Reputation in the sociology of education

Abstract

The present paper raises questions about the use of the concept of reputation in sociological studies of the relationship between higher education and the labour market. Sociologists of education have yet to subject the concept of reputation to sustained critique and evaluation. This situation is unsatisfactory because a number of critical scholars claim that graduates earn a premium as a consequence of attending an elite institution for no reason other than the institution has such a reputation. However, research generally does not provide unequivocal support for such an effect and neither is the source of this effect clearly theorised or identified. One result of this lack of clarity is confusion over what is driving the formation of reputation. This paper advances field theory as a way of developing a sociology of reputation.

Keywords:

• reputational capital
• higher education
• inequality
• field theory

Acknowledgements

The present article is a revised version of a paper delivered at the British Educational Research Association 2008 Annual Conference, 3–6 September, in Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh. Grateful thanks to Claire Smetherham and Susan Kaiser and the two referees.