Upwardly mobile biographies. An analysis of turning points in the careers of working-class faculty

Abstract

Building upon Bourdieusian sociology of education and Randall Collins' theory of, interaction ritual chains, this paper contributes to the literature on the biographical life course by analyzing the biographies of upwardly mobile academics, i.e. those who, escaped the “collective fate of their class.” Based on the collection of 25 unstructured, narrative interviews (life story narratives) and additional individual in-depth interviews, (repeated interviews, interviews with families, and friends), a total of 75 qualitative, interviews, I trace the main biographical metamorphoses of upwardly mobile, academics. The meticulous analysis of the narrations brings about an answer to the, question “What was the role of a social class in their biographical metamorphoses?”, The analysis of the turning points in the under-researched context of the postcommunist, semi-peripheral, and yet neoliberal academic system enables the paper to, discuss social circumstances which play a crucial role in this kind of upward mobility, e.g. early discovered talent, presence of books at home, choice of high school, early contact with the legitimized culture, opportunity structure of the higher education system under transition and transnational experience.