Structuring forms of transition from higher education to employment: bridging Bernstein and Bourdieu in understanding mismatch

ABSTRACT Ιn a policy context in which the harmonisation of HE curricula towards connection with the labour market is pursued, the article seeks to elucidate under-theorised and over-aggregated accounts of the role of the field of study in graduate employability and to investigate it from a new analytical angle to explain variations between fields. Using Bernstein’s theory of knowledge structures, the field of study is reconceptualised as an object in itself, shedding light on its internal relations and how these can shape graduates’ perceptions of and engagement in relevant employment. The study investigates variations within humanities and social sciences which are usually addressed by policy and scholarly research as a single category sector. The results reveal how different knowledge structures set heterogeneous conditions for graduate transitions, with explicit or implicit pathway-setting from education to work, through stronger or weaker specialisation of knowledge and identity, shaping introjected or projected identities. The study brings to light the crucial point of the intersection of a knowledge structure with a graduate’s social class by using Bourdieu’s theory. This shows how, in each field of study, specific forms of social inequality operate, affecting graduates’ transitions from HE to work in increasingly competitive and precarious labour markets.