Family “Capital” and Young People’s Educational Occupational Choices in the Context of a Review of Recent Sociological Literature

Spiliopoulou, Georgia; Koustourakis, Gerasimos; Asimaki, Anna

Georgia Spiliopoulou * gspiliopoulou@upatras.gr * ORCID: 0000-0002-5588-0557 * ResearcherID: U-1511-2017
University of Patras, School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Gerasimos Koustourakis * koustourakis@upatras.gr * ORCID: 0000-0001-8499-5399
University of Patras, School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Anna Asimaki * asimaki@upatras.gr * ORCID: 0000-0002-0518-4123
University of Patras, School of Humanities and Social Sciences

KEY WORDS: family “capital”, habitus, reproductive function, transformative function, educational choices of students.

ABSTRACT:
Family constitutes the first group in which socialization takes place and within it the young person’s primary system of perceptions and thoughts, as well as his ‘repertoire’ of attitudes, choices and actions, is constructed. The purpose of this study is the investigation and presentation of the influence of family “capital” on the formation of young people’s educational-occupational choices through a review of recent sociological literature. From the study and analysis of the content and the research findings of relevant scientific papers the influence of family “capital” (cultural capital/habitus, economic and social capital) on the formation of young people’s educational-occupational choices in relation to their social origin emerges. In particular, it seems that habitus, through its reproductive and its transformative function, guides young people who come from socio-culturally more or less privileged environments in the formation of educational-occupational decisions and choices in order to maintain or transform their position in the social structure.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR:
Gerasimos Koustourakis, Department of Educational Sciences and Early Childhood Education, University of Patras, University Campus, 265.04 Rio Patras, Greece. E-mail: koustourakis@upatras.gr.

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