Helicopter mobility
Changing habitus without challenging structural inequalities, experiences of an international elite education programme
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11159295 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Anna Mountford‐zimdar (0000-0002-7397-7459, School of Education University of Exeter Exeter UK, corresponding author), Julia Gaulter (Pigment Kansas USA), Neil Harrison (0000-0002-6554-4856, School of Education University of Exeter Exeter UK) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 732-752 |
| Publication date | 2024-04-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | British Educational Research Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0141-1926 • E-ISSN: 1469-3518 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/berj.3947 |
| OpenAlex | W4389951094 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 38 |
This original study followed up ten beneficiaries of a UK charity‐led programme that supported disadvantaged students in applying to elite US universities. First interviewed in 2015 during their early university days in the United States, in our 2019 follow‐up all participants had graduated. Six remained in the United States and four had returned to the United Kingdom, with only one returning to their pre‐university community. They reported benefitting immensely from their international opportunities and were nearly all in high‐paying graduate jobs or high‐profile graduate programmes. Drawing on Bourdieu's concept of the ‘cleft habitus’, which can result from rapid and substantial shifts in field, we found that this was rare. Rather, the majority had undergone a ‘wholesale escape’, replacing their originary habitus with one that was consistent with their new field. The significance of the study is that the findings allow us to propose the concept of ‘helicopter mobility’ to describe individualised approaches to social mobility, whereby those considered to have merit are removed from their communities without questioning or affecting wider structural inequalities
Cultural capital · Disadvantaged · Economic growth · Economics · Elite · Field (mathematics) · Habitus · Higher education · Inequality · Pedagogy · Political science · Social mobility · Social science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies · Law · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Capital and Networks
Paying for the Party
Applied Thematic Analysis
The imposter phenomenon in high achieving women
Career consequences of transnational educational mobility
Social Class and Belonging
Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education
A Theory of Justice
A tension between rationalities
Bourdieu
One size fits all? What counts as quality practice in (reflexive) thematic analysis
Private education and disadvantage
Is unequal uptake of Erasmus mobility really only due to students’ choices? The role of selection into universities and fields of study
Changes in socioeconomic inequality in access to study abroad programs
The assisted places scheme
The power of ‘unrecognizable habitus’
Social identity contingencies
What can be learned from growth mindset controversies
Middle class and marginal? Socioeconomic status, stigma, and self-regulation at an elite university
Using the Lens of 'Possible Selves' to Explore Access to Higher Education
Education and Intergroup Attitudes
The Interactive Relationship Between Class Identity and the College Experience
What's Class Got to Do with It
An Invitation of Reflexive Sociology
Maximally Maintained Inequality
A New Model of Social Class? Findings from the BBC's Great British Class Survey Experiment
Strangers in Paradise
Transnational Investments in Informational Capital
Effectively Maintained Inequality
| Citations per year | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |