Reconciling habitus through third spaces: how do Roma and non-Roma first-in-family graduates negotiate the costs of social mobility in Hungary?

ABSTRACT

This article explores how first-in-family-graduate Roma and non-Roma Hungarians from the working-class experience education-driven social mobility and reconcile the dislocation of their primary-habitus due to changing class through transiting a ‘third space’. Drawing on Bhabha’s and bell hooks’ development of this concept, we aim to unpack the different ways how class-changers, in moving between the social milieu of their origin and their destination, occupy a unique position between two fields. Their social position is described as one of social navigators with a bridging potential between social classes. We also investigate what part higher education plays in this distinct form of changing class and becoming incorporated into middle-class society through a third space for those academic high achievers who come from working-class families. Contrasting the experience of Roma with non-Roma first-generation graduates in Hungary, we draw attention to the different opportunities of reconciling conflicting class-related habitus along ethno-racial lines.

KEYWORDS:

• Reconciled habitus
• social mobility
• third space
• Roma
• first-in-family graduates

Acknowledgements

This article is a result of the research project ‘Social mobility and ethnicity: Trajectories, outcomes and hidden costs of educational success’, that was supported by the Hungarian National Research Development and Innovation Office (Grant No. K131997). Apart from this funding support, we would also like to thank the participants of our Habitus Study Group, especially to Miklós Hadas, Krisztina Németh and Cecilia Kovai for their invaluable comments and suggestions to the first draft of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

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