The Time Inheritors
Description
Reveals the role of time in reproducing inequalities as students navigate rural-to-urban, cross-border, and transnational higher education.
Winner of the 2026 Best Book Award presented by the Higher Education Special Interest Group of the Comparative and International Education Society
Can a student inherit time? What difference does time make to their educational journeys and outcomes? The Time Inheritors draws on nearly a decade of field research with more than one hundred youth in China to argue that intergenerational transfers of privilege or deprivation are manifested in and through time. Comparing experiences of rural-to-urban, cross-border, and transnational education, Cora Lingling Xu shows how inequalities in time inheritance help drive deeply unequal mobility. With its unique focus on time, nuanced comparative analysis, and sensitive ethnographic engagement, The Time Inheritors opens new avenues for understanding the social mechanisms shaping the future of China and the world.
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Person
Cora Lingling Xu is Associate Professor in Sociology of Education at Durham University, United Kingdom.
Content
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Significance of Inherited Time
List of Acronyms
Presentation Style
Part I: Theorization of Time Inheritance and Education Mobility
1. Time Inheritance, Banked Time, and Borrowed Time
2. Education as Debt Accumulation or Entitlement
3. Education Mobility as Fate Changing
Part II: How Time Inheritance Reproduces Inequalities
4. Visions of Decisions: From Self-Sabotage to Path Paving
5. Time-Shaped Dispositions: From Debt-Paying Mentality to Sense of Entitlement
6. Time-Induced Consequences: From "Squandering" Labor Time to Achieving Work-life Balance
7. Time Use: From Wasted Time to Gained Time
8. Shades of Career: From Being Trapped in Precarity to Making Bold Career Moves
Summary of Part II: Observed Mechanisms of Inequality Reproduction Through Time Inheritance
Part III: How Time Inheritance Transforms Inequalities
9. Not a Mechanistic Determinism: From Unqualified Inheritors to Zealous Parvenus
10. City-Bound Time Inequalities
11. Political Time: Different Inheritances, Similar Prices
Summary of Part III
Conclusion: Moving Beyond Bourdieu: A Road Map for Global Time Inheritance Research
Appendix: Participant Profiles
Notes
References
Index
