Strategizing for Academic Survival: Academic-Oriented Doctoral Students’ Practices in China’s Evaluation System

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Abstract

Abstract: This study investigates how academically-oriented PhD students in China’s social sciences navigate high-stakes academic evaluation regimes. Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of practice and Rosa’s theory of social acceleration, it explores how students strategize under institutional pressures: managing time, leveraging social networks, adjusting academic dispositions, and rethinking career paths. Based on in-depth interviews with five doctoral students, the study reveals how structural demands shape individualized strategic responses. By centering students who actively aspire to academic careers, this research highlights the anticipatory pressures of faculty-level evaluation and their formative effects on doctoral training.

Author

• Xiran Xiong, East China Normal University