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Mainland Chinese students at an elite Hong Kong university: habitus–field disjuncture in a transborder context

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Abstract

Drawing on in-depth interview data from 31 mainland Chinese (MLC) students in a Hong Kong university, this article conceptualises MLC and Hong Kong higher education as two dissonant but interrelated subfields of the Chinese higher education field. The article argues that these MLC students’ habitus, one that possesses rich economic, social and cultural capital, prompts a strong sense of entitlement to anticipated privileges. However, this sense of entitlement is disrupted by the differential capital valuations across these fields. There is thus notable habitus–field disjuncture, which, exacerbated by the hysteresis effect, gives rise to a sense of disappointment and ambivalence. This article demonstrates how the Hong Kong education credential, which these students initially set out to pursue as a form of capital, can become a disadvantage at multiple levels; the article illustrates that capital valuation and conversion in a transborder context is not a straightforward, but rather a complicated and sometimes contradictory, process.

Acceptance Date Feb 11, 2016
Publication Date Apr 7, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal British Journal of Sociology of Education
Print ISSN 0142-5692
Publisher Routledge
Pages 610-624
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2016.1158642
Keywords Bourdieu, habitus, field, hysteresis, Hong Kong, mainland China,
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2016.1158642

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