Distinctive and comparative places : alternative narratives of distinction within international student mobility
Abstract
Moving beyond the ‘world-class’ institutional model of international student mobility, this paper examines alternative narratives of distinction relating to place of study. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with international students at universities in the UK, Austria and Latvia, we illustrate how students inside and outside mainstream reputable higher education institutions narrate and reconfigure markers of distinction to validate their international mobility and location of study, in part to compete with peers at other (more prestigious) institutions. We demonstrate the importance of lifestyle and experiential places within a global differentiated higher education landscape and argue that many students engage in comparative narratives of place of study to authorise the symbolic capital associated with international education. The findings also consider how experiential places and mobility capital are used for distinction not only during educational mobility but within post-study aspirations.
Citation
Prazeres , L , Findlay , A , McCollum , D , Sanders , N , Musil , E , Krisjane , Z & Apsite-Berina , E 2017 , ' Distinctive and comparative places : alternative narratives of distinction within international student mobility ' , Geoforum , vol. 80 , pp. 114-122 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.02.003
Publication
Geoforum
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0016-7185Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.02.003
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