Since the 1980s, capital mobility and state restructuring have increased precarity in older industrial regions, such as eastern Connecticut (CT). These changes reconfigured labor markets, changing the work available, including the types, conditions, and skills required. Greater responsibility devolved onto poor and working-class people to navigate…

Establishing a sense of belonging on campus is needed for the success of all students, but research indicates that belonging can serve as a key protective factor for students with working-class social identities (Ardoin, 2018a; Espinoza, 2011; Ostrove & Long, 2007; Strayhorn, 2019). Through a mixed-methods approach, this study looked at…

Fields of inquiry intent on making social class differences visible and relevant in higher education and society at large are newly developing. Researchers continue to identify significant obstacles to degree attainment and hence to social mobility for working-class and low income students. A college student's social class background can…

The United States experienced a tremendous expansion of higher education after the Second World War. However, this expansion has not led to a substantial reduction to class inequalities at elite universities, where the admissions process is growing even more selective. In his classic studies of French education and society, Pierre Bourdieu…