Blake R. Silver's Books

Degrees of Risk

Navigating Insecurity and Inequality in Public Higher Education

By: Blake R. Silver

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Degrees of Risk

Navigating Insecurity and Inequality in Public Higher Education

By: Blake R. Silver

An ethnographic analysis of how insecurity is at the heart of contemporary higher education. Institutions of higher education are often described as “ivory towers,” places of privilege where students exist in a “campus bubble,” insulated from the trials of the outside world. These metaphors reveal a widespread belief that college provides young people with stability and keeps insecurity at bay. But for many students, that’s simply not the case. Degrees of Risk reveals how insecurity permeates every facet of college life for students at public universities. Sociologist Blake Silver dissects how these institutions play a direct role in perpetuating uncertainty, instability, individualism, and anxiety about the future. Silver examined interviews with more than one hundred students who described the risks that surrounded every decision: which major to choose, whether to take online classes, and how to find funding. He expertly identified the ways the college experience played out differently for students from different backgrounds. For students from financially secure families with knowledge of how college works, all the choices and flexibility of college felt like an adventure or a wealth of opportunities. But for many others, especially low-income, first-generation students, their personal and family circumstances meant that that flexibility felt like murkiness and precarity. In addition, he discovered that students managed insecurity in very different ways, intensifying inequality at the intersections of socioeconomic status, race, gender, and other sociodemographic dimensions. Drawing from these firsthand accounts, Degrees of Risk presents a model for a better university, one that fosters success and confidence for a diverse range of students.

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Page Count

247

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0226834751

ISBN 13

9780226834757

Degrees of Risk

Navigating Insecurity and Inequality in Public Higher Education

By: Blake R. Silver

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Degrees of Risk

Navigating Insecurity and Inequality in Public Higher Education

By: Blake R. Silver

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

247

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0226834751

ISBN 13

9780226834757

The Cost of Inclusion

How Student Conformity Leads to Inequality on College Campuses

By: Blake R. Silver

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The Cost of Inclusion

How Student Conformity Leads to Inequality on College Campuses

By: Blake R. Silver

Young people are told that college is a place where they will “find themselves” by engaging with diversity and making friendships that will last a lifetime. This vision of an inclusive, diverse social experience is a fundamental part of the image colleges sell potential students. But what really happens when students arrive on campus and enter this new social world? The Cost of Inclusion delves into this rich moment to explore the ways students seek out a sense of belonging and the sacrifices they make to fit in. Blake R. Silver spent a year immersed in student life at a large public university. He trained with the Cardio Club, hung out with the Learning Community, and hosted service events with the Volunteer Collective. Through these day-to-day interactions, he witnessed how students sought belonging and built their social worlds on campus. Over time, Silver realized that these students only achieved inclusion at significant cost. To fit in among new peers, they clung to or were pushed into raced and gendered cultural assumptions about behavior, becoming “the cool guy,” “the nice girl,” “the funny one,” “the leader,” “the intellectual,” or “the mom of the group.” Instead of developing dynamic identities, they crafted and adhered to a cookie-cutter self, one that was rigid and two-dimensional. Silver found that these students were ill-prepared for the challenges of a diverse college campus, and that they had little guidance from their university on how to navigate the trials of social engagement or the pressures to conform. While colleges are focused on increasing the diversity of their enrolled student body, Silver’s findings show that they need to take a hard look at how they are failing to support inclusion once students arrive on campus.

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Age

Page Count

252

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

022670405X

ISBN 13

9780226704050

The Cost of Inclusion

How Student Conformity Leads to Inequality on College Campuses

By: Blake R. Silver

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Cost of Inclusion

How Student Conformity Leads to Inequality on College Campuses

By: Blake R. Silver

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

252

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

022670405X

ISBN 13

9780226704050

Book's by Blake R. Silver

Degrees of Risk

Degrees of Risk

Degrees of Risk

Degrees of Risk

The Cost of Inclusion

The Cost of Inclusion

The Cost of Inclusion

The Cost of Inclusion

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