Rhythms, flows, and structures of cross‐boundary schooling: state power and educational mobilities between Shenzhen and Hong Kong

Abstract

This paper explores the phenomenon of cross-boundary schooling (CBS), where more than 30,000 children undertake a daily, checkpoint-crossing commute to school and back again, over the Hong Kong-Shenzhen border. It elaborates on the notion of "state assemblage" to consider how the power of the state (in this case, both the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong authorities) manifests in CBS and, in particular, how the state attempts to exert control over children's and parents' bodies. This view of CBS contrasts with a sense of "agency" that prevails around discussions of educational mobilities, and we explore this tension here. The paper focuses on two related aspects of CBS-materiality and the role of habit and rhythm in directing, guiding, and cajoling children to conform to an extremely rigid and regimented daily routine. We found that the material structures that make up the border are crucial in enabling CBS to "function" and that notions of rhythm and habit are very useful for understanding how the "flow" of educational mobilities is achieved. At the same time, we considered instances where flow was disrupted, rhythms were changed, and individuals somehow resisted the material constraints of the border.

Making ways for ‘better education’: Placing the Shenzhen-Hong Kong mobility industry

“…This paper extends our understanding of student mobility and the industry associated with these flows. We shift the focus of international student mobility from how it is usually imagined – privileged youngsters leaving home once or twice a year to study and undergo adventure somewhere far away – to more mundane daily border-crossings (Waters and Leung, 2020). While practised by numerous children worldwide such as along the Mexico–USA, Malaysia–Singapore, Uganda–Kenya and the new Ukraine–Russia borders, the experiences and implications of these education mobility flows have been largely overlooked in academic research.…”

“…A main aim of the paper is to ‘place’ the education mobility industry under study. We do so by focusing on the materialities of the education mobility field as they take, but also make, place and space on the ground (see also Waters, 2017; Waters and Leung, 2020). Our paper gives substance to the spatial perspectives taken in extant scholarship.…”

Chinese students at U.K. universities: Transnational education mobilities as a stepping‐stone to adulthood

“…Mobilities of embodied social actors, ideas and objects further sustain and reproduce the unbounded networks that stretch beyond different places (Larsen & Urry, 2016). Through the lens of mobilities, existing work criticises an oversimplification of students' migration as depersonalised movements over measurable and geometric spaces, and places students' everyday experiences, interpretations and emotions at the centre of discussion (Collins, 2018; King & Raghuram, 2013; Waters & Leung, 2013, 2020; Waters, 2017). Theorising students as embodied social actors, researchers use the mobilities paradigm to examine the intersection between students' class, gender, political and cultural backgrounds and the networked relations within which they are embedded in the course of migration (Brooks & Waters, 2017; Waters, 2017).…”

Schools as spaces for in/exclusion of young Mainland Chinese students and families in Hong Kong

“…Their pursuit of a “better education” necessitates quotidian border crossings and a commute that might take a few hours a day. This distinct spatio-temporality intensifies the role of the border, the state and the journey (Waters & Leung, 2019 ). Furthermore, it underlines the importance of the school as the key place where CBS derive most of their daily social experiences.…”

“…Even though immigration control has been simplified by both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen governments with the use of dedicated counters, e-channels and “on-board” (on bus) clearance, it sometimes entails a few hours of travelling daily. Although these cross-border trips are routinised (Waters & Leung, 2019 ), parents whom we interviewed often described these trips as “troublesome” and “exhausting”. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic underlines the restrictive nature of the border.…”