TY - JOUR
T1 - From ‘Academic Concern’ to Work Readiness
T2 - Student Mobility, Employability and the Devaluation of Academic Capital on the Year Abroad
AU - Courtois, Aline
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - This article suggests that a process of de-academisation is discernible in the way the Erasmus year abroad is promoted, organised, supervised and evaluated. The article argues that rather than being a product of students’ consumerist rationalities, this process is produced within the conditions of the managerialised and under-resourced university. This process is underpinned by institutional discourses and practices that devalue academic capital, in line with the employability agenda and the corporate critique of higher education as outdated and too abstract for the real world. Based on a qualitative study conducted in Ireland, the article uses a Bourdieusian lens to examine the de-academisation of study abroad and the field–habitus clash experienced by participants. Finally, the article draws attention to the implications of this neutralisation of academic capital in a context where academic credentials are increasingly devalued in the labour market.
AB - This article suggests that a process of de-academisation is discernible in the way the Erasmus year abroad is promoted, organised, supervised and evaluated. The article argues that rather than being a product of students’ consumerist rationalities, this process is produced within the conditions of the managerialised and under-resourced university. This process is underpinned by institutional discourses and practices that devalue academic capital, in line with the employability agenda and the corporate critique of higher education as outdated and too abstract for the real world. Based on a qualitative study conducted in Ireland, the article uses a Bourdieusian lens to examine the de-academisation of study abroad and the field–habitus clash experienced by participants. Finally, the article draws attention to the implications of this neutralisation of academic capital in a context where academic credentials are increasingly devalued in the labour market.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85057573380&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/01425692.2018.1522241
DO - 10.1080/01425692.2018.1522241
M3 - Article
VL - 40
SP - 190
EP - 206
JO - British Journal of Sociology of Education
JF - British Journal of Sociology of Education
SN - 0142-5692
IS - 2
ER -