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The global middle class and school choice: a cosmopolitan sociology

Die globale Mittelschicht und Schulwahl: eine kosmopolitische Soziologie

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Abstract

In this paper we suggest the need for research which addresses school choice as a global phenomenon. That is, a form of choice which extends beyond local politics and policymaking. We consider here the educational choices and choice making contexts of a burgeoning, mobile, post-national middle class who operate on a global scale. We also sketch the educational market within which these choices are considered and realised but the main focus is on demand side issues. The paper seeks to open a space for further research, in which to ask some old and some new questions about social class and social reproduction through schooling, and to make the case for choice researchers to attend more carefully to choice in a framework of mobility, globalisation and related new kinds of social class identities and interests.

Zusammenfassung

Dieser Artikel zeigt die Notwendigkeit auf, die Schulwahl als globales Phänomen zu erforschen. Hierbei handelt es sich um eine Wahlmöglichkeit jenseits von Lokalpolitik und lokalen Entscheidungsprozessen. Betrachtet werden somit die Bildungsentscheidungen und Entscheidungskontexte einer aufkeimenden mobilen, postnationalen Mittelschicht, welche anhand von globalen Maßstäben handelt. Weiterhin wird der Bildungsmarkt, auf welchem diese Entscheidungen erwogen und getroffen werden, skizziert, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf der Nachfrageseite liegt. Ein Anliegen des Artikels ist es, Raum für weitere Forschungen zu eröffnen, wobei einige alte und auch neue Fragen zur sozialen Schichtung und zur sozialen Reproduktion durch Schulbildung zu stellen wären. Zudem sollen Wissenschaftler, die sich mit Schulwahl beschäftigen, dazu angeregt werden, sich mit dieser noch mehr in einem Bezugssystem von Mobilität, Globalisierung und den zugehörigen neuen Arten von sozialen Gruppenidentitäten und interessen zu befassen.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Humanities and Social Science, Institute of Education, University of London, 20 Bedford Way, WC1H 0AL, London, UK

    Stephen J. Ball & Dimitra Pavlina Nikita

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  1. Stephen J. Ball
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  2. Dimitra Pavlina Nikita
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Correspondence to Stephen J. Ball.

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Ball, S., Nikita, D. The global middle class and school choice: a cosmopolitan sociology. Z Erziehungswiss 17 (Suppl 3), 81–93 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11618-014-0523-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11618-014-0523-4

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