Positional Competition and Social Inequality in Graduate Careers

Ulpukka Isopahkala-Bouret is Professor at the Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning and Education (CELE), University of Turku, Finland. Her research interests include equality in/through higher education, educational credentialing, graduate employability, lifelong learning and the perceptions of institutional and social status.Gerbrand Tholen is Reader in Sociology at City St George's, University of London, UK. His revolves around the sociology of work and education, examining the relationship between higher education, skills, credentials, jobs and careers as well as professions, social inequality, elites and the social construction of labour markets.Agnès van Zanten is Senior Research Professor at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Sciences Po, Paris, France. She is interested in class-based and contextual educational inequalities and is presently conducting research on elite families and schools, access and widening participation in higher education, and medical students.

• Introduction: positional competition and social inequality in graduate careers 1. The meaning of higher education credentials in graduate occupations: the view of recruitment consultants 2. ‘Some people may feel socially excluded and distressed’: Finnish business students’ participation in extracurricular activities and the accumulation of cultural capital 3. Mobility and stability: post-graduate employment experiences of working-class students 4. Is ‘diversity’ a liability or an asset in elite labour markets? The case of graduates who have benefited from a French positive discrimination scheme 5. Geography-mediated institutionalised cultural capital: regional inequalities in graduate employment 6. The perceived labour market value of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in Europe and the USA