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Cited by 549

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 45 of the 45 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

'Classification' and 'Judgement': Social class and the 'cognitive structures' of choice of Higher Education

Ball, Stephen J., Davies, Jackie, David, Miriam, Reay, Diane·2002·British Journal of Sociology of Education

Abstract

The issue of social-class-related patterns of access to Higher Education (HE) has become a matter of public debate in the UK recently, but is on the whole portrayed one-sidedly in terms of issues of selection (elitism), and the social dimensions of choice are neglected. Here, drawing on an Economic and Social Research Council research study, choice of HE is examined using Bourdieu's concepts of 'classification' and 'judgement'. HE is viewed in terms of its internal status differentiations. Students' positive and negative choices are addressed using qualitative and quantitative data, and the 'accuracy' of status perceptions are also tested. It is argued that choices are infused with class and ethnic meanings and that choice-making plays a crucial role in the reproduction of divisions and hierarchies in HE, but also that the very idea of choice assumes a kind of formal equality that obscures 'the effects of real inequality'. HE choices are embedded in different kinds of biographies and institutional habituses, and different 'opportunity structures'.

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Metadata

Authors
Ball, S. J., Davies, J., David, M., & Reay, D.
Venue
British Journal of Sociology of Education
Published
2002-03
Volume
23
Issue
1
Pages
51-72
ISSN
  • 0142-5692 (ISSN-L)
  • 1465-3346
OpenAlex
W2002575973
Cited by
549
References
45
FWCI
41.66
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: 'Classification' and 'Judgement': Social class and the 'cognitive structures' of choice of Higher Education. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1080/01425690120102854
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Ball, S. J., Davies, J., David, M., & Reay, D. (2002). 'Classification' and 'Judgement': Social class and the 'cognitive structures' of choice of Higher Education. British Journal of Sociology of Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425690120102854

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.