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Dr Sol Gamsu's Outputs (49)

If You Want the University to Change, Don't Theorise—Organise! (2025)
Journal Article
Gamsu, S. (online). If You Want the University to Change, Don't Theorise—Organise!. The British Journal of Sociology, https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.13200

Organising as workers to build industrial power within our universities is a key element of how we respond to redundancies, marketisation and other political pressures on higher education. This piece argues that academics, as a subset of university w... Read More about If You Want the University to Change, Don't Theorise—Organise!.

Critical comparative geographies of elite schooling: comparing the UK, Canada, and Sweden (2025)
Journal Article
Yoon, E.-S., Gamsu, S., Larsson, E., & Waters, J. (in press). Critical comparative geographies of elite schooling: comparing the UK, Canada, and Sweden. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education,

This article aims to chart a new critical geography of elite schooling by comparing the importance of space and place in elite schooling in the UK, Canada, and Sweden. We do so to illuminate the present patterns and historical developments of elite s... Read More about Critical comparative geographies of elite schooling: comparing the UK, Canada, and Sweden.

There should be hope for a fairer sector beyond what the UUK blueprint offers (2024)
Newspaper / Magazine
Gamsu, S. (2024). There should be hope for a fairer sector beyond what the UUK blueprint offers. WonkHE

This is a blog written for WonkHE in response to the UUK Blueprint released in October 2024. It puts forwards alternative ideas and hopes for higher education and concludes as follows:

De-commodifying higher education for students and rebalancing... Read More about There should be hope for a fairer sector beyond what the UUK blueprint offers.

Meritocracy and the politics of inequality in higher education (2024)
Book Chapter
Gamsu, S. (in press). Meritocracy and the politics of inequality in higher education. In R. Sidhu, J. Waters, & Y. Cheng (Eds.), The Elgar International Encyclopedia of Sociology of Education. Edward Elgar Publishing

Meritocracy is a central legitimizing myth used by policymakers, university leaders and elites to justify and naturalise academic attainment and obscure universities’ role in maintaining inequality. Whilst the modern term may have its roots in post-w... Read More about Meritocracy and the politics of inequality in higher education.

The material basis of elite schooling: capital and the state (2024)
Journal Article
Gamsu, S., Courtois, A., & Boden, R. (2024). The material basis of elite schooling: capital and the state. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 45(3), 305-324. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2024.2335001

This editorial for the special issue outlines a framework for understanding the material basis for elite schooling. It examines how we can conceptualise the paradoxical nature of the relations between capital, the state and elite schools. It synthes... Read More about The material basis of elite schooling: capital and the state.

Elite schools and slavery in the UK – capital, violence and extractivism (2024)
Journal Article
Gamsu, S., Ashe, S., & Arday, J. (2024). Elite schools and slavery in the UK – capital, violence and extractivism. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 45(3), 325-345. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2024.2335002

Elite schools in the UK are bound to the history of British colonialism. This paper examines the material ties between these schools and the transatlantic slave trade. We combine a range of sources to examine which educational institutions and their... Read More about Elite schools and slavery in the UK – capital, violence and extractivism.

‘Levelling up’ social mobility? Comparing the social and spatial mobility for university graduates across districts of Britain (2024)
Journal Article
Yu, Y., Gamsu, S., & Forsberg, H. (2024). ‘Levelling up’ social mobility? Comparing the social and spatial mobility for university graduates across districts of Britain. The British Journal of Sociology, 75(4), 379-399. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.13089

Social and spatial mobility have been subject to substantial recent sociological and policy debate. Complementing other recent work, in this paper we explore these patterns in relation to higher education. Making use of high‐quality data from the hig... Read More about ‘Levelling up’ social mobility? Comparing the social and spatial mobility for university graduates across districts of Britain.

Educating education workers (2024)
Newspaper / Magazine
Gamsu, S. (in press). Educating education workers

How do we educate education workers within education unions? This short piece examines the theoretical and strategic implications of political education within the University and Colleges Union and reflects on how we might seek to develop an alternat... Read More about Educating education workers.

Hope and strategy after the MAB (2023)
Newspaper / Magazine
Gamsu, S. (2023). Hope and strategy after the MAB. [Notes from Below]. https://notesfrombelow.org/article/hope-and-strategy-after-mab

Spatial Imaginaries and Geographic Division within the UK: Uneven Economic Development, Ethnicity and National Identity (2022)
Journal Article
Donnelly, M., & Gamsu, S. (2022). Spatial Imaginaries and Geographic Division within the UK: Uneven Economic Development, Ethnicity and National Identity. Sociology, 56(6), 1217-1235. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385221090828

This article provides an account of how spatial divisions permeate imaginaries of the UK’s geography, drawing on a large qualitative data-set on the locational choices of young adults. The data we draw from are unique in their multi-sited design, whi... Read More about Spatial Imaginaries and Geographic Division within the UK: Uneven Economic Development, Ethnicity and National Identity.

‘Whiteness is an immoral choice’: the idea of the University at the intersection of crises (2022)
Journal Article
Hall, R., Gill, R., & Gamsu, S. (online). ‘Whiteness is an immoral choice’: the idea of the University at the intersection of crises. Higher Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00855-3

Universities in the global North are shaped against intersecting crises, including those of political economy, environment and, more recently, epidemiology. The lived experiences of these crises have renewed struggles against exploitation, expropriat... Read More about ‘Whiteness is an immoral choice’: the idea of the University at the intersection of crises.

Financing elite education: economic capital and the maintenance of class power in English private schools (2022)
Journal Article
Gamsu, S. (2022). Financing elite education: economic capital and the maintenance of class power in English private schools. Sociological Review, 70(6), 1240-1266. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380261221076202

The relationship of elite schools to economic capital is central to understanding the maintenance of their cultural power and institutional longevity. Since Glennerster and Wilson’s (1970) analysis, there has been little analysis of how private schoo... Read More about Financing elite education: economic capital and the maintenance of class power in English private schools.

Accent and the manifestation of spatialised class structure (2022)
Journal Article
Donnelly, M., Gamsu, S., & Barratta, A. (2022). Accent and the manifestation of spatialised class structure. Sociological Review, 70(6), 1100-1118. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380261221076188

There is long standing interest within sociological debate to understand social class inequality spatially. We contribute to this debate by using a spatially differentiated understanding of accent, used here as a ‘window’ to observe the formation of... Read More about Accent and the manifestation of spatialised class structure.

Talking the Talk of Social Mobility: the political performance of a misguided agenda (2022)
Journal Article
Ingram, N., & Gamsu, S. (2022). Talking the Talk of Social Mobility: the political performance of a misguided agenda. Sociological Research Online, 27(1), 189-206. https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804211055493

Since 2010 the language of social mobility has been increasingly utilised by UK politicians from across the political spectrum to denote a commitment to 'fair access' to opportunity in both education and the professions. Within this policy discourse... Read More about Talking the Talk of Social Mobility: the political performance of a misguided agenda.