Choices, risks and rational conformity: extending Boudon’s positional theory to understand higher education choices in contemporary China

Abstract

This study extends Boudon's positional theory to understand how students from different social origins make choices about university and how they interpret risks during the choice-making process in contemporary China. I draw upon empirical evidence from 71 indepth semi-structured interviews with undergraduates from different social backgrounds and from different types of universities. The interview data confirm the relevance of Boudon's thesis in the Chinese context; that is, individuals' family characteristics manifest in the process of choices and strategies. Furthermore, this study provides new evidence on a pattern of classbound conformity, which sometimes contradicts the rational course of action from students' narratives on socioeconomic and cultural identity as well as opportunity risks associated with the quota system. When hope and chance clash, students from working-class or agricultural families reduce to internalize their socioeconomic or geographical disadvantages, come to terms with a lack of equal opportunities in a seemingly meritocratic system.

Cultural capital and higher education inequalities in contemporary China

“…This theme can be traced back to Boudon's distinction between primary and secondary effects (Boudon, 1974). In this regard, Liu (2019)'s interview‐based study shows that the abundant cultural capital of professional families can cultivate students with a confident and clear vision about university choice, the field of study choice, and career prospects. This privilege is absent for working‐class students.…”

Curiosity and careers: Female working-class students’ experiences of university

“…Bourdieu's concept of habitus (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1977;Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992) offers a bridge between structural and agentic factors to try and understand working-class students' experiences of university. The concept of habitus has been used to understand how different cultural dispositions of women and/or working-class students shape decisions about, and experiences of, university study (recent examples include Clark et al, 2015;Daniel & Watermann, 2018;Liu, 2019).…”

Tackling rural-urban inequalities through educational mobilities: rural-origin Chinese academics from impoverished backgrounds navigating higher education

“…Regarding access to higher education, since HEIs mostly rely on financial supports of local governments, preferential admission quotas have been reserved for candidates from home provinces and cities. Since a predominant majority of HEIs in China are located in urban areas ( Li 2013;Liu 2018), students from the countryside are structurally constrained in accessing higher education due to this quota system. Moreover, the complex university choice-making system at the juncture of Gaokao, the national college entrance exams, has been found to severely disadvantage rural candidates as they lack the requisite social and cultural resources to make strategic and informed choices ( Liu 2018, 2).…”

“…This has resulted in rural candidates clustering in less prestigious HEIs (i.e. nonkey universities or vocational colleges) and majors ( Li,2013, 830;. Liu 2018).…”