Strategising and spontaneity in mobility decision-making

Mulvey, B. (2023) Strategising and spontaneity in mobility decision-making. In: Mapping International Student Mobility Between Africa and China. Springer: Singapore, pp. 59-79. ISBN 9789819985081 (doi: 10.1007/978-981-99-8509-8_4)

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the decision-making processes that led this group of students to enrol in Chinese universities. One focus is on drawing out the differences in the logic and processes underpinning mobility decision-making between different groups of students. I explore how students from less socially privileged backgrounds tended not to see mobility as feasible and tended to frame their securing of scholarships as a result of good luck or serendipity, while their accounts revealed the role of self-conscious reflexivity and the propensity of self-improvement ingrained in the habitus. I also explore the mobility of middle-class students and elites who benefit from nepotism in scholarship awarding. Another focus in the chapter is on how decision-making processes reflect the interrelationship between individual agencies and global structural forces.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Additional Information: Online ISBN: 9789819985098.
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Mulvey, Dr Benjamin
• Authors: Mulvey, B.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Education
• Publisher: Springer
• ISBN: 9789819985081