Transnational Investments in Informational Capital: A Comparative Study of Denmark, France and Sweden

In: Acta sociologica: journal of the Scandinavian Sociological Association, Band 52, Heft 1, S. 5-23

Abstract

In this article, I analyse the acquisition of informational capital, i.e. academic capital, measured as student mobility and understood as transnational investments in prestigious foreign educational institutions. In the 1990s, educational `zones of prestige' were the United States, the United Kingdom and, to some extent, Germany and France. Official statistics from Sweden, Denmark and France regarding the outflow of students reflect increasing student mobility. In particular, the study reveals that students from the upper and upper-middle social classes (measured by parental occupation) are more likely than students from other social classes to pursue transnational investments, even though students from the middle and working classes have now entered the arena. This has also been found in a recent analysis of Danish academic emigrants. All in all, studies confirm the hypothesis that students from the upper classes are more likely than others to invest in specific informational capital in the field of education, in national environments and in international settings.