A Bourdieusian approach to understanding employability: becoming a ‘fish in water’

Clark, Martyn; Zukas, Miriam

doi:10.1080/13636820.2013.782887

Cited by 39 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…This is because knowledge and skills are aspects of embodied cultural capital (Clark and Zukas 2013). As a result, workplaces often reinforce a work identity that reproduces rather than challenges social inequalities (cf.…”

Section: Conceptual Influencesmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…In particular, the concept of vocational habitus draws our attention to the process for workplace entrants of learning the attitudes and behaviours that are rewarded in the workplace and developing dispositions seen as legitimate in their field (Colley et al 2003;Folbre and Nelson 2000;Steno and Friche 2015;Taylor, Hamm, and Servage 2012). Clark and Zukas (2013) add that, as embodied history, habitus provides a structure for meeting and understanding new experiences. But habitus is also open to change as individuals move across different fields.…”

Section: Conceptual Influencesmentioning

confidence: 98%

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The experiences of female youth apprentices in Canada: just passing through?

Taylor

Hamm

Raykov

2015

Journal of Vocational Education & Training

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This paper provides a view of the experiences of former high school apprentices in Canada. Conceptually, we draw on the work of Bourdieu with particular attention to vocational habitus, as well as feminist writers who discuss the gendered construction of skill and gender relations in the workplace and family. Empirically, we present our analysis of survey data from 173 male and female apprentices in two provinces and interviews with female apprentices in Alberta. Our data provide insights into youths' school experiences as well as their subsequent trajectories and plans for the future. Findings suggest that female youth relied more than young men on the support of families and external influences in choosing a trade. Young women in female-dominated trades faced different but no less significant challenges than those in male-dominated trades. Women who succeeded in completing apprenticeship training did so because of their family habitus and expansive training experiences.

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Section: Conceptual Influencesmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Conceptual Influencesmentioning

confidence: 98%

The experiences of female youth apprentices in Canada: just passing through?

Taylor

Hamm

Raykov

2015

Journal of Vocational Education & Training

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“…Gazier 1998;Peck and Theodore 2000;Brown and Hesketh 2004;McQuaid and Lindsay 2005;Clark and Zukas 2013;Li 2013). In its dominant, neoliberal form, it builds on earlier human capital accounts in responding to globalisation.…”

Section: Human Capital and Employabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Communicating Employability: the Role of Communicative Competence for Zimbabwean Highly Skilled Migrants in the UK

Madziva

McGrath

Thondhlana

2014

Int. Migration & Integration

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Skilled migration is an increasingly important topic for both policy and research internationally. OECD governments in particular are wrestling with tensions between their desire to use skilled migration to be on the winning side in the 'global war for talent' and their pandering to and/or attempts to outflank rising xenophobia. One aspect that has received relatively little attention is skilled migration from the African Commonwealth to the UK, a situation in which skilled migrants have relatively high levels of linguistic capital in the language of the host country. We focus here on the case of Zimbabwe. In spite of its popular image as a failed state, Zimbabwe has an exceptionally strong educational tradition and high levels of literacy and fluency in English. Drawing on 20 in-depth interviews of Zimbabwean highly skilled migrants, we explore the specific ways in which the communicative competences of these migrants with high formal levels of English operate in complex ways to shape their employability strategies and outcomes. We offer two main findings: first, that a dichotomy exists between their high level formal linguistic competence and their ability to communicate in less formal interactions, which challenges their employability, at least when they first move to the UK; and second, that they also lack, at least initially, the competence to narrativise their employability in ways that are culturally appropriate in England. Thus, to realise the full potential of their high levels of human capital, they need to learn how to communicate competently in a very different social and occupational milieu. Some have achieved this, but others continue to struggle.

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“…Cultural stock differences among students can be attributed largely to their capacity to grow, mobilize and transform their capital. As Clark and Zukas argue, this capacity is shaped not only by their university education but also by their class, gender, ethnicity, and previous education [19]. Thus, while curricular and co-curricular activities create opportunities for capital accumulation, structural forces beyond the control of the university mediate this process as well as the transition as a whole.…”

Section: Cross-case Analysis and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, social capital can be converted into economic capital when networks lead to new contracts, job offers, and internships. This framework assumes that the transition from university to employment is not solely a function of natural aptitude but is based largely on the endowments of capital and dispositions that individuals accumulate during their socialization, including university education [19]. Accordingly, this paper demonstrates how curricular and co-curricular activities constitute sites for acquiring and transforming forms of capital, which affect the transition experience of engineering graduates.…”

Section: Theoretical Framework: Bourdieu's Forms Of Capitalmentioning

confidence: 99%