Searching for desirable bodies: How recruiters value physically exertive extracurricular activities for graduate hiring at elite professional firms in China

Abstract

AbstractThe field of research in evaluating and applying Bourdieu's theories has seen growing interests in studying how the formation and effect of cultural capital vary in different contexts and fields. While existing studies have increasingly focussed on evaluating the role of cultural capital in creating educational inequalities in the Chinese context, little is known about how activities and taste are valued in the Chinese labour market. Drawing on semi‐structured interviews with 73 recruiters in elite professional firms in China, this article presents a study on how recruiters interpret physically exertive extracurricular activities (ECAs) for graduate hiring. It shows that these ECAs were valorised for assessing individual qualities and competences in job interviews, while other cultural activities, leisure or tastes carried little value. The notion of the body appeared central to this valorisation, conferring symbolic value onto physical exertive ECAs. The value of these activities was twofold, serving to convey candidates' possession of physical and embodied capital, which resonated to the normative dimension of elite professional firms. Recruiters thus used these activities to seek new professional bodies consumable for demanding professional work and resonating with the normative discourses of professionalism. This study provides more nuanced understandings of cultural capital in a non‐Western context and the role of ECAs in elite hiring. It also contributes to the development of physical and embodied capital by integrating perspective that links the body with labour process and professional control.