The Precarity of Privilege - Social Mobility and Migration

这项博士研究，“的不确定性”，将使用民族志的方法来调查和探索社会流动的生活经验。也就是说，它将提供数字上尚不清晰的数据，回答诸如以下问题：成为社会流动性的产物意味着什么？性别、阶级和种族在巩固或阻碍一个人在大学或工作场所的社会移动的能力方面扮演什么角色？在阶级的背景下，“通过”是什么意思？不“看起来像”来自弱势背景的人是什么意思？阶级的流动性是什么，以及它的含义是什么？该研究旨在从白人工人阶级代表性不足的群体以及包括少数民族，LGBTQ+和低社会经济背景在内的交叉身份的学生的一系列角度来揭示社会流动性的叙述。在对亚裔学生的仇外心理加剧的时候，制度化的种族主义为非洲和加勒比血统的学生形成了各种“天花板”，并且对白色工人阶级存在厌恶和漠视，这项研究与以往一样突出。它对教育机构，无论是私人还是国家资助的，企业界和非营利企业的影响是巨大的。然而，这项研究的核心目标是明确的：揭露“社会流动性的隐性伤害”，这些伤害破坏了社会流动性带来长期积极变化的承诺。30年前-并响应弗里德曼的研究，探索谁是陷入“社会炼狱”（2014年）的人的生活经验的呼吁，这个博士旨在提供一个补充，人种学采取社会流动性。它还建立在约翰·戈德索普的研究基础上。40年前，Goldthorpe发表了一篇开创性的研究论文，阐明社会流动性无疑是积极的（1980）。研究还表明，社会流动性赋予了稳定和永久的特权感。毫无疑问，这种定量社会学研究为我们理解社会流动性和制定政策提供了丰富的叙述（内阁办公室，2011）。然而，Friedman（2014）质疑，如果我们不考虑社会流动的心理社会后果，我们会失去什么观点和经验？只有通过民族志研究才能解析出这些考虑，并揭示出特权的不稳定性。

This doctoral research, 'the Precarity of Privilege', will use ethnographic methodology to investigate and explore the lived experience of social mobility. That is, it will offer data not yet legible in numbers, answering questions such as: what does it mean to be the product of social mobility? What role does gender, class, and ethnicity play in either cementing or hindering one's ability to be socially mobile while at university or in the workplace? What does it mean to 'pass' in the context of class, to not "look like" someone from a disadvantaged background? And, what is the fluidity of class and the implications of this? The research will aim to surface the narratives of social mobility from a range of perspectives of underrepresented groups spanning the white-working class, and students of intersecting identities including minority ethnic, LGBTQ+, and low socioeconomic backgrounds. At a time where heightened xenophobia exists towards students of Asian heritage, where institutionalised racism forms various 'ceilings' for students of African and Caribbean heritage, and where there is a loathing and disregard towards the white working-class, this research is as prominent as ever. Its implications for educational institutions, both private and state-funded, the corporate world, and non-profit ventures, is vast. However, the core aim of the research is specific: to surface the 'hidden injuries of social mobility' that undermine its promise of long-lasting positive change.Building on Claire Alexander's 'The Art of Being Black' - research carried out at Oxford approx. 30 years ago - and responding to Friedman's call for research that explores the lived experiences of people who are caught in a "social purgatory" (2014), this DPhil aims to offer a complementary, ethnographic take on social mobility. It also builds on John Goldthorpe's research. Forty years ago, Goldthorpe published a seminal research paper articulating that social mobility is unequivocally experienced as positive (1980). The research also implied that social mobility confers a stable and permanent sense of privilege. Undoubtedly, such quantitative sociological studies add a rich narrative to our understanding of social mobility and inform policy (Cabinet Office 2011). However, Friedman (2014) questions what perspectives and experiences we lose through dismissing any consideration of the psychosocial consequences of social mobility? Considerations that may only be parsed out through ethnographic research and reveal that there is a precarity to privilege.