Positional Competition and Social Inequality in Graduate Careers

This book examines how social inequalities in higher education shape the positional competition in graduate labour markets.

Featuring research from Europe, North America, and China, the book provides new insights into graduate careers by examining how graduates from various backgrounds navigate their labour market trajectories in different national contexts. Based on in-depth case studies, it demonstrates how the opportunities for graduates in the labour market do not solely depend on individual skills, experience, and abilities, but on how other graduates act within the labour market and the different forms of capital they possess. This book delineates the social, cultural, and educational conditions through which positional competition becomes meaningful to employers and graduates. It explains why employers value and seek out university graduates when hiring and demonstrates how the value of educational credentials interacts with graduates’ gender, ethnicity, and social class positions. Furthermore, it addresses how regional inequalities influence graduates’ employment opportunities.

This book is essential for university students and scholars, policymakers, and anyone interested in the recruitment of graduates. It was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Education and Work.

Ulpukka Isopahkala-Bouret is Professor at the Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning and Education (CELE), University of Turku, Finland. Her research interests include equality in/through higher education, educational credentialing, graduate employability, lifelong learning and the perceptions of institutional and social status.

Gerbrand Tholen is Reader in Sociology at City St George’s, University of London. His research involves around the sociology of work and education, examining the relationship between higher education, skills, credentials, jobs and careers as well as professions, social inequality, elites and the social construction of labour markets.

Agnès van Zanten is Senior Research Professor at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Sciences Po, Paris. She is interested in class-based and contextual educational inequalities and is presently conducting research on elite families and schools, access and widening participation in higher education, and medical students.