Elite schools help reproduce the capitalist class. The sons and daughters of the wealthy go to elite schools to gain networks and receive education that helps maintain their social status in the future.

My guest today, Karen Lillie, has looked at this process in an elite school in Switzerland that enrolls children from around the world. She finds that students are in the process of becoming part of the transnational class while also maintaining their national identities in interesting ways.

Karen Lillie recently finished her PhD at University College London, focused on the processes of transnational class formation. Starting in October, she will be a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, Germany. Her latest article is “Multi-sited understandings: complicating the role of elite schools in transnational class formation,” which was published by the British Journal of Sociology of Education.

Citation: Lillie, Karen, interview with Will Brehm, FreshEd, 244, podcast audio, June 28, 2021. https://freshedpodcast.com/lillie/