Creating Cosmopolitan Subjects: The Role of Families and Private Schools in England

Abstract

This article examines the ways in which cosmopolitanism is imagined and planned for by 91 young women attending four private (elite) schools in one area of England. Despite many study participants coming from families where parents travelled internationally for business, few had a strong desire to reproduce such orientations in their own futures. Moreover, the elite schools attended placed relatively little emphasis on cosmopolitanism and transnationally mobile futures. For the few English young women doing the International Baccalaureate and/or actively considering higher education abroad, the decision to do so was driven by individual rather than family or social ambitions. Through our analysis we consider further whether cosmopolitanism is a form of (cultural) capital or a quality more embedded within the girls' habitus. The relatively ambivalent attitude to cosmopolitanism found in the study schools ties in to an ethnocentrism which sees an 'English education' as among the most prestigious in the world.

De-coupling or remaining closely coupled to ‘home’: educational strategies around identity-making and advantage of Israeli global middle-class families in London

“…Relations to the home nation have been shown to diverge for the mothers in our study, and we found that the 'political orientation' of these two groups serves as a prominent factor of their GMC identity -active de-coupling from their nation state or an attempt to re-couple, despite a history and future that is likely to remain mobile. Both groups develop post-national forms of identity, while building their new lives abroad, and in our study, more specifically in the UK (Maxwell & Aggleton, 2016). In both groups the 'think global act local' notion is translated into new forms of identity, actively cultivated through the education strategies of the mothers.…”

Modalities of cosmopolitanism and mobility: parental education strategies of global, immigrant and local middle-class Israelis

“…In drawing on the concept of cosmopolitanism when researching the GMC, it is most likely to align with it being a form of (cultural) capital, which further privileges this group (Maxwell & Aggleton, 2016). Yet, through mobility and openness to frequent relocation, the more humanistic interpretations of cosmopolitanism, or, in other words -global mindedness -might still inform the kinds of orientations articulated by the GMC.…”

“…Such reference points can be associated with various articulations of cosmopolitan capital (Igarashi and Saito, 2014;Szerszynski & Urry, 2006;Weenink, 2008). While debates about the meaning of cosmopolitanism and its various articulations continue (Beck & Szhaider, 2006), and scholars consider whether it is a form of cultural capital, a capital in and of itself, or something that can become more embedded within the habitus (Maxwell & Aggleton, 2016), we have found Andreotti et al's (2015) conceptualisation of global mindedness as a multi-dimensional concept that denotes various 'modes of existence and exposure' (p. 246) particularly fruitful for our analysis. In the following we show how Andreotti's et al's (2015) Betty's description of their holiday plans and the articulated rationale for such trips abroad, mirror closely Andreotti et al's (2015) disposition of the 'tourist'.…”

Struggling with capital: a Bourdieusian analysis of educational strategies among internationally mobile middle class families in Sweden

“…Finally, the search for international education is commonly conceptualised as a distinct strategy among particular groups in their country of origin, who desire 'international capital' as an additive to their existing class privileges or as a means to surpass existing educational or social hierarchies (e.g. Aguiar & Nogueira, 2012;Holloway, O'Hara, & Pimlott-Wilson, 2012;Koh, 2014;Maxwell & Aggleton, 2016;Waters, 2007;Weenink, 2008). Less focus is placed on how mobile families, who have gained assets in other countries, relate to education in their new settings.…”

“…It equates the desire for international education to a search for 'international', 'cosmopolitan' or 'global' symbolic capital, and to the formation of an international or cosmopolitan 'habitus' (e.g. Maxwell & Aggleton, 2016;Waters, 2007;Weenink, 2008). It is proposed that international capital, acquired in part through international educational institutions, constitutes an asset recognised in transnational arenas, which adds to, transforms and potentially replaces the symbolic capital linked to particular national spaces.…”