Abstract:
The career pathways for PhD holders are increasingly diverse with the expansion of doctoral education and the growing scarcity of academic job openings worldwide. Prior literature tends to see this choice as a function of personal taste, academic socialisation, and structural constraints, among others. Nevertheless, to what extent doctoral students’ social origin influences their career decision-making remains under-researched.
The shift in the career landscape has brought the inequality issue to the fore in doctoral education. Although relatively weak, studies found a growing correlation between career outcomes and doctoral students’ social origins. Upward social mobility has become increasingly challenging for PhD holders from working-class backgrounds, which may have something to do with their habitus.
Using the Career-ship Theory as a conceptual lens, which posits that individuals make career-related efforts and decisions only within a bounded arena, namely their horizons for action, this study compared the habitus and horizons for action between those from working and middle-class origins. The data were interviews with 94 mainland PhD students, including both current (n=72) and former (n=22), in top universities in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau.
The findings indicate that the hysteresis of habitus leads working-class PhD students to impose more constraints on their future jobs compared to their middle-class counterparts. They primarily consider jobs that offer high salaries, align with their expertise, and prioritize meritocracy and fairness. However, these narrower horizons for action often result in a stronger inclination towards pursuing academic careers and a dismissal of non-academic positions. Consequently, working-class students face additional pressure due to the increasing competition in the academic job market.
Even in a low-marketised higher education system such as mainland China, where admission to PhD programmes is almost entirely merit-based, those from working-class origins still have habitus that differs from their middle-class counterparts. These findings illuminate the crucial role of meritocracy in shaping the habitus of working-class doctoral students and its subsequent impact on their social outcomes.
The shift in the career landscape has brought the inequality issue to the fore in doctoral education. Although relatively weak, studies found a growing correlation between career outcomes and doctoral students’ social origins. Upward social mobility has become increasingly challenging for PhD holders from working-class backgrounds, which may have something to do with their habitus.
Using the Career-ship Theory as a conceptual lens, which posits that individuals make career-related efforts and decisions only within a bounded arena, namely their horizons for action, this study compared the habitus and horizons for action between those from working and middle-class origins. The data were interviews with 94 mainland PhD students, including both current (n=72) and former (n=22), in top universities in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau.
The findings indicate that the hysteresis of habitus leads working-class PhD students to impose more constraints on their future jobs compared to their middle-class counterparts. They primarily consider jobs that offer high salaries, align with their expertise, and prioritize meritocracy and fairness. However, these narrower horizons for action often result in a stronger inclination towards pursuing academic careers and a dismissal of non-academic positions. Consequently, working-class students face additional pressure due to the increasing competition in the academic job market.
Even in a low-marketised higher education system such as mainland China, where admission to PhD programmes is almost entirely merit-based, those from working-class origins still have habitus that differs from their middle-class counterparts. These findings illuminate the crucial role of meritocracy in shaping the habitus of working-class doctoral students and its subsequent impact on their social outcomes.