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Embodying value : social class and gender in the transitional experiences of graduate trainee accountants
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Lyle, Samantha A. (2012) Embodying value : social class and gender in the transitional experiences of graduate trainee accountants. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b2679198~S1
Abstract
This thesis is about the experiences of 15 graduates as they made the transition
over the course of a year from higher education into employment as trainee
accountants at a multinational accountancy firm in the UK. The success of that
transition has been argued to be a key stage in fostering individuals’ life chances
because it means building on their education in order to start a career. The thesis
demonstrates that gaining certain credentials is the central mechanism by which
the middle and working-classes can accrue value under neo-liberalism. Therefore
this thesis is about the ways in which individuals who occupy similar and different
social locations become subjects of value and are then able to exchange that value
as they travel through the field of education and transition to the graduate labour
market. I argue that taking an embodied approach to the transition from higher
education to employment can show us a great deal about how class and gender
play out in individual transitions to employment. Rose and Miller (1995) argue for
the important contribution that studying individuals in their workplace settings can
make to contemporary analysis of the social. This thesis seeks to do this by
capturing graduates’ experiences in their own words, in depth, so that we can
better understand how processes of class and gender are seen, managed and
negotiated by individual graduates. Analysis of 37 participant interviews
demonstrates that becoming a subject of value hinges on complex social relations
to which social class, gender and ethnicity are primary. Furthermore that some
participants, owing to the advantages conferred on them by their parents, are
further along this process than others. I have suggested that the ability to thrive as
a neo-liberal subject does not just depend on the resources conferred upon an
individual, but that how those resources – as well as transitional experiences – are framed, reflected and acted upon by an individual affects their resilience and
ability to thrive and therefore their ability to accrue value.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HM Sociology |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | College graduates -- In-service training, Accountants -- In-service training, School-to-work transition -- Case studies, Accountants -- Social conditions, Sex role in the work environment | ||||
Official Date: | May 2012 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Department of Sociology | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Wolkowitz, Carol; Hughes, Christina, 1952- | ||||
Sponsors: | Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC) | ||||
Extent: | v, 336 leaves. | ||||
Language: | eng |
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