What’s (in) a game? An empirical reflection on the relationship of higher education students to their disciplines

This paper contributes to attaining a clearer view and understanding of the processes of socially induced changes of students in the 'game' of higher education (HE). First, it engages in a critique of the gaps of some prominent current literature on HE. It asserts the relatively autonomous dimension of games, both for those privileged in it and those that are not. This autonomous dimension diverts outside influences (e.g. class, gender, ethnicity) in context-specific ways. It forces the sociologist to clarify the game, its rules and regulations, and to relate this clarified game with the specific reactions and adjustments of its students. The Goffmanian concepts of 'game' and 'instrumental formal organisation' are used for that purpose. The relationship that outsider German economics students have to their subject game serves as an empirical case study. The paper suggests three types of relations (ways of playing) of student to disciplinary game, applicable to diverse circumstances – puzzle-solving, colonisation, and intransigence. These types of relations are fundamentally different, characterising an increasing degree of integration into the disciplinary game. In effect, the Goffmanian detour also invites further epistemological and theoretical reflections towards a revised- and re-sensitised study of students' relationships to HE.