Search

This article argues that to better investigate the enduring relationship between social class background and inequalities in post-compulsory education necessitates a more comprehensive approach to thinking with Bourdieu, but also a need to move beyond his seminal, much used concepts. Through meta-analysis, we review how Bourdieusian theory has been used in widening participation research in mainly Anglophone contexts, and consider how including concepts from his wider "toolbox" can aid this pursuit. We consider new theories and concepts that have emerged largely after Bourdieu and their appropriateness for research in Australian higher education. We explore how a "practice-based" theory of widening participation might be developed, drawing on the work of Schatzki and Kemmis which permits researchers to usefully consider the internal goods of a practice and the role of institutions and the non-human. We also suggest that incorporating intersectionality, as both a social theory of knowledge and an approach to analysis, facilitates exploration of routine practices and struggles and reveals the complexities, provisionality and becomingness of social positioning, subjectivities and change. Such theoretical extensions to Bourdieu's legacy enable more nuanced understandings of how complex and intersecting social inequalities in higher education are realised or challenged in countries beyond the global north.

This article analyses qualitative narratives from skilled migrants using Bourdieu's concepts of misrecognition, symbolic and social capital to understand the uneven effects of migration transitions on employment outcomes among migrant groups. Transnational skilled migration is increasing to unprecedented levels, especially from non-OECD countries to OECD countries, where inward migration is a strategy to increase the skill level of workforces. Drawing on a qualitative case study of skilled migration to a regional non-metropolitan area of Australia, the article discusses the key finding that "It's who you know, not what you know" which enabled both skilled migrants and their partners to secure employment commensurate with their qualifications and previous employment histories. Building the 'right' social networks post-migration were the gateways to securing employment. A "regime of skills" was used by employers, employment agencies and educational providers who acted as gatekeepers to employment opening up opportunities for some or closing down that for others through processes of misrecognition of the migrants' experiences and skills and the prioritising of localised knowledge and native-like English accents. Through this process of misrecognition, the "doxa" of who should be employed and in what capacity was sustained.