Searching for desirable bodies
How recruiters value physically exertive extracurricular activities for graduate hiring at elite professional firms in China
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5609963 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ran Ren (0000-0002-9489-9912, School of Sociology and Psychology Central University of Finance and Economics Beijing China, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 75 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 187-200 |
| Publication date | 2024-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | British Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0007-1315 • E-ISSN: 1468-4446 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1468-4446.13074 |
| PMID | 38145462 |
| OpenAlex | W4390192928 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 43 |
The field of research in evaluating and applying Bourdieu's theories has seen growing interests in studying how the formation and effect of cultural capital vary in different contexts and fields. While existing studies have increasingly focussed on evaluating the role of cultural capital in creating educational inequalities in the Chinese context, little is known about how activities and taste are valued in the Chinese labour market. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 73 recruiters in elite professional firms in China, this article presents a study on how recruiters interpret physically exertive extracurricular activities (ECAs) for graduate hiring. It shows that these ECAs were valorised for assessing individual qualities and competences in job interviews, while other cultural activities, leisure or tastes carried little value. The notion of the body appeared central to this valorisation, conferring symbolic value onto physical exertive ECAs. The value of these activities was twofold, serving to convey candidates' possession of physical and embodied capital, which resonated to the normative dimension of elite professional firms. Recruiters thus used these activities to seek new professional bodies consumable for demanding professional work and resonating with the normative discourses of professionalism. This study provides more nuanced understandings of cultural capital in a non-Western context and the role of ECAs in elite hiring. It also contributes to the development of physical and embodied capital by integrating perspective that links the body with labour process and professional control
Context (archaeology · Cultural capital · Elite · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Habitus · Normative · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Symbolic capital · Value (mathematics · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Law · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts
The Mismanagement of Talent
Pedigree
The Three Generations of Cultural Capital Research
Outline of a Theory of Practice
What Money Doesn't Buy
Evaluating Self-Presentation
Self as enterprise”
Women's Career Progression in Law Firms
Body Beautiful? Gender, Identity and the Body in Professional Services Firms
Ivies, extracurriculars, and exclusion
Cultural capital and elite university attendance in China
Physical capital and situated action
Cultural capital and perception of teacher‐student relationships
From parvenu to "highbrow" tastes
Pugs at Work
Imagining Personhood Differently
Hiring as Cultural Matching
Girls as elite distinction
London's Legal Elite
Talent-spotting' or 'social magic'? Inequality, cultural sorting and constructions of the ideal graduate in elite professions
In Other Words
Using guanxi to conduct elite interviews in China
You've got to have core muscles
Recoupling Corporate Culture with New Political Discourse in China's Platform Economy
Understanding social exclusion in elite professional service firms
Built to last
Making Way for Men
Looking the Part
Theories of Sexual Stratification
Market Transition, Industrialization, and Social Mobility Trends in Postrevolution China
Class in contemporary China
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |