Educational ties, social capital and the translocal (re)production of MBA alumni networks

Abstract

Research on elite, transnational networks has identified social and cultural capital associated with particular academic credentials as being an important element in network formation. How and why such networks are reproduced after graduation, however, has received less attention. In response, in this article I combine work on social capital and personal networks to explore the reproduction of MBA alumni networks in London's financial services district that were created in leading business schools in the USA and UK. My analysis documents the ways in which business schools and individual alumni combine forms of virtual and corporeal co‐presence to reproduce translocal educational ties. I then argue that the motivation for sustaining these educational ties lies in the potential to convert the social and cultural capital of MBA alumni networks into different types of value ranging from enhanced career progression to increased alumni donations. In doing so, I develop debates on the intersections between social capital, academic credentials and the reproduction of elite networks.

French connections: the networking strategies of French highly skilled migrants in London

“…However, the possibilities afforded by new technologies tell us little about how people actually use these to access and maintain long distance relationships (Eve 2008;Wimmer and Glick Schiller 2002). While many participants use online networking, they usually use these tools in combination with physical meetings (see also Hall 2011). Florin eloquently expressed the need for meeting up:…”

“…Urry (2003: 167) argued that, 'as the world financial system is disembedded from specific places, so the traders require ever richer face to face relationships in order to exchange appropriate information, knowledge and especially trust … re-embedded meeting-places are necessary for trustful relationships.' Thus, rather than being seen as two separate forms of networking, online and face-to-face communication often work together, the one reinforcing the other (Hall 2011;Urry 2002). This pattern is also discernible in transnational kinship.…”

The Alumni Information Management Model Based on qInternet +q

“…Therefore, the delayed information cannot satisfy the transformation of the alumni information system from the practical operation to the decision support, which relies on the real-time alumni information to achieve the functions of information forecast, data analysis and decision support [5] . Simplistic function of the alumni management system cannot satisfy the development of school [7] . Traditional alumni information systems that only collect alumni basic information did not fully mined and utilized other information, such as alumni's network resources, industry resources, knowledge structure and so on.…”

“…Therefore, this paper constructs an alumni social network platform that can promote interactive communication and knowledge sharing between alumni, teachers and students, and also allow alumni to feel plenty of care and warmth from their alma mater. The alumni social network platform compatibles the function of traditional alumni portal including news release, registration, login and alumni donation [7], a7nd expands the following four functions. First, Alumni Personal Centre.…”

The Global as a Field: Children's Rights Advocacy as a Transnational Practice

“…Among the latter are studies on elite-driven transnational practices, premised on the idea that people with professional expertise of 'global' purchase have a pivotal role in fostering the intensification of transnational relations (eg, Beaverstock and Boardwell, 2000;Robinson, 2001;Sklair, 2002;Mitchell, 2003;Yeoh and Willis, 2005;Suddaby and Viale, 2011). Theorization on the geographies of transnational elites has underscored that while topographic distance -literal movement across space -is relevant for understanding mobile elites' networking, some aspects of their dynamic social relationships may be better captured in topological terms (Allen, 2009;Hall, 2011). This paper seeks to contribute to the latter conceptual work by studying social relations that bind professional advocates of children's rights together into transnational fields of thought and action.…”