Reproducing the City of London's Institutional Landscape: The Role of Education and the Learning of Situated Practices by Early Career Elites

Abstract

In this paper, we argue that postgraduate education forms an important, but hitherto neglected, element in the distinctive institutional landscape of the City of London. In particular, and drawing on research into early career financial and legal elites in the City, we show how postgraduate education tailored to the demands of employers within London plays an important role in indoctrinating early career elites into situated, City-specific working practices, and, in so doing, helps to sustain the City's cultures and norms of financial practice. Specifying the role of postgraduate education in reproducing these situated City practices is significant because, although geographical variegation in working practices between international financial centres has been widely reported, less attention has been paid to how such institutionally embedded differences are created and sustained. By identifying education as one mechanism of creation and sustenance, our analysis enhances understanding of how the institutional landscapes that underlie financial centres might be maintained or when necessary challenged; the latter being significant in relation to attempts to reform practices and cultures in international financial centres in the wake of the 2007-8 crisis.

Geographies of production III

“…Such work merges arguments from relational economic geography with a range of literatures within management studies on innovation and learning. A final example would be other work on knowledge-intensive service industries which similarly has sought to engage with debates beyond economic geography, linking sociological and management approaches to elite networks and their role in firm internationalization (Faulconbridge and Hall, 2014; Hall, 2015).…”

Elite entrepreneurship education: Translating ideas in North Korea

“…One notable outcome of this shift is how elites support new business school education for their children, to enhance their entrepreneurial capabilities, but also to socially situate the 'next generation' of donjus within elite political and financial networks (Tudor and Pearson, 2015). In this paper, we argue that the production of economic elites and market spaces (Faulconbridge and Hall, 2014) is contingent on the translation of entrepreneurial ideas (Farny et al, 2016;Lindh and Thorgren, 2016). We seek to address two gaps in the geographies of business education literature (for example, Brown and Hesketh, 2004;Hall, 2008Hall, , 2009Hall and Appleyard, 2009;Grey, 2004).…”

“…First, Falconbridge and Hall (2014) have argued that researchers often neglect education as an important institution for economic elites, particularly business education, which reproduces shared understandings and norms that enable markets to function (Gertler, 2010;Martin, 2010;Storper, 2011). Second, the geographies of business education research often draw upon the communities of practice and knowledge literature (Faulconbridge and Hall, 2014;Wenger, 1998), which has been used elsewhere to examine transnational knowledge production (Faulconbridge, 2006;Thrift, 2005;Wainwright, 2015). While the geographies of business education research itself has often focussed on education's locally 'sticky' characteristics (Faulconbridge and Hall, 2014;Lindh and Thorgren, 2016), it has often overlooked the practice of translation, but also the role of user innovation in the modification of ideas.…”

“…Second, the geographies of business education research often draw upon the communities of practice and knowledge literature (Faulconbridge and Hall, 2014;Wenger, 1998), which has been used elsewhere to examine transnational knowledge production (Faulconbridge, 2006;Thrift, 2005;Wainwright, 2015). While the geographies of business education research itself has often focussed on education's locally 'sticky' characteristics (Faulconbridge and Hall, 2014;Lindh and Thorgren, 2016), it has often overlooked the practice of translation, but also the role of user innovation in the modification of ideas.…”

(Post)graduate Education Markets and the Formation of Mobile Transnational Economic Elites

“…To address these concerns, I turn to a set of arguments made by Bourdieu (1980Bourdieu ( / 1990Bourdieu ( , 1989Bourdieu ( / 1996 concerning everyday socioeconomic practice , to his work on doxa-an idea still not widely developed in relation to education (although, see also Faulconbridge & Hall, 2014 ). In so doing, my analysis draws on the wider interest in normalized practice within socioeconomic life as it relates to processes of learning and the reproduction of practices in geographically specifi c ways (Amin & Cohendet, 2004 ;Wenger, 1998 ).…”