This symposium is session two of the larger symposium “Transitions in Educational Organizations and Academia”, which analyzes programatics (Weber 2013), epistemic drifts and challenges of educational institutions as well as the development of self-identities and social practices (Bourdieu 1990, Bourdieu/Wacquant 1992) taking place within processes of transitioning in educational fields and academia.

The second session of the international symposium addresses the processes of “Matching in Transitions” and focuses on the level of social Practices. Following that perspective, we connect the level of social practice to cultures of academic work and institutional contexts within the educational field. What are the modes of knowledge exchange, the working cultures, routines of daily practice, the strategies of research and strategies of institutional change in academia and other educational institutions? What are the modes of socialization being enacted in educational working contexts and cooperations?

What are the “assets-to-have“, for example for young academics, enabling them to meet the expectations given by a social praxis of creating fit or non-fit in mutual everday judgements? How do changing norms within the institutional spheres influence the conditions of educational and academic work, how do they influence the socialization of students and young researchers and how the trajectory of their careers? Contributions are based on practice theoretical perspectives and present empirical research on the practice of matching, of fit and non-fit, of fitting in or standing out in educational institutions and career paths.

Bourdieu, P. (1990). The Logic of Practice. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press . Bourdieu, P./Wacquant, L. (1992). An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Weber, S.M. (2013). Transforming the Academic Field. Field-reflexivity and academic access for non-traditional doctoral candidates In: Engels-Schwarzpaul, Tina and Michael A. Peters (ed.): Of Other Thoughts: Non-traditional Approaches to the Doctorate. A Handbook for Candidates and Supervisors - From Ontology to Action. Sense Publishers. Rotterdam. pp. 115-130.