomes

Unplanned fateful outcomes

Time to get a job? Minimally planned serendipity

Unplanned fateful outcomes: falling into work

Finding the 'right' place

9 Conclusion: The Making of Graduate Lives

Material considerations

The symbolic struggle in the construction of the ('right') graduate

Symbolic closure and social magic within the field of graduate struggles: the embodiment of privilege

Making a life, not just making a living

Re-imagining constructions of graduate success

Doing longitudinal qualitative inquiry

Appendix

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 19 Jan 2024).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781529208887

1529208882

9781529208870

1529208874

9781529208863

1529208866

OCLC:

1382696863