title: The Dialectics of Social Mobility and Domination in Consumers' Pursuit of Higher Education in Indonesia
Creators: name: Daniel, Joseph
Publisher: name: University of Liverpool Repository
Year: 2026

description: The pursuit of higher education for upward mobility has recently gained attention in consumer research studies, particularly in the debate around low-resource consumers’ status negotiation. Existing studies show how participation in higher education facilitates the acquisition of generalised capital that is compatible with high-status social field and allows low-resource consumers to engage in specific identity work for upward transformation of ‘the self’. However, this body of research is yet to explore, or still disconnected to, critical appraisals of higher education as an instrument of power: a site of praxis where students are transformed into market subjects and ‘commodities’ of an economic regime and a site where social stratification in society is reproduced. This disconnection creates a gap in the consumer research literature regarding the ways in which higher education and power configurations in society may shape low-resource consumers’ socioeconomic advancement. This study seeks to address this gap through a biographical narrative research of Dreams and Targeted (pseudonyms) recipients – young individuals who received financial assistance by the Indonesian government to pursue higher education in the country. Three set of research questions guide the inquiry. First, what institutional mechanisms drive these individuals’ pursuit of higher education? How do they become invested in such mechanics? Second, what forms of selfhood are being made in the pursuit of higher education? And, what do these forms of selfhood reveal about power structures that surround higher education? Third, what obstacles or barriers do these individuals encounter in accessing and pursuing higher education? And, how do they deploy social, cultural, and marketplace resources to overcome such obstacles/barriers? Using Pierre Bourdieu's praxeology as theoretical lens, the findings highlight three mechanisms that drive informants’ pursuit of higher education and upward mobility: the trend of upward credentialing in the labour market, meritocratic practices and the culture of prestasi (achievement) in Indonesian schools, and the proliferation of private tutoring services that foster aspirations for upward social mobility. Together, these forces create a powerful "illusio of striving"—a magnetic pull within the Indonesian education sector that motivates young individuals to commit themselves in the ‘social game’ of education. Three selected biographies illustrate the three different yet co-emerging forms of selfhood informants seek to develop throughout their educational journey: the rehabilitator, the expert, and the uplifter, all of which are discursively valued and aligned with neoliberal ideals. The informants’ self-making processes are also marked by challenges such as discouragement, feelings of displacement, and othering. Howefer, there are moments of resilience and perseverance, enabled by the crucial support of tutors and mothers, who act as key social capital. This study offers three thereotical contributions to the field of consumer research. First, it explains different forms of mobility that low-resource consumers engage in and different forms of middle-class habitus that may develop from such a process. Prior studies show how underprivileged consumers’ participation in higher education leads to the development of cosmopolitan habitus. This study charts the way through which such participation leads to the development of neoliberal habitus. Secondly, this study contributes to the literature on dominated status seeking. While prior studies focus on indigenisation and emulation as two agentic and overt ways through which social domination is reproduced among lower-class consumers, this study shows how fluid captivation works as a covert structural mechanism of domination. Thirdly, this study highlights the ambivalence of reflexivity in the consumers’ status game. Reflexive agency simulataneously emancipates and subjugates the individual who laborously acquire and exercise it.