Renowned Universities And Elitism: An Analysis Of China's Higher Education By Bourdieu's Field Theory

Renowned Universities are the most remarkable superstars in the social field, which has a close relationship with their educational practices and functions in the history and in the reality. There have never been an ending to the criticisms or remarks on universities since the first modern universities were born. The social mass can never realize the deeper truth than the scholars whose criticisms rely on either epistemology or politics. Although many struggled to judge the questions of universities, none of these sharp judgments could always bear the challenges of history. Scholars frequently drive readers to think of these questions in different perspectives instead of delivering a persuasive and decisive conclusion.Bourdieu delved deeper into the field of higher education in France by theories and approaches he proposed which consist of the concepts such as "field", "capital" and "habitus". Following the research route "relationship-structure-habitus", the special educational practices and actions in the field of higher education in France were displayed. Just as Bourdieu recognized, elite educational institutions promote the reproduction of the society and power just through their function of consecration of the agents who are rigidly and highly elected.The field theory can be applied to investigate the logics and practices in the field of higher education in China. Despite of some characteristics influenced by the different backgrounds and cultures, we have almost the same discoveries. In a certain sense, Famous universities are always the fastness of elitism, even in communist China. Although influenced by the forces of government, market and academic powers, these outstanding universities take the command points of the fields of politics, of economy and of academics through their own "products" and then become the dominant powers in these fields, where a tacit relationship between these universities and these fields can eventually be realized.In the field of higher education in China, the structure can firstly be shaped by the symbolic capital shared by elite universities whose success can be accumulated through time and history. On the other hand, unordinary principles and logics interfered by the state power prevail in this field, but they enforce rather than destroy the structure of these elite institutions.Deep into the inner of these universities, we can find that elite culture that shapes educational practices and educational actions dominates in these sub-fields where cultivating the habitus and "feels of game" becomes the major goal of any practice. The field of elite institutions serves as a stage where competitions and complicities coexist and where elitism plays the most important role in the game. Nonetheless, these famous universities show the same interest only when facing common enemies in their field. In most cases, the field of elite universities is torn apart by elite institutions in the shield of group spirit.