Uploaded November 2017 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
About the talk:
International education is an increasingly prevalent life choice for young, urban, upper-middle class Indians, for whom transnational mobility is perceived as an important experience in the transition into adulthood. In this presentation I will explore the complex relationships between how international education is imagined and how class status is (re)produced in Mumbai, India. Literature concerning the Indian middle class tends to conceptualise class statuses within national boundaries, not often considering global mobility as an important component of upper-middle class status and the classed boundaries that are thus constructed according not only to who is mobile and who is not, but how they are mobile. Drawing from both student mobility literature and theories of class and capital, I analyse how various actors in Mumbai — prospective international students, their parents, students returned to Mumbai, and industry players such as university representatives and education agents/counsellors — imagine international education in relation to the (re)production of class. Using data gathered from in-depth interviews in Mumbai in which participants discussed their perceptions of international education, its value and its outcomes, I argue that there are significant nuances in how capital is understood, embodied, and made distinct within the granular class hierarchies that constitute the urban upper-middle class.
About the speaker
Nonie Tuxen is a PhD Candidate at the Australian National University. She has also held visiting fellowships at the Australia India Institute in Melbourne and Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai.
About the talk:
International education is an increasingly prevalent life choice for young, urban, upper-middle class Indians, for whom transnational mobility is perceived as an important experience in the transition into adulthood. In this presentation I will explore the complex relationships between how international education is imagined and how class status is (re)produced in Mumbai, India. Literature concerning the Indian middle class tends to conceptualise class statuses within national boundaries, not often considering global mobility as an important component of upper-middle class status and the classed boundaries that are thus constructed according not only to who is mobile and who is not, but how they are mobile. Drawing from both student mobility literature and theories of class and capital, I analyse how various actors in Mumbai — prospective international students, their parents, students returned to Mumbai, and industry players such as university representatives and education agents/counsellors — imagine international education in relation to the (re)production of class. Using data gathered from in-depth interviews in Mumbai in which participants discussed their perceptions of international education, its value and its outcomes, I argue that there are significant nuances in how capital is understood, embodied, and made distinct within the granular class hierarchies that constitute the urban upper-middle class.
About the speaker
Nonie Tuxen is a PhD Candidate at the Australian National University. She has also held visiting fellowships at the Australia India Institute in Melbourne and Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai.
