The Relational Status Game of an Educational Expedition Group

Abstract

Group status hierarchies can affect individuals’ experiences (e.g., sense of belonging) and the group’s outcomes (e.g., cohesion) in group-based outdoor adventure education programs. The study aimed to explore how specific interpersonal status processes, which we also call the “relational status game,” within an expedition group, affect inclusion and exclusion dynamics. Drawing on ethnographic data and a Bourdieusian sociological framework, we explore how members of an educational expedition group used their interpersonal relations and engaged in specific social interactions to maintain or improve their status. Six relational strategies that led to either social exclusion or social inclusion were identified. Relational strategies are interpersonal relations and interactions between group members that depend on one another’s “objective” positions in the group and whose nature (positive or negative) can provide social status benefits for at least one member. Outdoor educators could build on those findings to raise groups’ awareness about this issue in order to foster inclusive group dynamics.