Still Jenny from the block? Working-class women, higher education & social mobility in the COVID-19 context

还是来自街区的珍妮吗？

• 批准号: ES/W006065/1
• 负责人: Laura Bentley
• 金额: $ 13.13万
• 依托单位: University of Birmingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FW006065%2F1
• 关键词: Still; Jenny; block; Working; class

A university education is generally viewed as a route through which social and economic standing is enhanced. That is, it is considered a catalyst for upward social mobility. However, are all graduates afforded this 'opportunity'? And how has the COVID-19 pandemic effected young people's graduate trajectories? In the 1990s, social scientists in the UK found that while increasing numbers of working-class students were accessing university, they were not benefitting from it in the same way that the middle-classes and elites were. It was the latter groups who monopolised the "superior jobs" in the graduate labour market (Brown and Scase, 1994, p.17). For too long, graduates from working-class background, particularly BAME women, have disproportionately faced navigating the low-waged, precarious jobs market upon graduation and beyond. This remains the case today as the global auction for talent ensues and informal processes of mobilising high value capitals, rather than formal academic credentials, play a major role in who gets which job (Brown and Souto-Otero, 2020). As this is a considerable and growing issue, a closer, more in-depth look at the routes throughout which social privilege is (re)produced through higher education is required. I did just this during my PhD research as I interviewed fifteen working-class women who studied at a UK university over a longitudinal basis. They graduated into a saturated employment market which offered them little opportunity for professional employment. From this, I designed a set of conceptual tools that allowed me to take an 'intra-class' theoretical approach to understanding the narratives of working-class women. Conceptualising these allowed me to problematise work which viewed those in the 'working-class' category as homogenous, unpick and speak to the details of differential class experiences within one class category. This delineates my work from other sociologists, particularly other Bourdieusian scholars. This is an important theoretical contribution which I will continue to develop throughout the Fellowship. I found in my thesis that graduation was a point at which where various forms of inequality are reproduced. To research this surrounding COVID-19 is a necessity, as it has been acknowledged that women, young people and BAME groups have been worst affected by the pandemic. This Fellowship has been designed to attend to this important social problem, to do further research and create policy impact which will allow for the distribution of opportunities in a more equal manner. Through embarking on the programme I have designed, I will be situated at the heart of academic policy debates that are about to emerge on the impact of COVID-19 on social mobility and social inequalities faced by young working-class people, particularly young women.

大学教育通常被视为提高社会和经济地位的途径。也就是说，它被认为是社会向上流动的催化剂。然而，所有的毕业生都有这样的“机会”吗？COVID-19大流行如何影响年轻人的毕业轨迹？在20世纪90年代，英国的社会科学家发现，虽然越来越多的工人阶级学生进入大学，但他们并没有像中产阶级和精英那样从中受益。正是后一类人垄断了毕业生劳动力市场上的“上级工作”（Brown和Scase，1994年，第17页）。长期以来，工人阶级背景的毕业生，特别是黑人、亚裔和少数族裔妇女，在毕业后及以后都不成比例地面临着低工资、不稳定的就业市场。今天的情况仍然如此，因为全球人才拍卖和动员高价值资本的非正式过程，而不是正式的学历证书，在谁得到哪份工作方面发挥着重要作用（布朗和索托-奥茨，2020）。由于这是一个相当大的和日益增长的问题，需要更密切，更深入地研究通过高等教育产生社会特权的途径。在我的博士研究期间，我就这样做了，我纵向采访了15位在英国大学学习的工薪阶层女性。他们毕业后进入了一个饱和的就业市场，这给他们提供了很少的专业就业机会。由此，我设计了一套概念工具，使我能够采取“阶级内”的理论方法来理解工人阶级妇女的叙述。概念化这些使我能够问题化的工作，这些工作将那些在“工人阶级”类别中的人视为同质的，拆开并在一个阶级类别中谈论不同阶级经验的细节。这使我的研究有别于其他社会学家，特别是其他布尔迪厄学派的学者。这是一个重要的理论贡献，我将在整个奖学金中继续发展。我在论文中发现，毕业是各种形式的不平等再现的一个点。围绕COVID-19进行研究是必要的，因为人们已经认识到，妇女、年轻人和BAME群体受到这一流行病的影响最严重。该奖学金旨在解决这一重要的社会问题，进行进一步的研究，并产生政策影响，以便以更平等的方式分配机会。通过开始我设计的课程，我将处于学术政策辩论的核心，这些辩论即将出现COVID-19对年轻工人阶级，特别是年轻女性所面临的社会流动性和社会不平等的影响。

项目成果

Book Launch: Selling Our Youth. Graduate Stories of Class, Gender and Work in Challenging Times.

新书发布会：出卖我们的青春。

• 发表时间: 2022
• 作者: Waller R

Revisiting the Needs of Sutton Coldfield, Change and Future Requirements.

重新审视萨顿科尔菲尔德的需求、变化和未来需求。

• 发表时间: 2023
• 作者: Gregory L

The Degree Generation: How Graduate Employment and Life-Course Transitions are Shaped by Social Background and Education

学位的产生：社会背景和教育如何影响毕业生就业和人生历程的转变

• 发表时间: 2023
• 作者: Ingram N

Confronting Double Disadvantage: Working-Class Women

面临双重劣势：工人阶级女性

• 发表时间: 2023
• 作者: Bentley L

Working-Class Women, Higher Education and Graduate Life

工薪阶层女性、高等教育和研究生生活

• 作者: Bentley L