‘This is how the game works’: navigating access and choice in transnational higher education fields

Abstract

ABSTRACT Drawing on Bourdieu’s field theory the study describes access to transnational mobility as a contextual process to which transnational and location-specific capitals make joint contributions. In doing so, the paper responds to calls against methodological nationalism, i.e. confining research to national boundaries, which is becoming increasingly inadequate in a global world where capital may be produced and subsequently utilised in different countries (Weiss [2021]. “Re-thinking society: How can sociological theories help us understand global and crossborder social contexts?” Current Sociology 69 (3): 333–351.). Using in-depth interviews with international students the paper illustrates the complexities of ‘choice’ and the intricacies of ‘playing the game’ in transnational spaces while exposing how nations structure and (re)produce social inequality in access to educational opportunities.