Notes on: Bathmaker, C., Ingram, N., Waller, R. (2013). Higher education, social class and the mobilisation of capitals: recognising and playing the game. British Journal of Sociology of Education 34 (5--6): 723 – 743.743, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01425 Dave Harris This is about strategies employed by successful middle-class families, based on a longitudinal study of undergrads, both WC and MC at Bristol's two universities [UWE and Uof B] using Bourdieu to examine capital mobilisation and acquisition. MC students seem to have privileged access to valued capitals and this gives them an advantage in competition. Education and social mobility have been linked in policy in the 21st century. Participation in HE has increased and is now 47% although subsequent transition into graduate labour markets is 'uncertain' (724). The mobilisation of different forms of capital may be required to influence future social and economic positioning. Implications may extend to other European countries and to some extent to all developed nations given the global demand for talented graduates. Different class background might lead to different responses to a competitive environment. Students might respond differently to the '"rules of the game"'. They studied to universities, one research intensive, the other more teaching oriented. They focused first on debates about enhancing employability and then considered whether knowing the game helped maintain the social advantage, and then whether various extracurricular activities and internships can be seen as forms of mobilising capital. There may be a difference between '"active" and "internalised" behaviours and strategies'. Generally, those with the most capital will gain the most advantage. There is a general view that participation in HTE will lead to long term financial benefit, the graduate premium. There may be different returns according to degree subject studied and university attended, but some people are still arguing that the salary premium remains [examples of research on 725 — one is Bukodi and Goldthorpe 2011 showing that 'significant class differences in relative occupational outcome have persisted over the past 60 years despite increased absolute mobility' (725) although there is contrary work, pointing out the 'increasingly desperate measures' adopted by graduates to attain good jobs. There is a need to play the game, to positioned children in prestigious schools and programs. The study here might overemphasise this competition for elite jobs, but there seems to be general application. Another result is the need to build a CV. It is what bourdieu (1990) describes as '"having a feel for the game"'. Students have to enhance their employability by pursuing additional activities, like work experience and internships, and skilled extracurricular activities (ECAs). This might be taken for granted among MC students — what Lareau calls '"concerted cultivation"' (726) in the family, a 'high degree of engagement in structured ECAs. Non-study time in HE might be increasingly important, even though lifestyle and activities are still shaped by income and social background, and these have an influence on ECA and internship or work experience opportunities. They also seem to affect 'orientation towards mobilising additional experience into valuable capitals'. This is found in a study of mature students who got into a cheese through widening participation who had a focus almost entirely on academic achievements and '"an almost non-existent engagement in any nonacademic related extracurricular activities"', partly because they were constrained by things like family responsibility. However there are complexities. Employers vary in terms of the value they place on ECA. Those that seem to demonstrate leadership are particularly beneficial. Students do not always understand or exploit the strategic potential of ECA or how to package them into personal capital. They also need to combine cultural capitals in terms of what they know with social capital in the form of who they know. Internships and work experience can be important especially in accessing the professions or elite cohorts or fast track programs. One study (727) found definite inequality here and the need for a fund of pre-existing social cultural and economic capital. Some international research confirms this.There is also the need to develop a suitable self, and ECA may be about finding like-minded people. This can take an MC form of finding were the individuals. They are focused on the narrower definition of ECA and separated out internships and work experience because they seem to be more clearly understood as important in transition to the labour market, while ECAs were seen as more varied, more to do with a viable identity and a sense of belonging, and less strategic. They pursued a longitudinal study, taking pairs of students from different social classes in the two universities, matching the pairs by class, institution and discipline, trying to identify the kinds of capital that they had already and that which they acquired. They had 80 students from 10 discipline. Their problems of defining class of course and chose to work with occupations of both parents, type of school, parents experience of HE and self-report, which led to 3 groups, clearly WC, clearly MC and in between. They focused only on young ones to avoid complexities. It was difficult to find some unambiguously WC students in some disciplines and they had to change some classifications. They also found some ambiguity, for example ambiguously MC including self employed people and unambiguously WC like those who had been socially mobile. In bourdieu's terms the WC groups can be compared to the dominated groupings and they do have different patterns of attitudes experiences and behaviours. They focus on social class here there are insufficient numbers to discuss race although they did notice some gender differences . Overall, middle-class students enjoyed definite advantages in both universities, and there were some sign that MC students were trying to distinguish themselves at UW E. They did interviews and coded them using NVivo, getting broad themes They drew on board year capital and playing