About the Book
Reveals the role of time in reproducing inequalities as students navigate rural-to-urban, cross-border, and transnational higher education.
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.
Table of Contents:
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
About the Author :
Cora Lingling Xu is Associate Professor in Sociology of Education at Durham University, United Kingdom.
Review :
"The Time Inheritors is a conceptually comprehensive book that uses education as an empirical point to explore how temporal inequality underpins broader patterns of social inequality … Xu's framework sheds light on how advantage and disadvantage unfold across generations, offering insights into the complexities of inequality in both local and global contexts." — The China Quarterly
"The Time Inheritors is an ambitious book, which is of interest to those in many fields, given the multidisciplinary nature of the work. Crossing cultural studies, China studies, sociology of education, higher education, and educational mobilities within one volume is a challenging feat, but the author connects these different viewpoints and theoretical framings effectively. For those who are interested in understanding issues of inequality in higher education, and more specifically, the Chinese context, this is an essential read." — Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies
"This book offers not only a compelling theoretical contribution but also a deeply nuanced portrayal of how time shapes educational trajectories and life chances across generations and borders … Grounded in rich empirical data and theoretical depth, the book invites Canadian readers to develop a comparative perspective on the structural forces that shape time-induced inequalities across generations. The Time Inheritors is also an essential resource for those working in Canadian higher education, especially in understanding the educational mobility of international and migrant students, including, but not limited to those from China." — Canadian Journal of Education
"Xu's conceptually sophisticated monograph reveals how intersectional inequalities are constructed, experienced, and transmitted temporally, with special reference to education. Through the vivid stories of students in mainland China and Hong Kong, and Chinese international students, Xu brings to life different individuals' 'time inheritances,' demonstrating the exciting possibilities time offers as a lens for innovative thinking about inequality. A must-read for sociologists and anthropologists of education, China, and time." — Rachel Murphy, author of The Children of China's Great Migration
"Innovative and ambitious, The Time Inheritors proposes a time-centric framework that brings together analyses of social structure, history, individual behavior, and affect. We often feel we are fighting for time. But, as Cora Xu argues in this important study of Chinese students, the scarcity of time is not a given or universal. Different experiences of time result in part from the varying amounts of time we inherit from the previous generation. Time inheritance is therefore critical to the reproduction of social inequality." — Biao Xiang, coauthor of Self as Method: Thinking through China and the World
"Cora Lingling Xu offers a groundbreaking analysis of educational inequality and social mobility in contemporary China. Xu centers the voices of marginalized students throughout, providing poignant insights into their lived experiences of rural poverty, urban precarity, and educational alienation. At the same time, Xu's comparative scope reveals how even seemingly privileged groups can be constrained by the temporal logics of social reproduction. The Time Inheritors is a must-read for scholars, educators, and policymakers concerned with educational equity and social justice. Xu's lucid prose and engaging case studies make the book accessible to a wide audience while her cutting-edge theoretical framework and methodological rigor set a new standard for research on education and inequality." — Chris R. Glass, coeditor of Critical Perspectives on Equity and Social Mobility in Study Abroad: Interrogating Issues of Unequal Access and Outcomes
"By centering the temporal dimension of who is advantaged or disadvantaged, how, why, and with what consequences, The Time Inheritors takes a unique and powerful approach. Not only does the book contribute theoretically and empirically to our understanding of class inequalities but it also resonates deeply. The inclusion of Chinese translations and characters will give Chinese readers a rich, nuanced cultural appreciation of her findings." — Dan Cui, author of Identity and Belonging among Chinese Canadian Youth: Racialized Habitus in School, Family, and Media
"An extremely well-written, theoretically informed, and compelling volume that represents a major contribution to the study of education, migration, and social inequality in China and beyond. The Time Inheritors proposes a bold and innovative framework—that of time inheritance—to open the black box of social inequality's temporal dimension. Whereas the relatively privileged classes inherit temporal wealth and strategies that enable them to bank and save time, facilitating their mobility, the time poor lack this inheritance, forcing them into a vicious cycle of wasting time and paying back temporal debts. Drawing from a rich palette of vivid and intimate longitudinal case studies, The Time Inheritors unpacks the complex intersections between familial, national, and global time inequalities." — Zachary M. Howlett, author of Meritocracy and Its Discontents: Anxiety and the National College Entrance Exam in China
