Unpacking distinction within mobility : social prestige and international students
Abstract
This paper investigates the complex ways in which young people engage in social distinction within international mobility. The study offers novel conceptual and empirical insights by examining how distinction and social advantage is reproduced through short‐term student mobility from the Global North to the Global South. In doing so, it elucidates the iterative process of distinction‐making within mobility and argues that young mobile people negotiate a tension between different forms of distinction. Specifically, it unpacks and conceptualises distinction into dual categories—collective and individual—and suggests that students alternate and waver between these categories in order to both validate and elevate their position within a mobility hierarchy. The paper also considers how particular places are viewed as more distinctive and affording greater gains in cultural and symbolic capital. It concludes with future interrogations and ways forward for research on international mobility and distinction.
Citation
Prazeres , L 2019 , ' Unpacking distinction within mobility : social prestige and international students ' , Population, Space and Place , vol. 25 , no. 5 , e2190 . https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2190
Publication
Population, Space and Place
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
10.1002/psp.2190ISSN
1544-8444Type
Journal article
Description
Author thanks the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) for their funding on this projecCollections
Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.