Abstract
ABSTRACT This study illuminates students’ purposive cultivation of guanxi, or social networks based on continuous exchange of resources, in the context of China’s Adult Higher Education (HE) system. Interviews with 30 students reveal the motivations underpinning their creation of informal ties amongst peers, which they consider to procure beneficial resources for the present and long-term. They deem guanxi with peers to compensate for the isolation they experience. Such experiences, taken in the context of a competitive HE and graduate employment landscape, are then related to social capital. The marriage of the concepts guanxi and social capital is also discussed in light of our analysis.
Highlights
Social capital, a difficult concept to pinpoint, has been argued to be intertwined with one’s progression in the education system (De Vries and Renfrow, 2016; Field, 2015; Reay, et al 2002)
The enabling qualities of social capital in Higher Education (HE) are becoming more widely recognised and substantiated (Fearon et al, 2018). It is academic success but the accrual of skills required for networking with others that is arguably significant in a HE landscape shaped by market forces
Such active pursuit of ‘good guanxi’ to obtain resources could extend the conceptualisation of social capital in the West
Summary
A difficult concept to pinpoint, has been argued to be intertwined with one’s progression in the education system (De Vries and Renfrow, 2016; Field, 2015; Reay, et al 2002). The enabling qualities of social capital in Higher Education (HE) are becoming more widely recognised and substantiated (Fearon et al, 2018). It is academic success but the accrual of skills required for networking with others that is arguably significant in a HE landscape shaped by market forces. The idea that social capital is related to students’ connections and ability to follow the unwritten or tacit rules of the system (Bathmaker, et al, 2013; Crozier and Reay, 2011) provides grist for analysis regarding inequality within HE.
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