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Using Bourdieu's Concepts of Social Field, Habitus, and Capital for Employability-Related Research

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Graduate Employability Across Contexts

Abstract

Several studies have reported the implementation of similar graduate employability development initiatives across contexts. However, the experiences with the implementation varied. This suggests the necessity to explore factors behind the adoption and execution of these initiatives in different contexts, be it a higher education system, institution, or discipline. In this chapter, the authors present Bourdieu's concepts of social field, habitus, and capital as well as related concepts by other authors to set a theoretical framework that can be used to effectively understand perspectives and initiatives to develop and translate graduate employability to employment outcomes and career success. We argue that the three concepts combined provide a useful theoretical lens for graduate employability-related research. They better address the complexity of graduate employability, extend the employability research beyond the exit point of higher education, align with the notion of lifelong learning professional development, and support the shared responsibility approach to execution of the graduate employability agenda.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA

    Binh Chi Bui

  2. The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Tran Le Huu Nghia

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  1. Binh Chi Bui
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  2. Tran Le Huu Nghia
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Correspondence to Binh Chi Bui .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Australian National University, Acton, ACT, Australia

    Tran Le Huu Nghia

  2. College of Education, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA

    Binh Chi Bui

  3. La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Jasvir Kaur Nachatar Singh

  4. Australian National University, Acton, ACT, Australia

    Vinh N. Lu

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Bui, B.C., Nghia, T.L.H. (2022). Using Bourdieu's Concepts of Social Field, Habitus, and Capital for Employability-Related Research. In: Nghia, T.L.H., Bui, B.C., Singh, J.K.N., Lu, V.N. (eds) Graduate Employability Across Contexts. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3959-4_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3959-4_3

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