Social Mobility and Stakeholder Leverages: Disadvantaged Students and “Important Others” in the “Glonacal” Construct of Higher Learning.

Abstract

Disadvantaged students increasingly confront ruthless competition for higher education degrees, while losing out on opportunities for social mobility. Some of Hong Kong’s low-income households defy the trend: families take on risk, including considerable debt, to send their offspring abroad, rather than test their chances at home by dealing with competitive learning silos, stratified schooling, social status anxiety, and failing employer support. Drawing on stakeholder theory, the “glonacal agency” heuristic and the existentialist perspective, this paper examines how some low-income families break the cycle of disadvantage by tapping into the powers, legitimacy and urgency of “important others,” allowing them to harness local and global resources to achieve social mobility.