‘TONED HABITUS’, SELF-EMANCIPATION AND THE CONTINGENCY OF REFLEXIVITY: A LIFE STORY STUDY OF WORKING-CLASS STUDENTS AT ELITE UNIVERSITIES IN CHINA

ABSTRACT

studies in relation to working-class students at elite universities document on the one hand the role of ‘mundane reflexivity’ in dealing with class domination while on the other indicate a new form of domination and disadvantages working on these working-class ‘exceptions’ – they may achieve academically at university but experience various exclusions and self-exclusions in areas of social life. By drawing on a very small sample of ‘counter-evidence’ and ‘exceptions within exceptions’ – working-class students who achieve great social accomplishments at elite universities – this paper further explores the role of ‘mundane reflexivity’ in negotiating class domination and the possibilities of transcendence. We demonstrate the creative and transformative ways in which class domination is dealt with and document the prevalence of high-level reflexivity. Furthermore, we distinguish different forms and degrees of reflexivity, which then indicate the ‘contingency’ of reflexivity – the relation of the possibilities of reflexivity to the unequal distribution of social, cultural and economic capitals. We further argue that what appears to be a form of self-emancipation achieved by the ‘transcending group’ in our study also involves the discrete and insidious reproduction of social inequality.

Keywords:

• reflexivity and habitus
• working-class ‘exceptions’
• ‘toned habitus’
• self-emancipation
• contingency of reflexivity

8. Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Sources from the Ministry of Education: http://www.cdgdc.edu.cn/xwyyjsjyxx/xwsytjxx/yxmd/274942.shtml.

2. It may be ambiguous to define the two exceptions (Xiang He and Yifan Yang; the latter is one of the six cases that are discussed in this paper) as ‘working-class’ according to their parents’ occupations, but both of these exceptions come from the ‘national deprived towns’ (their own description; Yifan Yang moved to the city during primary school as his father changed job) and their reported parental income is way below the national average. Also, their life stories demonstrate various forms of constraint arising from capital deficits and they self-define as ‘definitely working-class’. For these reasons we include them in our sample but define them as ‘upper working-class’. By including these two cases, we want to explore varied experiences between class fractions. Some of the differences in their experiences from other respondents can be seen in the section on ‘toned habitus’ in this paper.

3. A social group in which students role-play national ambassadors in the United Nations to debate and discuss global issues.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Peak Discipline Construction Project of Education at East China Normal University.