Spatial structures of student mobility: Social, economic and ethnic ‘geometries of power’

Donnelly, Michael; Gamsu, Sol

Abstract

There now exists a growing literature on educational mobilities, and this paper contributes to understanding the way contemporary youth imagine the geography of the UK and how this translates to their mobility intentions. Using Giddens and Massey, and drawing on a unique multi-sited data-set, we examine how these flows can be understood as embedded within narratives of the self that are situated within a particular spatial structuring of social, economic and ethnic difference. The multi-sited data-set drawn on here provides a unique opportunity to see the simultaneity of these social relations across space, mutually shaping and re-shaping each other over time. We illustrate how embedded within imagined mobility narratives are deeply unequal structures of economic power, (re)producing oppressed and dominant positions across social and geographic space. Geometries of race and ethnicity are also shown to structure the ways in which different ethnic groups look upon the geography of their university choices. The patterning of these imagined spatial flows around the UK at the point of university entry can be interpreted as one further manifestation of deep-seated geometries of power that pervade social life.

Citation

Donnelly, M., & Gamsu, S. (2020). Spatial structures of student mobility: Social, economic and ethnic ‘geometries of power’. Population, Space and Place, 26(3), Article e2293. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2293

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 30, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Dec 18, 2019
• Publication Date: Apr 30, 2020
• Deposit Date: Nov 4, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 7, 2020
• Journal: Population, Space and Place
• Print ISSN: 1544-8444
• Electronic ISSN: 1544-8452
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 3
• Article Number: e2293
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2293
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1279014