the game, especially mobilising capital both actively and in internalised ways. They did not want to suggest that people are simply determined more fully self world — they do perceive their agency differently, and operate differently in terms of intentions. Bourdieu also argues that you can pursue strategies without seeing them as conscious and rational calculations, and this was the case for some students [this is what they mean by internalised]. Some had a better feel for the game [which they trace in statements made by the students] — about the changing needs of the labour market, or the status of different universities, all the need to get particular classifications or to study particular subjects. Some recognise the importance of networking, or using family contacts, and these were 'disproportionately found amongst particular subsections of the sample: middle-class students generally, and male students in particular' (732). There was the 'active generation of capitals to ECAs', via societies and activities, especially involving positions and responsibilities, committee works, becoming elected officials. Two MC students at UW E saw this as distinguishing themselves from their peers, joining the right circle. Differentiation was also apparent through things like pursuing status hobbies, or sports. A more 'taken for granted' [internalised] was more typical, showing through practices apparently developed in childhood, mostly MC. Students were aware of their parents role as setting them up for the future. There were some aspirational WC families. Some developed internalised motivation by joining groups, for example MC students at UWE who joined football teams at the University of Bristol — 'ECAs appeared to be a means of this identifying with their place of study' (733). 11 WC students did not engage in structured ECAs, blaming financial time constraints, or the need to prioritise studies. This was sometimes a disappointment. They sometimes sensed social class differences as barriers. They saw the disadvantage in not being able to mobilise capital. A [larger] group did not engage in structured ECAs but spent time with people like themselves, playing games or clubbing and shopping, cultivating friendships. These might generate capital but not in an obvious sense. They might be personal capital. Overall 33 students were internalising the generation of capital, 15 were using ECAs strategically, but 33 were not engage in anything that could be repackaged, and 'of these 27 were from working class backgrounds' (734). When it comes to internships, most participants were aware of the value of these, and most had secured or aspired to them, although there were differences in types and success, reflecting class and gender differences — 10 WC had been successful compared with 23 MC, and gender differences, not explored here. Some WC students had to have internship explained to them [more were not looking]. Some were more strategic about their career from the start and also saw the world as much more competitive. Those not seeking internship were often unsure what they wanted to do, especially MC females, while WC students tended to focus on the degree, not only because they saw the grade as important but because it took up all their energy and was enough discomfort. MC students in both institutions were more successful especially with high status internships. This did not reflect differences in grades but was down to 'social capital advantage'(737). MC students often had significant connections in big companies, or family networks, and were able to pull strings or capitalise on favours. Some took it for granted, 'considering such opportunity their entitlement' (738). Economic capital was also important, for example helping them take unpaid internships or to work in other parts of the country or the world. WC students cannot access the same resources, and are aware of it. It led quite often to frustration. There is often a need to earn money. Sometimes they know the rules of the game but simply cannot compete. Overall, this shows how University does not do social levelling, 'but rather it becomes another site for the middle classes to compound and exploit their advantages' (739). So, all students are aware that a degree is no longer enough and that they have to play to some extent a graduate recruitment game. However some have more of a feel for the game than others. Some are also able to mobilise and generate different forms of capital to gain an advantage [I must say that parental capital seems overwhelming so far]. Bourdieu talks about those aware of the game continually playing it [but the team have not really observed this in the form of, say daily interaction with lecturers, or the awareness to pose as a good student in the library. Nor have they done anything like the study of behaviour at recruitment fairs, to show you can 'get on']. Playing the game was most visible with internships, and so were class differences, and here we saw most evidence of an internalised approach. With ECAs, fewer students all activity as strategising and even fewer saw this consciously, again most of those were MC. They suspect the influence of an habitus [but don't really have any evidence for it]. WC students [the mugs] were if anything predisposed 'towards trying to play a meritocratic games fairly, putting extra effort into securing higher class of degree rather than securing an internship for instance' (741) and they were also more likely not to do ECAs because of financial time constraints. Overall playing the game so is a compounding of social qualities and the reproduction of dominant and dominated positions. This means that we should look at new aspects on how education leads to social reproduction. It's not so much access, more on how advantage is preserved through a shift in the rules of the game, which turns on not just quality of degree but 'ever-increasing ways of securing… Position and coming out on top'. The implications are that there is 'a need for universities to redress maximising experience of university and actively providing opportunities to have "more than just a degree" in order to begin to address the equity challenges currently facing working class young people '(741).