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The Role of Social Capital/Guanxi in Students’ Decision-Making about Postgraduate Education in China: An Explorative Case Study |
LIU Dan() |
School of English Education, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou 510420, China; Faculty of Business & Law, Coventry University, Coventry CV1 5FB, United Kingdom |
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Abstract This paper explores how the concept of social capital developed by Bourdieu and Coleman as well as the Chinese concept of guanxi (关系) or relationships facilitates students’ access to postgraduate education in a case study of a university in southeast China. The study comprises an initial survey of 381 first-year postgraduate students and a series of interviews with 30 participants. Social capital and guanxi inform analysis of the data. The results reveal that students from different social backgrounds employ different forms of social capital and guanxi networks in their decision-making about postgraduate education. They contribute to conceptualizations of how social capital is generated through guanxi in the Chinese educational context.
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Keywords
social capital
guanxi
students’ choice
student decision-making
postgraduate education
China
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Issue Date: 28 September 2020
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