Social Network Analysis Methods and the Geography of Education: Regional Divides and Elite Circuits in the School to University Transition in the UK

Sol Gamsu,Michael Donnelly

doi:10.1111/tesg.12413

Abstract

AbstractThis paper uses social network analysis methods to explore how the spatial mobility of students to attend university creates regional divisions and socio‐spatial hierarchies of schools and universities. Using community detection methods as our methodological lens we stitch together regional economic geography, the student mobilities literature and the sociological and geographical analysis of elite education. Combining these statistical techniques with qualitative data from our broader study, we explore student flows between different geographical areas in the UK for universities. The clusters or ‘communities’ of areas underline how student migration to attend university in the UK is a moment which reflects and re‐creates regional and national boundaries. The second part of the paper examines school to university student flows, highlighting a distinctive, predominantly English cluster of elite schools and universities. Examining student mobility patterns with network methods allows us to distinguish a distinctive archipelagic geography of elite formation through higher education.

Highlights

In this paper we explore how social network analysis (SNA) can be used to examine how the spatial transition between school and university is a moment of regional boundary and elite formation
Among the regional divisions evident in the transition to university, we examine the distinctive patterns of spatial movement between elite schools and universities
While we do not measure class directly here, the geographies which we examine below underline how the formation of regional boundaries is tied into particular cultural practices which are associated with the exercise of power and the creation of distinction through education

Summary

Introduction

In this paper we explore how social network analysis (SNA) can be used to examine how the spatial transition between school and university is a moment of regional boundary and elite formation. In this paper we use SNA techniques, combined with qualitative interview and mapping data, to understand how circuits of education create particular regional divisions and suggest a spatial hierarchy of universities and schools.

Results

Conclusion