Beardsmore, James
(2025)
Cosmopolitan capital the compass of global finance: a study of international finance and international student mobility.
PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
Abstract
Since the early 2000s, researchers have grappled with understanding the nature of transnational human actors operating within the international financial centres (IFC) that emerged following the deregulation of global capital markets in the 1980s. These discussions have centred around the evolution of a new class structure, reproduced through global capitalism with scholars adopting a cultural economy approach to explore how situated practices and norms shape global capitalism through key events such as the Asian financial crisis, dot com bubble and global financial crisis. Primarily this research has focused on the transnational elite and their role in corporate networks, the reproduction of cultural norms and their spatial mobilities through IFCs such as London, New York, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Thus far however little attention has been given to the role of educational geographies in the reproduction of this new transnational class.
The thesis addresses this question, by exploring one aspect of education, that of international student mobility (ISM) and universities as key sites in the reproduction of transnational elites. The thesis takes a novel approach; by incorporating methodologies from the sociology of education it examines the infrastructure that reproduces transnational actors before they enter the elite labour markets of global capitalism. The thesis conceptualises ISM and universities as key geographies in the reproduction of cosmopolitanism, a form of cultural capital that has been demonstrated to provide transnational distinction in elite labour markets. It considers pre-career ISM as a new point of research for exploring the makeup and composition of global capitalism.
The study addressed a methodological gap by positioning ISM as a new geography of investigation in the global financial system. The research involved collecting and analysing university policy documents, conducting interviews with university staff, and gathering reflections from recent international graduates. To facilitate this analysis, the thesis developed a new framework of cosmopolitanism to create a common language across financial geography and the sociology of education. Additionally, the thesis expanded on existing models of spatial trajectories, placing ISM as a new process in the world economy and story of international capital.
Significantly, the thesis advances the study of financial geography by highlighting the role of education as a central mechanism for creating distinction among the transnational elite. It emphasises cosmopolitanism as a crucial aspect of social and cultural practice and demonstrates how it can be reproduced through pre-career international student mobilities to specific university landscapes. The research not only underscores the importance of this area for further investigation but also illustrates how the sociology of education and cultural economy approaches within financial geographies provide a novel lens for exploring the nature of global capitalism and its associated inequalities.
In paper one, I explore how cosmopolitanism is conceptualised within the educational strategies of select London-based universities. I conducted a thematic analysis of 11 policy documents from universities in London. The findings underscore the significance of these diverse conceptions of cosmopolitanism and how they might influence labour market dynamics in IFCs.
In paper two, I investigate how British Universities support international students to develop agency and employability to enter transnational labour markets. The paper explores how the two economic sectors are closely interconnected through interviews with employability and alumni officers and Home Office figures obtained through a freedom of information request (FOI).
In paper three I map the spatial trajectories of early career financial professionals, conceiving ISM as an inception point and springboard for transnational class making. The paper draws on interviews with early career professional to develop a series of narrative portraits, identifying amongst other things how students pre-position themselves around IFCs.
Through the three papers I demonstrate how ISM represents a hitherto neglected geography in the global capitalist system and key site of social and cultural reproduction for international finance. I identify how British universities serve as manufactures of cosmopolitanism and how specific stance of cosmopolitanism act as a compass gilding global capitalism and those who work within in.
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